Treaties and conventions

Minority policy today is based on a series of conventions for the protection and promotion of minorities.

The foundation to ensure the rights of the two minorities in the Danish-German borderland are the Bonn-Copenhagen-Declarations (1955), in which Germany and Denmark undertake to grant the minorities fundamental rights. 

In addition to solving specific problems - such as the mutual recognition of qualifications from minority schools - the two declarations contain a fundamental principle that has been of decisive importance for the further peaceful development of the border region: freedom of confession. Everyone is free to profess a minority, and the state may not question whether someone is really Danish or German.

Since 1990, the state constitution of Schleswig-Holstein has ensured that the Danish minority and the Frisian population group enjoy ‘protection and support’ from the state. Since 2015, it has guaranteed the same rights for the Sinti & Roma as well as financial equality for Danish schools.

SSF, SSW and the Danish School-Association for South Schleswig issues or concerns are all considered, when the Council of Europe monitors how well, Germany complies with the international treaties and conventions, it has joined or ratified. The most important are "The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages" (Council of Europe, 1992) and the "Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities" (Council of Europe, 1995). 

The relationship between Denmark and the Danish minority has been governed by the ‘South Schleswig Act’ (Sydslesvigloven) since 2010, which sets out the framework for Danish state subsidies to minority organisations and associations.