CEDIME-SOUTHEAST EUROPE
PRESENTATION, ACTIVITIES (1998-1999) AND PROPOSAL
(2000-2001) INCLUDING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A BALKAN NGO
NETWORK FOR MEDIA AND MINORITY MONITORING
Introduction
Greek Helsinki Monitor (GHM) and Minority Rights Group – Greece (MRG-G), in
cooperation with Central European University (CEU)’s Institute on Southeastern Europe
(ISEE) launched in 1998 a project on Human and Minority Rights in Southeast Europe, in the
framework of a Center for Documentation and Information on Minorities in Europe
(CEDIME). CEDIME aims to cover in similar ways all regions of Europe.
CEDIME-Southeast Europe (CEDIME-SE) is the first regional implementation of
CEDIME.
CEDIME’s Fundamental Principles
The issue of minorities has taken great importance in contemporary societies, especially since
the end of the Cold War. The (re-)emergence of many, often conflictual, aspirations to
identities accompanied this event. Thus, once again, many minorities find themselves at the
origin of confrontations and manipulations whose consequences are extremely serious for
peace and security in Europe. In most cases, these conflicts are based on, or nurtured by,
misperceptions of the claims of minorities. These misperceptions result from traditional
stereotypes, media biases, but also the frequent inability of minorities to articulate legitimate
claims in liberal, human rights oriented fashion rather than a nationalist, and often aggressive,
one. As a result, the prevention of such conflicts through the appropriate response to the
aspirations to identities that cultivate them has become a major necessity. This is why it is
imperative to obtain objective information as well as the institutions that are necessary to
contribute to this prevention.
CEDIME, and in particular its Southeast Europe regional program CEDIME – SE, has its
origin in the commitment of researchers and intellectuals to contribute to the peaceful
resolution of the problems and conflicts which often characterize relations between minorities
and majorities. This project was born out of the conviction that the democratic legitimization of
aspirations to identity must primarily be placed in the context of human and minority rights.
Minority nation-building processes need be recognized as equally legitimate to majority
nation-building ones, and they should show respect to each other as a prerequisite for a stable
democracy. The fundamental philosophy of CEDIME is that the question of minorities reflects
indeed the question of ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity. This diversity ought to be
considered not only in terms of an irreversible reality of modern societies, but also as a
potential wealth of our civilizations that ought to be exploited.
For the legal and institutional principles to become effective they must rely on a precise
knowledge of the conditions of exercise of those rights. One way, therefore, of preventing
conflicts, is that of informing in the best way possible the majorities – public opinion and
1
opinion leaders– about the minorities by presenting their irreplaceable contribution to social
and political life. This is why thorough studies must be undertaken in the direction of historical,
social, economic, and political information and on the linguistic and cultural reality of
minorities. Besides, information on the legal, national and international institutions dealing
with minority rights must become available both for minorities and majorities. The objective of
CEDIME-SE is to provide such documentation and information along with the analyses on the
real conditions of minorities in the Balkan region.
Along this objective, CEDIME reporting will be based on a research structure, data processing
and distribution of the information on the minorities based on an innovative methodology. The
information and documentation included in the reports will be a resource available to the
international, governmental and non-governmental organizations, to the international scientific
community concerned about such issues, to the mass media and, of course, to minorities
themselves. In this way CEDIME hopes to contribute in the demonstration that the respect of
the rights “of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities” is an
essential condition for democracy.
By demonstrating to the general public the cultural contribution of minorities, by popularizing
information and documentation concerning facts about the minorities instead of myths and
prejudices, this project aims at favoring the dialogue among, and the integration of, different
communities sharing a common democratic space. The comparability of the approach will help
all communities understand that minorities and majorities share many common characteristics
and aspirations, a fact that will help render the claims of many minorities look less extreme and
thus more legitimate to the majorities they live with. While the monitoring of the media will
help expose and hopefully neutralize negative stereotypes while promoting positive images as a
tool facilitating integration.
Making available all information and documentation concerning the contribution of minorities
to European culture, by keeping in mind the importance of developing and enlarging the public
spaces where minorities and majorities communicate and participate in common projects, is an
indispensable contribution to the prevention of conflicts. Dialogue nevertheless is really
possible only from the moment that one has a perception of the other liberated from the
prejudices inherited from history. It is in fact a whole process of education, of re-educating both
minorities and majorities, through the information and the documentation that CEDIME hopes
to provide and make available to all interested parties.
