October 2003 Part IV, articulates detailed standards relating to national minorities. All OSCE States are also bound by United Nations obligations relating to human rights, including minority rights, and the great majority of OSCE States are further bound by the standards of the Council of Europe. Through the course of more than ten years of intense activity, the HCNM has identified certain recurrent issues and themes which have become the subject of his attention in a number of States in which he is involved. Among these are issues of minority education and use of minority languages, in particular as matters of great importance for the maintenance and development of the identity of persons belonging to national minorities. A third recurrent theme which has arisen in a number of situations in which the HCNM has been involved is that of forms of effective participation of national minorities in the governance of States. With a view to achieving an appropriate and coherent application of relevant minority rights in the OSCE area, the HCNM requested the Foundation on Inter-Ethnic Relations – a non-governmental organization (now defunct) established in 1993 to carry out specialized activities in support of the HCNM – to bring together three groups of internationally recognized independent experts to elaborate three sets of recommendations: the Hague Recommendations regarding the Education Rights of National Minorities (1996); the Oslo Recommendations regarding the Linguistic Rights of National Minorities (1998); and the Lund Recommendations on the Effective Participation of National Minorities in Public Life (1999). These recommendations have subsequently served as references for policyand law-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 at: http://www.osce.org/hcnm/66209. One further issue which has engaged the interest of the HCNM is the use of minority language(s) as a vehicle of communication in the broadcast media. A number of States have taken steps to limit this use, most commonly through the adoption of legislation prescribing quotas for broadcasting time in a certain language (typically that of the majority, and usually designated the “official” or “State” language) – a practice which has generated negative reactions among minorities in a number of countries insofar as broadcasting possibilities are in effect restricted. At the March 2001 OSCE Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting on Freedom of Expression a strong interest in issues concerning media and minorities was expressed by a number of OSCE participating States. Later that month in the Permanent Council, some delegations requested that the HCNM and the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media address these issues in co-operation with one another. 2