Russia Withdraws from European Convention for National Minorities Protection that Prohibits Discrimination, Forced Assimilation

Russia has withdrawn from the European Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, which prohibits discrimination against national minorities, forced assimilation, and protects the freedom to practice their religion and speak their native language.

This was reported by RFE/RL.

Participation in the convention was suspended on 1 August, but the Russian Foreign Ministry's official announcement was published on the official legal portal of the Russian Federation only today.

Russia signed the Convention in 1996. It has also been signed by all Council of Europe member states, except for Andorra, Monaco, France and Turkey. Belgium, Greece, Iceland, Luxembourg and Spain have signed but not ratified it.

The Convention establishes the basic principles for the treatment of national minorities in Europe, such as the prohibition of discrimination, forced assimilation, freedom to practice their religion and to speak their native language.

Russian President Vladimir Putin submitted a draft law on Russia's withdrawal from the convention to the State Duma in September 2023. He argued that after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the European Union had limited the powers of Russian experts in the advisory cabinet on compliance with the convention. Accordingly, Russia allegedly lost some of its ability to monitor the observance of the rights of Russian-speaking people abroad. On 19 October 2023, Putin's decree denounced the Convention.

On 16 March 2022, Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe after 26 years of membership. The day before, the Parliamentary Assembly unanimously voted to expel Russia. By February 2023, the State Duma had passed a law terminating 21 treaties with the Council of Europe, including the Human Rights Convention, in respect of Russia.