The idea of a project like CEDIME-SE was launched as one of the recommendations of the
Aspen Institute’s Study Group on The Future of the Balkans International Call for Action
(1998, pp.61-2):
« 9. A non-governmental initiative should be developed to establish a data
bank on the historical evolution, and the past and present problems of all
ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities in the region.
It will build on the existing wide bibliography on the matter, which has hitherto
lacked consistency and comparability. The information resulting from this initiative
should be widely available (for example, through a web site) and instantly adjustable
(which web sites allow). This will put ‘minorities’ into the picture and will also be a
forum for presenting their positions, opinions and grievances. Such a forum will
2
foster debate between minorities and majorities, through workshops and
conferences. It will also offer assistance, advice and consultancy in the elaboration
of minority policies of national governments. An experts board will be appointed to
review problems and offer solutions. As an NGO initiative, if it acquired the
necessary credibility and prestige, this kind of forum could help international
governmental institutions such as the OSCE High Commissioner for Minorities or
UN bodies to carry out their mandate more efficiently ».
In March 1999, a Council of Europe Southeast European conference was organized in
Budapest to agree on potential regional projects. The NGO subgroup recommended the use of
CEDIME-SE’s Balkan Human Rights Web Pages (see below) to compile a guide to all NGO
resources in the region.
Meanwhile, a “window of opportunity” has become available to the defense of minority rights:
the Framework Convention for the Protections of National Minorities (FCNM). By the end of
1999, some 30 countries will have ratified it and would be subjected to an obligation to report
regularly on its implementation. An Advisory Committee (AC) will review these state reports.
In many occasions, Council of Europe staff and AC members have encouraged the submission
of independent (alternative) reports on the same states to allow the most efficient review of
official reports and the consequent issuing of accurate and pertinent recommendations to the
signatory states.
CEDIME-SE was invited twice in June 1998 and June 1999 in brainstorming sessions at ECMI
and the University of Essex respectively to help organize the availability of such material. The
CEDIME-SE team has already been using a EU-Royaumont-sponsored IHF regional project to
induce the Helsinki Committee partners to provide such reports. The experience to date
indicates that the state and draft alternative (Helsinki Committee and other) reports from the
Visegrad countries seem to be more thorough than those coming from most Balkan countries,
reflecting again the lack of appropriate information in SE, combined with the wider range of
minority problems these countries are faced with. GHM’s collaboration with HC’s and other
NGOs from SE countries (including NGOs from minority groups) has shown that most have
considerable information but lack the means and/or the skills to make it widely available in
ways that will be productive for the defense of minority rights.
CEDIME-SE will collect this information in collaboration with the 56 NGOs (40 from or
working on the other SE countries1 and 16 in Greece) it has contacts with. It will present it in
20 partners from Minority Rights Group International’s project on “Southeast Europe: Diversity And
Democracy; Agency for Local Democracy- Open University, Subotica, FRY; Association for Democratic
Initiatives, Macedonia; Association of Rromani Baxt, FRY; Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, FRY; Center for
Multiculturalism, Novi Sad FRY; Centre for Direct Protection of Human Rights, Croatia; Civil Society Resource
Center, Macedonia; Croatian Helsinki Committee of Human Rights, Croatia; Greek Helsinki Monitor, Greece;
Human Rights House of Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina; Inter-Ethnic Initiative for Human Rights Foundation,
Bulgaria; Minority Rights Group Interntaional; Minority Rights Group-Greece; Omonoia Democratic Union of the
Greek Ethnic Minority in Albania, Albania; Rainbow Vinozito Organization of the National Macedonian Minority
of Greece; Roma Community Centre of Skopje, Macedonia; Roma-Lom Foundation, Bulgaria; Serbian
Community in Rijeka, Croatia; Serbian Democratic Forum, Croatia; Young Academicians Club, Western Thrace,
Greece. 10 SE Helsinki Committees of Albania, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Bulgaria, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro,
Republika Srpska, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia. 10 other partners: Albanian Media Institute, Albania; Albanian
Human Rights Group, Albania; Amnesty International, UK; Center for Multicultural Understanding and
Cooperation, Macedonia; European Roma Rights Center, Hungary; Human Rights Project, Bulgaria; Human
1
3
the web site and other sources in a systematic and comparable way that will greatly enhance its
effectiveness. Two already active networks are helping this collaboration.
First, all 12 Helsinki Committees of the IHF participate in a two-year regional project in the
framework of the Royaumont Initiative and financed by the EU. The project was launched in
Ohrid, in February 1999. GHM is in charge of the seminars on minority rights and of the
coordination of the preparation of alternative NGO reports on the implementation of the
Framework Convention or of its principles in each country of the region.
Moreover, MRG-G is a partner in a MRG-International regional project on minority rights
training and advocacy, launched in Sofia, in March 1999, with the participation of some
general NGOs and, most importantly, a score of minority NGOs from the region. It involves
training of minority advocates, seminars and workshops, publications, etc. It was decided that
CEDIME-SE’s Balkan Human Rights Web Pages (see below) will be that network’s site.
Most importantly, CEDIME-SE has been relying on close cooperation with one NGO in each
of the three Southern Balkan countries whose minorities have been under study in the first
1998-1999 phase: the Albanian Media Institute, the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, and the
Search for Common Ground – Macedonia. In each case, that NGO has been providing
substantial all-around help to the CEDIME-SE reasearchers on the respective country’s
minorities: bibliography, arranging local contacts, comments and reviews of draft reports, etc.
In the second phase (2000-2001) these three NGOs as well as one in every other country in the
region will be CEDIME-SE’s official partners for the project’s network of researchers and
monitors, providing additionally infrastructure and secretarial assistance to the network.
CEDIME-SE’s information is therefore expected to become a main resource for the FCNM’s
AC, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, and the UN Working Group on
Minorities. At the same time, it will better empower the advocacy programs and projects of the
IHF, MRG and its affiliates in the Balkans, HRW and others. Finally, it is hoped that this
material will help minorities themselves to inform the public and advocate their rights
domestically as well as internationally.
Up to 1998, there was not one source, even in book form, with satisfactory comprehensive
presentations of even the major minorities of the region, while the two regional media
monitoring projects GHM was involved in were completed in 1998. While the major NGOs
working on the Balkans have been focusing on advocacy and/or on reporting current human
rights violations. Only few of the latter are anyway directly related to minorities, as a result of
limited means and a broad mandate. Finally, there was not one Internet source making available
or providing links to most human and minority rights documentation: interested persons had to
search through scores of web sites to be able to find the material, and in many there was no
index by country either. In fact, even by mid-1999, respected NGOs from various Balkan
countries do not have their material available in any other web site except the special web pages
prepared for them by CEDIME (see below).
Rights Watch, USA; Search for Common Ground – Macedonia; International Helsinki Federation, Austria;
Yugoslav Action Group (of some 50 NGOs), FRY.
4
This innovative unique element of CEDIME-SE and its usefulness and necessity has brought
the support to the project by the major specialized NGOs working in/on the region (Minority
Rights Group International, International Helsinki Federation, Human Rights Watch,
Alternative Information Network) and others including the Minister of Foreign Affairs of
Albania, and the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of Greece and Switzerland.
CEDIME-SE’s Project Aims
CEDIME-SE’s purpose is to create the first comprehensive source of information on human
and minority rights in SE. All relevant material is becoming available in or through (i.e. with
links to other sites) the joint web site Balkan Human Rights Web Pages (BHRWP)
(http://www.greekhelsinki.gr).
The site was launched in 1998 and it also has a 1,000+ listserv (it reached 1,200 in the height of
the NATO strikes in spring 1999).
Three types of information are/will be provided in/through this site.
1. Comprehensive, comparable and continuously updateable (through the proposed
monitoring network) presentations of all ethnonational, ethnolinguistic, and religious
minorities in SE (some 120 of them in twelve countries).
2. Comprehensive and continuously updateable guide to all documents (statements, reports,
articles, etc.) on human and minority rights in SE, published in English by credible human
and minority rights NGOs from or working on the region, as well as a selection of
authoritative IGOs and government sources. All organizations whose work will be
available in/through the site will also have therein a profile and contact information.
3. Short weekly, comprehensive monthly, and occasional flash reports from daily monitoring
of the major print media in each country for positive, neutral or negative images of
neighboring countries and peoples as well as minorities within each country.
