United Nations Forum on Minority Issues, 12th Session, 27-29 November 2019, Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland Item 4: Effective practices for education in, and the teaching of, minority languages Tamás Kiss, Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities Dear honored participants! Ladies and gentlemen! I would like to contribute to the success of the Forum as an empirical sociologist. I argue that empirical research should become a major tool in minority rights advocacy. The Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities has conducted a complex research program on Hungarian language education in Romania. This is an in-depth case study for countries where the internal legislation guarantees the right for native language education and where an extended state financed network of minority schools exist. In Romania the last Law on Education: - Recognizes the right of native language education at all levels It calls for a rather strong form of minority language education. In Hungarian schools practically all subjects are thought in Hungarian, except the Romanian language and literature. The law even encourages the formation of separate minority language schools. Moreover, it guarantees some weak forms of minority control over the educational process. Actually, a state financed system of Hungarian schools exists. The vast majority of Hungarian students learn in Hungarian and they are enrolled in increasing numbers in separate Hungarian language schools. The question is whether minority rights advocacy has anything to do in this case? The answer is definitely positive. However, a shift is needed from “claiming more rights” to - the problem of law implementation and quality assurance Problems of law implementation were already stressed by minority rights NGOs. The 4th opinion on Romania of the Advisory Committee of the Framework Convention on the Protection of National Minorities also emphasized shortcomings in law implementation. However, I would like to focus on quality assurance. My recommendations refer to this issue. The argument is as follows: One can hardly deduce from international law that states should opt for such strong forms of bilingual education, as Romania did. However, if their internal legislation recognizes the right for native language