Regional systems 113 NGOs can send information at any time to the Secretariat of the Framework Convention at the Council of Europe, which will forward the information to members of the Advisory Committee. However, it is best to submit information when the Advisory Committee is actively considering a State’s report. Therefore, NGOs should study the report (which is made public as soon as the Committee receives it, if it is not made public earlier by the State itself), decide what information provided by the Government should be supplemented or challenged, and submit comments in time for them to be considered when the Committee examines the State’s report. Information on the schedule for State reports and when they have actually been received may be obtained from the Council of Europe’s website, and the Secretariat can provide information as to when NGO comments must be received in order for the Committee to take them into account. If possible, NGO submissions should be in either French or English, the working languages of the Committee. When submitting information, whether comments or a full alternative report, NGOs should refer whenever possible to specific information that might be missing or incorrect in a State’s report. The information provided by the NGO should be factual, complete and detailed, and it should refer whenever possible to specific articles of the Framework Convention. Demographic and statistical information is very valuable, if it is not included in the State’s report, and it may help the Committee to compare the situation of minorities at different times. Finally, NGOs may also present their own recommendations for actions the Government should take to implement the Framework Convention. Contacts and further information Secretariat of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities F–67075 Strasbourg Cedex France Tel: 33 3 88 41 20 00 Fax: 33 3 90 21 49 18 E-mail: minorities.fcnm@coe.int Website: www.coe.int/minorities European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages was adopted in 1992 and entered into force in 1998. The Charter, ratified by 25 States,134 seeks to protect and promote regional and minority languages and to enable speakers of a regional or minority language to use it in private and public life. Its overriding purpose is cultural, and it concerns itself with regional and minority languages, non-territorial languages and less widely used official languages, rather than minority rights per se. The Charter’s preamble begins by setting out the main objectives and principles that States undertake to apply to all regional or minority languages existing within their national territory, “[s]tressing the value of interculturalism and multilingualism”. It then identifies a series of concrete measures designed to facilitate and encourage the use of specific regional or minority languages in public life (part III). These are intended to ensure, as far as is reasonably possible, that regional or minority languages are used in education, media, legal and administrative contexts, economic and social life, cultural activities and transfrontier exchanges. At the time of ratifying Armenia, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. 134