With all this information, the site is becoming and is expected to be the major reference source
for policy makers, activists, journalists, researchers, etc.
The collection and compilation of the material will eventually be carried out by CEDIME-SE’s
proposed network of monitors. They will read and report on the media images. They will also
help collect information and/or documents on human and minority rights, in cooperation with
both the major NGOs in the region and, especially, all minorities concerned. NGOs will send to
CEDIME-SE their material for presentation or links in the Balkan Human Rights Web Pages,
which already has separate pages for each organization and each country. Each such page
has/will have a guide to the material of each organization or to the organizations working on
each country respectively. Special CEDIME pages will lead to the reports on minorities and on
media monitoring.
Moreover, the reports on the minorities concerned will be presented to their representatives for
comments and contributions. In the case of the major minorities, this exchange of information
will take the form of workshops, which will also help minority representatives to meet each
5
other and be exposed to the international practice and scholarship on minority rights in Europe.
Four such meetings are proposed, one in Ohrid for the continental Southern Balkan countries,
one in Dubrovnik for the post-Yugoslav countries, one in Transylvania for the minorities in
Romania, and a special one in Salonica for the Roma from these regions. These presentations
will be continuously updateable with pertinent information from/on the minorities concerned.
The site will also be linked with, or even help create, sites of minority organizations.
In each workshop, minority representatives will be presented, in a first session, with the
prevailing international standards on minority rights and the various mechanisms useful to their
defense. Advocacy methods will also be discussed. International experts like many members of
CEDIME-SE’s Advisory Board will do the first part. Then, these minority representatives will
comment on the reports compiled by CEDIME-SE and reviewed by prominent experts. Their
constructive criticism will be sought while at the same time, if necessary, they will be advised
why these presentations may differ from what they would have liked to see reported but runs
counter to the required objectivity or minority rights reporting standards of an NGO.
In addition, as one of the problems minorities are faced with is the inappropriate and usually
negatively biased coverage by their countries’ media, the project would first list all relevant
stereotypes and hate speech usually projected by the media on each minority. It will then
closely monitor the media from 2000 on, on this matter as well as on the images provided for
the peoples of the other SE countries. The media monitoring will lead to the creation of a
special section of the web site with alerts and reports on media coverage of these issues,
especially focused on high visibility events (like Kosovo in the present time).
The project also hopes to encourage and motivate through courses taught at the CEU and other
universities in, or covering, the region, dealing with minority issues, and potentially media
analysis, students from various SEE countries to participate in it after completing their degrees.
Students from the ISEE/CEU who took the course on minorities have already participated in
the project by producing solid reports on minorities in Macedonia and Bulgaria in particular.
Many academics from such universities have been cooperating with CEDIME-SE as advisors.
Some are already reviewing the comprehensive Southern Balkan minority presentations. While
the Canadian Human Rights Foundation published in mid-1999 a special issue on minority
rights of its “Speaking About Rights” quarterly: its European section was co-edited by
CEDIME-SE Director Panayote Dimitras and the contributors were all members of
CEDIME-SE’s Advisory Board (H. Giordan, K. Kanev, D. Petrova, S. Troebst and B.
Tsilevich).
Project Realization 1998-1999
Comprehensive Reports on Minorities
The required research and write-up of comprehensive presentations of the 23 major
ethnonational, ethnolinguistic and religious minorities in Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, and
Greece has begun. Researchers are compiling all available credible information in scholarly
publications, human and minority rights’ studies, statements, reports, etc. In most cases, back
up research was added to check accuracy of secondary sources, update information, and collect
necessary primary material for these reports. Three of the six researchers involved were former
6
Master’s students at ISEE/CEU, who wrote commendable research papers on some minorities
for the seminar “States and Minorities in the Balkans,” in 1998. Two others have been human
and minority rights researchers of GHM and MRG-G while the sixth is an internationally
recognized expert on minorities in Albania.
Once each report is completed by the researcher and edited, it is sent for review to leading
experts on the matter, from both the academic and the advocacy communities. Their comments
are integrated in the final draft. This method of writing the reports contributes to guaranteeing
that the presentations will in the end include all available information on each minority up to
1999, presented in as balanced and authoritative a way as possible. It was the same method
used by the European Union’s “Euromosaic” project on linguistic minorities, in whose work
two CEDIME-SE scholars participated.
