The Inter-relationship between International and National Minority-Rights Law in Selected Western Balkan States

2009 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 307-335
Author(s):  
Benedikt Harzl ◽  
Alice Engl
Keyword(s):  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
National Minority ◽  
Minority Protection ◽  
Legal Provisions ◽  
Balkan States ◽  
International Instruments ◽  
Violent Conflicts ◽  
Shed Light

AbstractThe violent conflicts that erupted after the breakup of communist regimes (especially in the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia) have gradually changed the standing of minority rights and minority protection: first, the differential treatment of minority groups has become a legitimate—if not necessary—instrument to guarantee equality and stability, and, second, minority-rights legislation and minority protection are increasingly regarded as a responsibility shared among national and international actors. This inter-relationship between international instruments and national legal provisions can be usefully observed particularly in the states that emerged from the breakup of Yugoslavia. Due to the necessity of ensuring peace and stability, the constitutions of these emerging states have been increasingly influenced by international norms and standards for minority protection—a process that can be characterized as the 'internationalization of constitutional law'. This article assesses these developments, at both the national and international levels, in order to shed light on the particular inter-relationship among these different layers, by looking at the example of selected Western Balkan states.

scholarly journals Minority rights and minority identities - Sámi in Finland and Sorbs in Germany

2001 ◽  
pp. 83-102
Author(s):  
Toivanen Reetta
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
National Minority ◽  
Minority Protection ◽  
National Movements ◽  
Specific Meaning ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Minority Identities

This paper deals with intemational minority rights and their meaning as an identityresource fr ethnic minorities. It asks why small national groups, such as the Sami andthe Sorbs, have not vanished, as was prophesied by modemisation theorists. In fact,the opposite has occurred. In Europe, small national minority groups are now clearlygaining more opportunities to invent their own "national" policies. After a short introductionthat provides some general background, 1discuss some common definitions ofminority rights and the specific meaning of 'minority identity' used in this paper. Then,1 show how minority rights and minority identities are linked to each other, and whyand how intemational minority protection treaties have become a part of the everydayvocabulary of Sami, Sorb and many other national movements. The examples 1 useoriginate mostly from my field studies with the Sorbs in Eastem Germany and the Samiin Northem Finland. 1 argue that not only the image of the group projected to itsmembers is influenced by these treaties, but that the definition of the group itself is alsochanged.

scholarly journals European standards of minority protections - from conditionality to limitation: Case of Croatia

2010 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-166
Author(s):  
Vesna Stankovic-Pejnovic
Keyword(s):  
Minority Groups ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Acquis Communautaire ◽  
Minority Protection ◽  
Legislative Framework ◽  
Accession Process ◽  
European Standards ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Violent Conflicts ◽  
The Eu

EU promotes norms which lack a basis in EU law and do not directly translate into the acquis communautaire EU. Limits of EU conditionality in the area of minority rights are visible in closer look at the EU?s monitoring mechanism, including Regular Reports, which locate EU?s minority criterion in the domestic political context. Reports have structure broadly follows the Copenhagen criteria. Serious efforts are needed for achieving practical results flowing from the implementation of the legislative framework pertaining to minority issues. The same factors also affected the mechanisms? ability to influence that implementation. These factors concern the following: confusion regarding the juridical nature of the minority rights instruments, the vagueness or flexibility in the formulation of the standards, and unclarity as to the beneficiaries of the standards. Issue of soft instruments, vague norms and the lack of a definition of the beneficiaries of the norms will continue to trouble the minds of Governments, minorities, international mechanisms. EU must undertaking efforts to sharpen and further clarify the existing standards and to persuade Governments that existence of minority groups can enrich a society as a whole and that measures to preserve their specific characteristics will reduce the risks of violent conflicts. The case of Croatia, through Regular Reports, shows acceptation of European standards of minority protection in legal area, but with the limits in their implementation. In these circumstances Regular Reports describes attitude of EU toward minority issue; it is not priority of EU in accession process, difficulties in monitoring the implementation of minority issues and lack of precise definition norms in minority rights area.

New minorities, old instruments? Diversity governance from the perspective of minority rights

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 178-192
Author(s):  
Roberta Medda-Windischer
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Minority Protection ◽  
Common Definition ◽  
National Minorities ◽  
Scope Of Application

In international law, minority rights instruments have been traditionally conceived for, and applied to, old minority groups with the exclusion of new minority groups originating from migration. Yet, minority groups, irrespective of their being old or new minorities, can be subsumed under a common definition and have some basic common claims. This allows devising a common but differentiated set of rights and obligations for old and new minority groups alike. This paper argues that the extension of the scope of application of legal instruments of minority protection, such as the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCNM), is conceptually meaningful and beneficial to the integration of new minorities stemming from migration. 

