Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious or Linguistic Minorities

The Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious or Linguistic Minorities was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in resolution 47/135 of 18 December 1992.

Article 1

1. States shall protect the existence and the national or ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic identity of minorities within their respective territories and shall encourage conditions for the promotion of that identity. 

2. States shall adopt appropriate legislative and other measures to achieve those ends. 

Article 2

1. Persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities (hereinafter referred to as persons belonging to minorities) have the right to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise their own religion, and to use their own language, in private and in public, freely and without interference or any form of discrimination. 

2. Persons belonging to minorities have the right to participate effectively in cultural, religious, social, economic and public life. 

3. Persons belonging to minorities have the right to participate effectively in decisions on the national and, where appropriate, regional level concerning the minority to which they belong or the regions in which they live, in a manner not incompatible with national legislation. 

4. Persons belonging to minorities have the right to establish and maintain their own associations. 

5. Persons belonging to minorities have the right to establish and maintain, without any discrimination, free and peaceful contacts with other members of their group and with persons belonging to other minorities, as well as contacts across frontiers with citizens of other States to whom they are related by national or ethnic, religious or linguistic ties.

Article 4

2. States shall take measures to create favourable conditions to enable persons belonging to minorities to express their characteristics and to develop their culture, language, religion, traditions and customs, except where specific practices are in violation of national law and contrary to international standards. 

Source: A full text version of the Declaration on on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious or Linguistic Minorities can be found on the Homepage of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.