Web Site
The web site Balkan Human Rights Pages, as described above, was launched in September
1998. Before that, many such documents were put in the GHM/MRG-G web site; a special
Kosovo page was introduced at the beginning of the crisis in March 1998; while the listserv on
Greek matters was transformed into a SE listserv in January 1998.
The use of these services gives evidence of their usefulness. By March 1999, there were some
1,200 addresses in the listserv, making it probably the largest one on SE human rights matters.
Moreover, all postings in it are redistributed to 3-4 other lists with some 1,000 additional
addresses while some are also sent to many more regular lists or UseNet discussion lists with
up to 3,000 addresses. So, some messages reach over 5,000 addresses.
Web Trend statistics, on the other hand, show that the average number of hits per day in the
Balkan Human Rights Web Pages has been rising steadily. From an average of 344 hits
between December 1997-September 1998, it went to 523 in October 1998, 576 in November
1998, 584 in December 1998, 748 in January 1999, 1265 in February 1999, 1419 in March
1999, 2772 in April 1999, 1860 in May 1999, 1790 in June 1999, 1980 in July 1999, and 1246
in August 1999, 1834 in September 1999, 2002 in October 1999, 2649 in November 1999,
2671 in December 1999, 3123 in January 2000, 3901 in February 2000, 4353 in March 2000,
4162 in April 2000.
Finally, many serious researchers or activists from/on the region have volunteered praising
comments for the site and its usefulness, available upon request.
Media and Minority Monitoring
No work was done on this matter, as the network of monitors is expected to start functioning in
2000.
Minority Rights Seminars
7
No seminars have yet been held in the framework of this project for lack of funds.
Budget
For 1998-2000, CEDIME has been operating with a total budget of $100,000, contributed by
the Swiss Foreign Ministry ($30,000), GHM and MRG-G ($49,000), the Greek Foreign
Ministry ($11,000) and ISEE/CEU ($10,000).
Prospects for 2000-2001
Comprehensive Reports on Minorities
There will be completion of the first phase (see above) and launching of the second phase, by
commissioning the research and write-up for 60 additional minorities, including the 5-6 major
ones in the other SE countries (Bosnia, Croatia, Cyprus, FRY, Romania, Slovenia, Turkey) and
other lesser in size minorities in all countries.
Web Site
The work already described above will be continued and improved in an effort to make the site
and the listserv more systematic and exhaustive, especially by strengthening the coverage of the
non-Southern Balkan countries.
Media and Minority Monitoring
The project will build extensively on the material gathered by two media monitoring projects,
“Balkan Neighbours” coordinated since 1994 by ACCESS-Sofia (fully financed by OSI) and
“Hate Speech in the Balkans” carried out by the International Helsinki Federation in 1995-1996
in ten Balkan countries (financed by the EU, the Council of Europe, the US Institute for Peace,
Open Society Institute - OSI, etc.). In both projects, GHM was a main partner, usually with the
responsibility to prepare the comparative, regional reports. In May 1998, GHM published the
book Hate Speech in the Balkans (Athens, ETEPE) the final product of the second project. The
two projects have a wealth of material that has remained unexplored to this day.
The proposed media monitoring will differ from the previous two projects in that there will be
published (electronically) regular weekly and monthly reports, plus special alerts, available
very shortly after the period concerned. This is the reason why the project relies on the
recruitment of well qualified full-time and fully devoted young monitors who will be trained to
carry out their monitoring all in the same and equally efficient manner. In addition, the network
will have regional staff to coordinate the country monitors, feed the web site and advise NGOs
how to create their own sites, write presentations on other minorities, and for administrative
duties.
CEDIME-SE will privilege graduates of the CEU who are well qualified for that purpose. It is
hoped that a priority selection of the network members among them will lead to a substantial
financial contribution of OSI to this part of the project. This because it will help the Soros
8
Network provide to some CEU prime graduates substantial professional opportunities in the
emerging civil societies in the Balkans, through a project that helps contribute substantially to
the establishment of open societies in the countries of that region.
