The course will introduce to law students an up-to-date account of the relevant international legal standards for protection of the rights of national minorities and the developments in supervisory practice of monitoring bodies. Apart from the Council of Europe's legally binding instruments developed to protect and promote rights of national minorities and to protect and preserve regional and minority languages in Europe, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities thematic Recommendations and Guidelines developed  to address ethnic tensions and to prevent hostilities over national minority issues will be thoroughly examined.