Guidelines to Assist National Minority Participation in the Electoral Process Page: 5 distinction as to race, colour, or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the law, notably in the enjoyment of the following rights: … (b) Political rights, in particular the right to participate in elections-to vote and to stand for election-on the basis of universal and equal suffrage, to take part in the Government as well as in the conduct of public affairs at any level and to have equal access to public service; (d) Other civil rights, in particular: … (vii) The right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; (viii) The right to freedom of opinion and expression; (ix) The right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association. • Article 2 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious or Linguistic Minorities states: “(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 15 of the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities states: “Parties shall create the conditions necessary for the effective participation of persons belonging to national minorities in cultural, social and economic life and in public affairs, in particular those affecting them.” • Paragraphs 5 and 6 of the Document of the Copenhagen Meeting of the Conference on the Human Dimension of the CSCE (the Copenhagen Document) specify that “among those elements of justice which are essential to the full expression of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all human beings … the will of the people, freely and fairly expressed through periodic and genuine elections, is the basis of the authority and legitimacy of all governments”. • Paragraph 35 of the Copenhagen Document requires OSCE participating States to “respect the right of persons belonging to national minorities to effective participation in public affairs, including participation in the affairs relating to the protection and promotion of the identity of such minorities”.