These monitors (2-3 per country) will read daily the major newspapers and report on the
images, stereotypes, and hate speech towards minorities and neighbors. They will also link with
all minorities and their organizations to exchange information on their activities, their
problems, and their concerns, which will be reported as well. So, all these reports will become
available through the web site and other appropriate means, in a way that will work as a near
information agency on these matters almost on a daily basis. There will also be more
comprehensive reports, analyses, studies, etc.
There will be weekly short electronic publications covering the main themes of media coverage
and the main news related to minority rights; as well as exceptional equally short alerts in cases
of major minority-related conflicts. Also there will be longer, more analytical, monthly
electronic publications on minority images in the media and minority rights issues. Finally,
there will be at least one annual comprehensive study of the major trends both in media images
and minority rights concerns.
It is considered necessary to train these monitors and some of the regional staff in monitoring
methods, media content analysis and knowledge of minorities in the Balkans and minority
rights, as well as in the way efficient cooperation be established. Such training at the beginning
of the project may be carried out at CEU, which has adequate facilities. The trainees will attend
seminars on Minorities in the Balkans and on Media Content Analysis, Hate Speech and
Stereotypes. Parallel to these seminars, these monitors will work on the newspapers of their
countries and the program coordinators will immediately review their daily reports. Thus, by
the time they return to their countries, it is expected that they will all have developed
comparable skills and methods relate to their project.
European Center
From the outset, the Swiss Foreign Ministry has expressed an interest in the CEDIME project
and has contributed financially to its first phase (1998-1999) to help better conceptualize the
project at large and demonstrate how it can be implemented in SE. By spring 1999, sustained
efforts by CEDIME Director Henri Giordan (Director of Research in CNRS, Montpellier,
France) have led to the existence of good chances that CEDIME will have a European-wide
base in Geneva in the framework of The Graduate Institute of International Studies. Such
center will then cooperate with regional teams. For Southeast Europe, CEDIME-SE is already
the partner and also works as a model for the work at the continental level. Preliminary
agreement has been reached with the Manager of the MINELRES Web Site which provides for
Central and Eastern Europe, at a much more reduced scale, similar information with that
available in the Balkan Human Rights Web Pages. MINELRES will serve as a starting point for
the CEE countries. Comprehensive funding request for the continent-wide CEDIME has been
submitted to the Swiss Foreign Ministry, which has expressed the view that matching funds
and moral support from other sources will greatly enhance the chances for final approval of the
necessary grant.
In August 1999, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights gave its support to CEDIME,
following a related feasibility study presented in the UNCHR in May 1999. In April 2000, the
9
Chairman of the UN Working Group on Minorities, Asbjorn Eide, has also written a letter of
support to CEDIME-SE. Already, in late 1998, the Greek Foreign Ministry had indicated its
support for the CEDIME-SE project and, as a first step, contributed to its 1999 budget. This
support was discontinued in 2000.
10
APPENDICES
A. CEDIME-SE’s Scientific Advisory Board
Savas Agouridis
Professor Emeritus of Theology
University of Athens
Teuta Arifi
Lecturer of Albanian language, University of Skopje
Member of the Board,
Center for Multicultural Understanding and Cooperation
Macedonia
Ivo Banac
Professor of History, Yale University and Central European University
Director of the Institute for Southeast Europe (CEU)
Budapest
Vladimir Bilandzic
Deputy Director of the OSI/CEU Institute on Southeast Europe
Professor at the Interdisciplinary Program on Southeast Europe (CEU)
Budapest
Marcel Courthiade
Instructor of Romani Language
INALCO, Paris
Loring Danforth
Bates College
Maine USA
Fernand de Varennes
Director, Asia-Pacific Center for Human Rights and the Prevention
of Ethnic Conflict
School of Law - Murdoch University
Murdoch, Western Australia
Eran Fraenkel
Executive Director
Search for a Common Ground
Macedonia
Henri Giordan
Director of Research at CNRS
Montpellier
Krassimir Kanev
Visiting Lecturer at the Central European University
President, Bulgarian Helsinki Committee
Bulgaria
11
Will Kymlicka
Department of Philosophy
Queens University
Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Remzi Lani
Albanian Media Institute
Tirana
Theodore S. Orlin
Professor at Utica College of Syracuse University
Director of the Human Rights Advocacy Program (HRAP)
USA
Dimitrina Petrova
Executive Director of the European Roma Rights Center
Budapest
Alan Phillips
Director, Minority Rights Group International
