Global warming is a fact. The reason for this can only be a guess. There are hypotheses claiming that the climate changes are consequences of human activities. Other hypotheses say that such occurrences appear regularly every few thousand years. As early as the beginning of the twentieth century some scientists noticed indicators of the growth of the global average temperature. Regardless of the reason global warming is observable mostly in polar areas. Nowadays about four million people live in the Arctic including native inhabitants. Global warming impacts on all of these including indigenous peoples of the Arctic whose cultural identities have always been related to nature. They have always lived in harmony together with nature, they have been a part of it and have never tried to fight against it. A changing climate can make them give up the way their ancestors used to live. Afterwards it can cause the disappearance of their languages and cultures that languages are parts of. Besides for many decades all indigenous people had been thought to be at a lower development level than new arrivals so today almost all languages spoken by indigenous peoples of the Arctic are endangered. All indigenous peoples of the Arctic have common points in their histories like deprivation of lands and suppression of languages and traditions. Most of their ancient customs and religions are forgotten but there are many material marks that are important for future generations. It is very important to preserve the marks and the knowledge of their languages because the value of them is priceless. 

On the 21st and 22nd of May 2009, an International Scientific Conference "The Faces of Asian Statehood. Civilization, Cultural, Political, Legal and Economic Aspects" was held in Toruń, Poland. The event took place thanks to the joint initiative of the Asia and Paci! c Society and its Chairman Adam Marszałek – the main organizing institution, Institute of Political Science & Institute of International Relations – University of Nicolaus Copernicus, Toruń, Poland, as well as local (President of Toruń) and regional (Marshal of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie Region) authorities. Joanna Marszałek- -Kawa was the Scientific Manager of the sessions. Members of the Organizing Committee include also Lucyna Osińska, Robert Gawłowski, Joanna Modrzyńska and Mariusz Popławski.

This article aims to present the positions of minorities in Central and Eastern Europe since 1990. The analysis concentrates on relations between the various cultural and minorities group. The main outline is the concepts of minority rights and their multi-dimensional development of linguistic minorities and social development. There is a broad description of the social development of Roma in Central and Eastern Europe. Eastern European democracy promoters have made extensive use of their bilateral diplomatic channels to allow democratization laggards in the post-communist space a glimpse of what democracy looks like close to home and to give them encouragement and know-how to move forward with reforms.