High Commissioner on National Minorities marks 10 years of the Ljubljana Guidelines

LJUBLJANA, 6 September 2022 – Today marks the 10th anniversary of the Ljubljana Guidelines on Integration of Diverse Societies, a comprehensive set of guidelines established by the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM) to address challenges related to managing integration processes in diverse societies.

To mark the anniversary, the HCNM held a conference today in Ljubljana, bringing together experts, policymakers and practitioners in the field of minority rights and integration together with ambassadors and representatives of the OSCE participating States. They discussed the ongoing relevance of the key principles in the Guidelines, successes and challenges of implementation, lessons learned and ways to better operationalize them to complement continuous efforts of the HCNM to promote integration of diverse societies.

“The key takeaway from the Ljubljana Guidelines comes back to one single point: that society as a whole, not just one specific group, benefits from diversity and integration policies,” said OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Kairat Abdrakhmanov.

Published in 2012, the Ljubljana Guidelines seek to provide guidance to OSCE participating States on how best to integrate diverse societies. They are based on the experience of the HCNM and the advice from internationally recognized experts. 

Almost exactly 10 years ago, on 7 November 2012, then OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Knut Vollebaek, presented the Guidelines with the words: “All OSCE participating States are multi ethnic. Living together with people of different cultures, ethnicities and religions is not a matter of choice; it is a fact of life. It is up to us to make the best of it.”

The Ljubljana Guidelines are among the most frequently used guidelines by successive High Commissioners and are as relevant today as when they were published.

Opening the conference, High Commissioner Abdrakhmanov stated, “I hope that today’s event will serve as a catalyst for us not only to reflect on and learn from the past, but also to recognize that respecting and effectively governing diversity within our society is vital for our future.”

The Anniversary Conference is supported by and organized in co-operation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia.