Recommendations on Policing in Multi-Ethnic Societies INTRODUCTION In its Helsinki Decisions of July 1992, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) established the position of High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM) to be 'an instrument of conflict prevention at the earliest possible stage'. This mandate was created largely in reaction to the situation in the former Yugoslavia which some feared would be repeated elsewhere in Europe, especially among the countries in transition to democracy, and could undermine the promise of peace and prosperity as envisaged in the Charter of Paris for a New Europe adopted by the Heads of State and Government in November 1990. Through the course of more than ten years of intense activity, the HCNM has identified certain recurrent issues and themes concerning minorities which have become the subject of his attention in a number of States in which he is involved. Among these are the issues of minority education and the use of minority languages, which are of particular importance for the maintenance and development of the identity of persons belonging to national minorities. Other important issues are the effective participation of national minorities in the governance of States and the use of minority languages as a vehicle of communication in the broadcast media. With a view to achieving an appropriate and coherent application of relevant minority rights in the OSCE area, the HCNM requested four groups of internationally recognized independent experts to elaborate four sets of guidance on these recurrent issues: The Hague Recommendations regarding the Education Rights of National Minorities (1996); the Oslo Recommendations regarding the Linguistic Rights of National Minorities (1998); the Lund Recommendations on the Effective Participation of National Minorities in Public Life (1999); and the Guidelines on the Use of Minority Languages in the Broadcast Media (2003). These documents have subsequently served as references for law and policy makers in a number of States. The recommendations are available (in several languages) free of charge from the Office of the HCNM and may be accessed electronically (www.osce.org/hcnm). Another issue which has arisen in several situations in which the HCNM has been involved is that of policing in multi-ethnic societies. In a number of States, the HCNM has encountered the absence of institutional mechanisms to support the interaction and co-operation between police and persons belonging to national minorities. In combination with the lack of appropriate training for operation in a multi-ethnic society, an often mono-ethnic composition of the police service and discriminatory practices, 1