draws on Article 27 of the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which apply to ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities. The declaration also adds the term national minorities. The commentary points out that there is hardly any national minority which is not also an ethnic, religious and/or linguistic minority, but that not all ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities are national minorities and might therefore not be covered by the European instruments. A relevant point in this regard is that the UN declaration will in some circumstances also apply to non-citizens of the states where the minority exist. No absolute distinction can legitimately be made between the “old” and the “new” minorities, but in is application the “old” minorities may have stronger rights than the “new”. A second, important point made in the Commentary is that the Declaration deals with the rights of persons belonging to minorities, but not with rights of minorities as collectivities. In this regard it is quite different from the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The commentary underlines in its para. 15 that the rights of persons belonging to minorities differ from the rights of peoples to self-determination. This follows also from Article 8 paragraph 4 of the Declaration stating that nothing in the Declaration cay be construed as permitting any activity contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations, including sovereign equality, territorial integrity and political independence of states. While the Declaration uses the expression “rights of persons belonging to minorities, the Commentary emphasized that many of these rights can only be enjoyed if they are exercised in community with other persons belonging to the same minority. And if you examine more closely the text, you will see that the duties of states set out in the Declaration are at least in part formulated as duties towards minorities as collective groups. Third: Some comments on the significance of the Declaration and on education for multiculturalism and interculturalism. The overarching focus of the minority declaration is to give space for pluralism in the process of integration of society. Integration is a necessary task for any society in order to make it possible to develop a cohesive society where everyone can enjoy their full range of human rights, civil and political as well as economic, social and cultural rights. This comes clearly through in the preamble of the Declaration. But the important role of the Declaration is to ensure that there is sufficient space, during the process of integration and as an outcome of integration, to enjoy pluralism and diversity. First and foremost, the Declaration in its Article 1 imposes a duty on all states to protect the existence of their minorities and their national or ethnic, religious and linguistic identity, and to encourage conditions for the promotion of that identity. As previously noted, in 1948 the General Assembly had concluded that it had been found to be too difficult to find a uniform solution for situations involving minorities, which have special aspects in each State in which it arises. The declaration had therefore to be very flexible. You will see that the