London
Aaron Rhodes
Executive Director
International Helsinki Federation
Vienna
Patrick Thornberry
Professor at the University of Leeds
Leeds (UK)
Stefan Troebst
Heisenberg Fellow of the German Research Foundation
Lecturer in Russian and East European History at the
Free University of Berlin
Germany
Boris Tsilevich
MINELRES
Latvia
Tibor Varady
Professor at the Central European Univesrity,
Legal Studies Department
Budapest
B. CV’s of CEDIME-SE Research Team (1998-2000)
Panayote DIMITRAS (Greece) has been since 1992 founding member and Spokesperson of
Greek Helsinki Monitor. In 1992, he was also a founding member of Minority Rights Group Greece. Since 1998, he is Director of the Center for Documentation and Information on
Minorities in Europe-Southeast Europe (CEDIME-SE). He received his B.A. in Economics
from the Athens School of Economics and Business in 1975, an M.P.A. in 1977 and a Ph.D. in
12
1979 in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University. He was also founder and
director of Eurodim, an opinion polling organization in Greece (1979-1990). Since 1990 he has
co-founded and directed the Communication and Political Research Society (ETEPE), a
non-profit research organization. He has been a lecturer or an assistant professor at various
American, Greek, French and Dutch universities or university programs. Presently he is a
visiting lecturer teaching a course on « State and Minorities in the Balkans » at the Institute on
Southeastern Europe of the CEU. As a spokesperson of GHM and MRG-Greece he has served
as a member of, or advisor to, research groups on Balkan problems, human rights and minority
issues like Unesco’s MOST group, the EU’s Euromosaic and Mercator groups, the
International Commission on the Balkans, the Aspen Institute’s Young Leaders Study Group
on the Balkans, and the Gulliver Network, and has participated to a large number of
conferences and workshops on these issues. In 1998, he was elected representative of the
European human rights defenders to the Steering Committee of the Human Rights Defenders
Summit. Besides his publications on political science issues in the past, in the last years he has
written several articles and studies on questions of human and minority rights particularly
concerning the Balkan region.
Irina GIGOVA (Bulgaria) is a candidate for a doctoral degree in Modern History of
Southeastern Europe at the University of Illinois, at Urbana-Champaign. In 1997 she graduated
from the American University in Bulgaria with a Bachelor’s Degree in History. The same year
she was awarded an Open Society Scholarship for her graduate studies at the Central European
University, Budapest. There she received an MA in History in 1998, with a thesis on the
political use of culture in Bulgaria under communism.
Maria KOINOVA (Bulgaria) received an MA in Southeast European Studies at the Central
European University in Budapest (1998) and an MA in German Studies at the St. Clement of
Ohrid University of Sofia, (1995). She specialized in Bulgarian domestic political and social
analysis and East-West relations in Germany while being an intern at the Open Media Research
Institute in Prague (1996-7). At that time she contributed regularly to the “Transition”
Magazine, the Daily Digest and the “Pursuing Balkan Peace” weekly. She was a media
coordinator and assistant to the press office at the Open Society (Soros) Foundation in Sofia
(1994-6). She won short-term scholarships from the European Journalism Network’s for
participation in a two-month journalistic program in Munich (1997) and a PHARE/TACIS
stipend for a seminar on “Building Democracy in Mass Media” in Greece (1995). Her works
with respect to human and minority rights involve her first MA thesis on “Xenophobia in
Germany. Discourse Analysis of Texts in the Spiegel Magazine (1993-1994)”, a chapter on
minorities and Bulgarian foreign policy in her second thesis on “Bulgaria’s Foreign Policy
Towards the States of Southeastern Europe (1989-1998)”, as well as several articles in the
“Transitions” magazine concerning freedom of speech and minority integration policies.
Mariana LENKOVA (Bulgaria) is a candidate for a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy
(MALD) degree at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, USA. She
holds an MA in English and American Studies from ‘St. Clement of Ohrid’ Sofia University,
Bulgaria. She has been working on human and minority rights in the Bulgarian Helsinki
Committee (1994-5) and the Greek Helsinki Monitor (since 1995). She was the regional
rapporteur for the IHF Hate Speech project (1995-7) and for a similar Balkan Neighbors project
(1996-7). She was awarded the ‘Human Rights Advocacy Scholarship’ offered by Utica
College of Syracuse University, USA (Spring 1996), and the ‘Civic Society’ scholarship from
The Open Society Fund (Bulgaria) for a long-term specialization on the theme ‘Defense of
13
Human Rights’ (Spring 1996 and Summer 1998), as well as the MALD scholarship of the
Fletcher School (1998-9). She is an author and a co-author of many articles on issues related to
South Eastern Europe and editor of the book “‘Hate Speech’ in the Balkans.”