Federalism, Local Government and Minority Protection in Ethiopia: Opportunities and Challenges

2014 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 150-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christophe Van der Beken
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Ethnic Minority Groups ◽  
Minority Protection ◽  
Protection Mechanism ◽  
Territorial Boundaries

AbstractFederalism is increasingly promoted and utilized in multi-ethnic countries as a means to guarantee minority rights and safeguard the harmony and integrity of the polity and state. Yet, due to the unfeasibility of achieving a perfect overlap between ethnic and territorial boundaries, every ethnic-based territory will contain ethnic minority groups. This is also the case in the Ethiopian Federation where all nine regions are ethnically heterogeneous, albeit to different degrees. This article investigates how Ethiopia's regions are approaching their minority groups by analysing the relevant regional constitutions and laws. The analysis shows that the main minority protection mechanism is the establishment of ethnic-based local governments. Although this device is not without merit as far as minority protection is concerned, the impracticality of achieving ethnically homogeneous territories is its major limitation. The article therefore concludes by recommending a number of complementary legal instruments striving for more comprehensive minority protection.

Toward Participatory Equality: Protecting Minority Rights under International Law

2008 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 635-676 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yousef T. Jabareen
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Model Building ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
National Minority ◽  
Moral Claim ◽  
Normative Claim ◽  
Principles Of Justice ◽  
Legal Frameworks

The principal claim made by this Article is that the realization of full and effective equality for all citizens and residents within a multi-ethnic state requires “participatory equality.” Creating a system of participatory equality entails, for most states, making drastic and fundamental changes to the state's legal system, public spaces, social and economic structures, and funding and space provided for ethnic, cultural, and religious institutions; however, this type of transformation is the only means of respecting human dignity and ensuring peace. This claim is first made as a normative moral claim based on principles of justice and dignity; as this Paper will show, a broad and effective interpretation of international law concerning minority rights supports the same normative claim.This Article first reviews existing international law and other legal frameworks regarding national minority rights, including discussions of the specific case of indigenous peoples'rights and the intersection between individual and collective rights. The bulk of the Paper proposes a universal model, building upon existing legal frameworks, for building participatory equality for all members of a society, which requires the full and equal sharing of its resources in three primary domains: the public, the internal, and the historical domain. The need for such a model is all the more so for indigenous and minority groups of substantial size living under systems that cater to a majority based on ethnicity, religion, race or other dominant traits. Only when a nation's legal system secures the rights of all citizens to share equally in all of these domains can that nation fulfill the purpose of international minority rights legal bodies and deliver substantive equality to majority and minority concerns, both in law and practice.

Domestic Violence and the Islamic Tradition

2015 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-133
Author(s):  
Hamid Mavani
Keyword(s):  
Religious Freedom ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Gender Issues ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
Islamic Tradition ◽  
Legal Provisions ◽  
Novel Reading ◽  
Analytic Skills ◽  
Do So

The polyvalent Qur’anic text lends itself to multiple interpretations, dependingupon one’s presuppositions and premises. In fact, Q. 3:7 distinguishesbetween muḥkam (explicit, categorical) and mutashābih (metaphorical, allegorical,symbolic) verses. As such, this device provides a way for reinterpretingverses that outwardly appear to be problematic – be it in the area ofgender equality, minority rights, religious freedom, or war. However, manyof the verses dealing with legal provisions in such areas as devotional matters,marriage, divorce, child custody, inheritance and bequest, and specific punishmentsappear to be unequivocal, categorical, and explicit. As such, scholarshave devised certain hermeneutical strategies to situate and contextualizethese verses in a particular socio-historical context, as well as to emphasizethat they were in conversation with the society to which the Qur’an was revealedand thereby underlining the “performative” (p.15) nature of the relationshipbetween the Qur’an and the society.No verse is more problematic, in the sense that it offends contemporarysensibilities and is quite difficult to reconcile with an egalitarian worldviewwhen dealing with gender issues, than Q. 4:34, which allows the husband todiscipline his wife if he deems her guilty of nushūz (e.g., disobedience, intransigence,sexual lewdness, aloofness, dislike or hatred of himself). AyeshaChaudhry undertakes a study of this challenging verse by engaging the corpusof literature in Arabic from the classical period to the seventeenth century; shealso includes Urdu and English sources for the post-colonial period.She starts off by relating her personal journey from a state of discomfortand puzzlement when she first came across this verse in middle school to adefensive posture in trying to convince herself by invoking the Prophet’scompassion toward his wives and in cherishing the idea that the Qur’an gavemore rights to women than either the Hebrew Bible or the New Testament.She began a more rigorous and nuanced study of this verse after equippingherself with the necessary academic tools and analytic skills during her universitystudies. Frustrated with the shallow responses and the scholars’ circumspectionas regards any creative and novel reading of the verse for fearof losing their status in the community, she decided to do so herself with thehope of discovering views that would promote an egalitarian reading ...

