Feci-eta-i;a4 ofPectl-F Coffeu Avrupa Bab Trakya Turk Federasyonu Federation der West-Thrakien Tiirken in Europa Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe Ever/rani Otto(nrov6ia ToOKcov OpOuciri; Federation des Tures de Thrace Occidentale en Europe NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations Member ofthe Fundamental Rights P latform (FRP ) ofthe European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights Member of the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) Name of the Organization: Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe Name of (Main) Contact Person: Mrs. Melek Kirmact Arik E-mail: melek.kirmacieabttf. org, fo@abtEorg Human Rights Council Forum on Minority Issues Fifth Session 27-28 November 2012 Session I: The Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities: 20 years on The Charter of the United Nations, which lays the foundation of modem international human rights law, ushered in a worldwide movement in which states and other stakeholders are the main actors in the struggle over the role that the international community should play in protecting and promoting human rights. International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), addresses rights of "persons belonging to" ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities, "to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, or to use their own language," to be exercised "in community with the other members of their group"(Article 27). Article 1 of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities underlines that 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. This recognition of rights to the "persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities" has a limited collective dimension and represents the rights of individuals rather than collective rights. The twentieth anniversary of the UN Declaration the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities offers an important opportunity to examine the .diverse ways in which the Declaration has been used and implemented in practice and to gain the perspec tives of different stakeholders on how it has impacted on aspects of national legislation, institutional mechanisms and their activities to advance the rights of persons belonging to minorities. , Article 1, paragraph 1, requires that "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". Previous sessions of the Forum have demonstrated that a significant progress has been made in the implementation of the Declaration, though there are still important challenges that the States should confront. Since the Declaration accords rights to ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, the existence of a minority entitled to protection is determined by States, which, in particular cases, deny officially to recognize particular ethnic, religious or linguistic groups within their territories as minorities and decline to grant these groups collective rights which should be used as minorities.