Rajwantee LAKSMAN-LEPAIN (Albania/France) is a historian permanent resident in
Albania, member of the research team working on « The Islamic Dimension of the Balkan
Crisis » (Center For International Relations Studies, C.E.R.I, Paris). PhD candidate at l’Ecole
des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, working on « Islam and politics in Albania from
1844 to 1924 ». She is also currently involved in a research project with Centre d’Etudes de
Relations Internationales (C.E.R.I) for the French Delegation for Strategic Affairs on «Islamic
dimensions in Balkan crisis». Relevant conference papers: Religious pluralism and tolerance
in Albania»: a socio-historical approach, within the Framework of an International conference
hold on «freedom of expression, religion and thought», in Tirana, organized by the Greek and
Bulgarian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights and the association «Droits de l’homme sans
frontières ». «Religious feeling of the Albanian muslim community of Berat from 1844 to
1912», Annual conference of the A.I.E.S.S. (International Association of Studies for Southeast
Europe). «Ethnic and religious minorities in Albania: the Problem of Identity consciousness
and State recognition», Macedonian Center for Ethnic Studies, Skopje. «The role of Muslim
Identity in Shaping the new Albania », University of London, Center of Slavonic Studies (to be
published in September 1998)
Nafsika PAPANIKOLATOS (Greece) is the Spokesperson of Minority Rights Group —
Greece. Since 1998, she is the Coordinator of the Center for Documentation and Information
on Minorities in Europe-Southeast Europe (CEDIME-SE). She was awarded a Ph.D. for her
thesis on “Alexis de Tocqueville’s conception of the democratic republic,” by Panteios
University of Athens, Department of History and Political Science, in 1999. She had previously
received a Master’s in Political Science from the University of Ottawa, Canada, in 1983, and a
Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies in History and Civilizations from L’ Ecole des Hautes Etudes
en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France, 1985. She has worked in Quebec, Canada in programs
promoting multiculturalism. She has been co-director of the Voice of Greece of the Greek
National Radio and Television from 1988-1992. She has participated in several NGO
conferences, workshops and seminars concerning questions of human and minority rights both
in the Mediterranean and in the Balkan region. Most recently she participated in the Aspen
Institute’s Young Leaders Study Group on the Balkans, and is a member of the Gulliver
Network. She is author and co-author of a number of articles and has participated in studies
concerning issues of human and minority rights, particularly in Southeast Europe. She is the
coordinator of the CEDIME-Southeast Europe research team.
Maria SPIROVA (Bulgaria) is currently a doctoral student in Political Science at the
University of Wisconsin -- Milwaukee, USA. She has an MA in Southeast European Studies
and Political Science from the Central European University, Budapest, and a BA in Political
Science and History from the American University in Bulgaria. Her research interests include
the Bulgarian media coverage of the Yugoslavian disintegration; the image of Serbia in
Bulgarian press; the popular discourse on democracy in Bulgaria; problems of political
transition in the region of Southeast Europe. She has won scholarships from the Fund for
American Studies and from the Open Society Foundation. She has interned at the American
Embassy in Bulgaria and Americans for Tax Reform in Washington, DC.
14
C. COMMISSIONED MINORITY REPORTS (1998-2000)
ALBANIA
1. BEKTASHI
2. CATHOLICS
3. ROMA
4. MACEDONIANS
GREECE
5. TURKS
6. MACEDONIANS
7. CATHOLICS
8. JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES
9. MUSLIMS
10. ROMA
BULGARIA
11. ROMA
12. CATHOLICS
13. MUSLIMS
14. TURKS
15. MACEDONIANS
MACEDONIA
16. ROMA
17. CATHOLICS
18. MUSLIMS
19. ALBANIANS
20. TURKS
ROMANIA
21. HUNGARIANS
22. ROMA
15