2008年10月17日，斯洛文尼亚德维塔克教授（Silvo Devetak）应邀访问中国社会科学院民族学与人类学研究所(简称“民族所”)，并作了《欧盟少数民族的民族和宗教权利》的学术讲座。德维塔克教授是国际著名的欧盟民族问题和人权研究专家，现为斯洛文尼亚共和国马里博尔大学欧洲民族宗教和社会研究中心主任、国际法和国际关系系主任。此次他是到北京出席中欧论坛后顺访民族所的。
出席讲座和进行学术交流的有：欧洲联盟欧洲委员会驻华代表团（European Union Delegation of the European Commission）政务处三等秘书安娜（Anna Karin Friis），法国驻华大使馆一等秘书杜丽缇（Christile Drulhe），民族所专家翁乃群、李彬、王建娥、姜德顺、张继焦、周学文、张小敏、胡鸿雁、杜发春等10余人。
德维塔克教授在讲座中说，作为欧盟外交政策的一种工具，利用人权和少数民族权利，以及欧盟成员国在少数民族权利上采用自己的标准的政治意愿，均存在巨大的差距。因此，欧洲对少数民族权利的标准，构成了各项国际文书中所载的通过欧洲理事会的规定或在双边水平上的规范。大多数的欧盟成员都是欧洲理事会的成员，但仍然有一部分顽固地拒绝加入这些国际义务。
德维塔克博士认为，关于民族间和宗教间关系的问题，包括少数民族的地位和权利，都是扩大后的欧盟所面临的人道主义问题和关键的政治和安全问题。他指出，就欧洲人的认同而言，少数民族问题必须考虑进去，但是这个问题尚未有清晰的界定。目前，阻碍欧盟积极政策发展的最大障碍是，欧洲国家的伪善性和他们在改善欧盟对少数民族权利的法律的政治意愿的缺乏。
讲座结束后，德维塔克教授还访问了设在民族所的人类学世界大会学术筹备办公室，与办公室工作人员就推迟到2009年7月召开的人类学世界大会的筹备事宜进行了磋商，希望增设新的专题会议。
Seminar on the Rights of Ethnic and Religious Minorities in the EU:
Prof. Dr. Silvo Devetak from Slovenia visited IEA/CASS
DU Fachun
On October 17th, a seminar on the Rights of Ethnic and Religious Minorities in the EU was held in the IEA/CASS. Prof. Dr. Silvo Devetak had a presentation on this topic in Beijing China. Dr. Devetak is Director of the European Centre for Ethnic, Regional and Sociological Studies at the University of Maribor as well as Professor for International Public Law, Head of the Department of International Law and International Relations and President of the Senate of International Post-graduated Studies on Human Rights and the Rights of Minorities at University of Maribor ,Slovenia.
In this meeting, Dr. Devetak pointed out that a great disparity exists between the use of human and minority rights as a tool of EU foreign policy and the political willingness of EU members to adopt their own standards on minority rights. The European standards on minority rights are thus constituted by norms enshrined in international instruments adopted within the Council of Europe or stipulated at bilateral level. A great majority of EU states are members of COE instruments, but some stubbornly refuse accession to these international obligations. Problems regarding inter-ethnic and inter-religious relations, including the status and rights of ethnic minorities, are both a humanitarian and crucial political and security issue of the enlarged EU. Dr. Devetak emphasized that the minority issue must be considered in the context of European identity, which is not clearly defined. The main obstacle to the development of positive EU policies is the hypocrisy of the European states and the lack of their political willingness to improve the European law on minorities’ rights.
There are 13 experts attended this roundtable discussion, including Ms. Anna Karin Friis(Third Secretary, Political Affairs, European Union Delegation of the European Commission in China), Ms. Christile Drulhe (First Secretary, French Embassy in Beijing), CASS Professors WENG Naiqun, LI Biing, WANG Jian’e, JIANG Deshun, ZHANG Jijiao, ZHOU Xuewen, ZHANG Xiaomin, HU Hongyuan and DU Fachun etc. Chinese scholars appreciated Dr. Devetak’s lecture and his research findings, they exchanged views with each other on EU-China minority studies.
Dr. Devetak is chairman of ISCOMET, the International Scientific Conference Minorities for Europe of Tomorrow, a NGO with over 250 members from almost all European countries. ISCOMET has a consultative status with the Council of Europe. Dr. Devetak is also editor in chief of Regional Contact (a journal for regional information and the exchange of experience and ideas in the field of European Regionalism), member of the Advisory Board of INTEREG (Munich) and of the Scientific Council of Regions of Europe (magazine of the Assembly of the European Regions), and of the Association for the Study of Ethnicity and Nationalism - ASEN (London). In 1997 he got the award "Ambassador of Science of the Republic of Slovenia". His bibliography includes about 300 books, scientific articles, surveys, commentaries, studies, reports and other writings on international law, international relations, regionalism, human rights, racial discrimination, and especially on national or ethnic minorities issues. In recent years he had delivered more that 90 lectures to the scientific meetings and universities all over the world (Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, China, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, UK, USA, South Africa, etc.). Dr. Devetak has organized a great number of international scientific meetings and was co-ordinator of a number of international research teams studying inter-ethnic issues and inter-regional co-operation.