124 PROMOTING AND PROTECTING MINORITY RIGHTS States towards those within their jurisdiction, as well as towards each other, which later became known as the Decalogue. Overview of applicable standards The inclusion of the principle of respect for human rights in the Helsinki Final Act was a major achievement. Together with the recommendations, principle VII of the Final Act represented the first acknowledgement of the direct link between human rights and security and has provided the foundation for the elaboration of new human rights standards, especially concerning the rights of persons belonging to national minorities. Principle VII stipulates: The participating States on whose territory national minorities exist will respect the right of persons belonging to such minorities to equality before the law, will afford them the full opportunity for the actual enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms and will, in this manner, protect their legitimate interests in this sphere. While cold war tensions blocked further progress in the 15 years following the adoption of the Helsinki Final Act, progress on minority issues greatly accelerated after 1989. In June 1990, the Copenhagen Document on the Human Dimension of the (then) CSCE was adopted; it is still regarded as the basic OSCE standard-setting instrument concerning human rights and minority rights and has inspired the adoption of other, legally binding international instruments on minority rights, such as the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (see chap. XII). The Copenhagen Document also includes a long list of provisions concerning democratic institution-building and the rule of law. Taking individual human rights as its point of departure, paragraph 33 of the Copenhagen Document commits States to “protect the ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious identity of national minorities on their territory ... in conformity with the principles of equality and nondiscrimination”. States also commit themselves, where necessary, to take special measures to ensure this equality. These special rights and measures do not constitute preferential treatment for persons belonging to national minorities. Rather, they aim to achieve equal and meaningful enjoyment of rights in fact as well as in law. While the concept of minority rights grows out of the concept of individual human rights (e.g., art. 1 of the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities), it is only the shared exercise of these rights that enables persons belonging to a national minority to preserve their identity. The Copenhagen Document grants all persons belonging to national minorities a number of specific rights that may be exercised both individually and in community with other members of their group. These include the right to: • “Express, preserve and develop” their identity and culture, free from any attempts at forced assimilation (para. 32); • Use their mother tongue in private and in public and to exchange information in their mother tongue (paras. 32 (1) and 32 (5)); • Establish and maintain minority educational, cultural and religious institutions which can seek funding “in conformity with national legislation” (para. 32 (2)); • Practise their religion, including using religious materials and conducting religious educational activities in their mother tongue (para. 32 (3)); • Maintain “unimpeded contacts” with those with whom they share common origin, heritage or religious beliefs, within their country and across frontiers (para. 32 (4)); • “Effective participation in public affairs, including participation in the affairs relating to the protection and promotion of the identity of such minorities” (para. 35).