James Bryce and the Australian Constitution

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-200
Author(s):  
Stephen Gageler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Judicial Review ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Constitution ◽  
Constitutional Development ◽  
Practical Operation ◽  
Responsible Government ◽  
Shed Light

James Bryce was a contemporary of Albert Venn Dicey. Bryce published in 1888 The American Commonwealth. Its detailed description of the practical operation of the United States Constitution was influential in the framing of the Australian Constitution in the 1890s. The project of this article is to shed light on that influence. The article compares and contrasts the views of Bryce and of Dicey; Bryce's views, unlike those of Dicey, having been largely unexplored in contemporary analyses of our constitutional development. It examines the importance of Bryce's views on two particular constitutional mechanisms – responsible government and judicial review – to the development of our constitutional structure. The ongoing theoretical implications of The American Commonwealth for Australian constitutional law remain to be pondered.

I. The Northern Ireland Peace Agreement, Minority Rights and Self-Determination

1998 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 943-950 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Warbrick ◽  
Dominic McGoldrick ◽  
Geoff Gilbert
Keyword(s):  
Northern Ireland ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Religious Affiliation ◽  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
The Other ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Peace Agreement ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
The Right

The Northern Ireland Peace Agreement1 was concluded following multi-party negotiations on Good Friday, 10 April 1998. It received 71 per cent approval in Northern Ireland and 95 per cent approval in the Republic of Ireland in the subsequent referenda held on Friday 22 May, the day after Ascension. To some, it must have seemed that the timing was singularly appropriate following 30 years of “The Troubles”, which were perceived as being between a “Catholic minority” and a “Protestant majority”. While there are some minority groups identified by their religious affiliation that do require rights relating only to their religion, such as the right to worship in community,2 to practise and profess their religion,3 to legal recognition as a church,4 to hold property5 and to determine its own membership,6 some minority groups identified by their religious affiliation are properly national or ethnic minorities–religion is merely one factor which distinguishes them from the other groups, including the majority, in the population. One example of the latter situation is to be seen in (Northern) Ireland where there is, in fact, untypically, a double minority: the Catholic-nationalist community is a minority in Northern Ireland, but the Protestant-unionist population is a minority in the island of Ireland as a whole.7 The territory of Northern Ireland is geographically separate from the rest of the United Kingdom. The recent peace agreement addresses a whole range of issues for Northern Ireland, but included are, on the one hand, rights for the populations based on their religious affiliation, their culture and their language and, on the other, rights with respect to their political participation up to the point of external self-determination. It is a holistic approach. Like any good minority rights agreement,8 it deals with both standards and their implementation and, like any good minority rights agreement, it is not a minority rights agreement but, rather, a peace settlement.

“Serbs” in Bela krajina: a (deliberately) forgotten minority?

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 178-194
Author(s):  
Romana Bešter ◽  
Miran Komac ◽  
Mojca Medvešek ◽  
Janez Pirc
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Border Region ◽  
National Minority ◽  
Minority Status ◽  
Small Community ◽  
Minority Protection ◽  
National Minorities

There are three constitutionally recognized national/ethnic minorities in Slovenia: the Italians, the Hungarians and the Roma. In addition, there are other ethnic groups that could perhaps be considered as “autochthonous” national minorities in line with Slovenia's understanding of this concept. Among them is a small community of “Serbs” – the successors of the Uskoks living in Bela krajina, a border region of Slovenia. In this article we present results of a field research that focused on the following question: Can the “Serb” community in Bela krajina be considered a national minority? On the basis of the objective facts, it could be said that the “Serbs” in four Bela krajina villages are a potential national minority, but with regard to their modest social vitality and the fact that they do not express their desire for minority status, the realization of special minority protection is questionable.

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