32 European Nations Focus on Human Rights : Tolerance: Council of Europe members address nationalism, ethnic tensions for first time.

A two-day summit of Europe’s old and new democracies on Saturday backed a series of tentative steps to reduce the virulent nationalist and ethnic tensions that threaten the Continent’s stability.

However, a mixture of suspicion, uncertainty and self-interest prevented bolder initiatives that many believe are needed to contain new eruptions.

The meeting marked the first time Europe’s leaders had collectively addressed what is increasingly seen as one of the Continent’s most severe challenges of the post-Cold War era.

It was also the first-ever summit of the 32-nation Council of Europe, an organization established in 1949 to promote parliamentary democracy and defend human rights. The group today includes all the countries of Western Europe plus nine former Soviet Bloc states.

The gathering unfolded only a few hundred miles from the campaigns of “ethnic cleansing” in the former Yugoslav republics, and the conference’s somber mood reflected the toll exacted on Europe’s collective self-confidence by the failure to end the tragedy.

“We talk and talk, we drown in compromises, we redraw the maps, we read the lips of the ‘ethnic cleansers’ and, more critically all the time, we forget the fundamental values upon which we would like to build the future shape of our own continent,” Czech President Vaclav Havel warned the meeting.

In opening remarks to the conference Friday, Austrian President Thomas Klestil pointed to other ethnic and nationalist conflicts that have bubbled since the collapse of Moscow’s European empire.

“It is as if the monstrous specter of the past has split up into a hundred small specters which have made their way back into our house through every crack and crevice.”

Driven by events, the leaders agreed on a package of measures that, despite their modest nature, in some cases required months of delicate pre-summit negotiations.

The final declaration committed the nations to:

* Support a series of measures aimed at increasing tolerance and understanding among the Continent’s diverse peoples. These would include establishing cultural centers, developing local radio programming and establishing sister towns and schools in different ethnic, racial or national areas.

* Abide by two new political and legal commitments aimed at giving better protection to national minorities. One is in the form of an international convention setting out specific principles to ensure the protection of the minorities; the other is a protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights guaranteeing the cultural rights of all, especially those of minorities.

* Upgrade and streamline the currently overburdened legal machinery that deals with alleged violations of the European Convention on Human Rights.

* Back a five-point action plan that includes a Europe-wide youth campaign to promote racial, ethnic and religious tolerance.

Speaking at a news conference after the meeting, Council of Europe Secretary General Catherine Lalumiere hailed the measures as a sign of progress.

“Whether they will prevent further conflict is unsure, but what is sure is that we’ve come a long way here,” she said.

But intense wrangling and major differences among member states prevented more decisive steps.

While the leaders were able to agree to wording in the declaration that “the protection of national minorities is an essential element of stability and democratic security in our continent,” they failed to agree on a definition of what constituted a national minority--a fact that would appear to leave each nation to define the term to suit its own needs.

It seemed clear that several countries were not interested in including either immigrants or other recently settled minority groups under the agreement.

Drafting the two new legal documents is also expected to take several months, while financing of the action plan remains uncertain.