On the occasion of the International day of Human Rights, the Commissioner for Protection of Equality and the House of Human Rights and Democracy organised a roundtable meeting „The Role of National Councils in Combating Discrimination”. This meeting was an opportunity for the representatives of all national councils of national minorities to gather for the first time after the elections for the National councils of national minorities held in October 2014.

The Commissioner brought the attention of the representative to the fact that every fifth complaint the Commissioner received was founded on discrimination on the basis of national affiliation. Worrisome results of the research done by the public authorities on discrimination were presented, emphasising that one of the goal of the Commissioner is to show that differences should not be taken as a threat, but a potential for development.

The representatives of the national minorities national councils presented a range of problems that worry them – from enjoying the right to education in the languages of minorities and the problem of insufficient number of textbooks in the language of minorities, to fears that the local media who have programmes in minority languages would disappear, which would prevent the fulfilment of the right to minority language broadcasting. There were many talks about active participation of National councils in combating discrimination and promotion of cooperation with the Commissioner.