The “Fate of Minorities” in the Early Afro-Asian Struggle for Decolonization

2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. 340-346
Author(s):  
Cindy Ewing
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Asian Group ◽  
Group A ◽  
International Human ◽  
Self Rule ◽  
Transnational Solidarity

Abstract This article explores the significance of minority rights to postcolonial internationalism by examining an emerging Afro-Asian collective at the United Nations in the late 1940s. As postcolonial nations became UN member-states, they fostered transnational solidarity through the Arab-Asian group, a predecessor of the Afro-Asian bloc, and constructed an anti-imperial project that directly engaged with the making of the new international human rights system. However, the Arab-Asian group did not advance minority rights in their struggle for decolonization at the UN. Instead, they favored a gradual path toward formal self-rule and the recognition of national self-determination that worked within the international order, most clearly expressed through the removal of a minority rights article in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Minority as inferiority: minority rights in historical perspective

2008 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 243-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANDRE LIEBICH
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
International Treaties ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Regime ◽  
International Human ◽  
The Right

AbstractThis article argues that minority rights developed as an indemnity offered to defeated parties. As a grudging and begrudged calculus of compensation, considered inadequate by the vanquished and offensive by the victors, minority rights have been unable to compete in terms of legitimacy with either an increasingly robust international human rights regime or with the right of national self-determination. After reviewing some explanations for the weakness of the existing minority rights regime, this article traces the rationale of what may be described anachronistically as minority rights provisions in international treaties from the Peace of Westphalia to the Versailles settlement, concluding with a consideration of present-day implications of the argument elaborated here.

Examining the Suitability of the International Minority Rights Regime as an Avenue for Advancing Self-Determination Claims

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 675-727
Author(s):  
Rhys Carvosso
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Negotiation Process ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
International Human ◽  
The Right

The international legal right of all ‘peoples’ to self-determination applies indeterminately to minority groups. The limited jurisprudence tends toward an ‘internal’ dimension of the right being available to minorities, to be exercised and negotiated domestically. However, where a state-minority negotiation process fails, the international law of self-determination is inadequate to resolve the ensuing deadlock. Accordingly, this article examines the suitability of minority protections under international human rights law (‘minority rights’) as a supplementary set of rules by which disputes concerning the self-determination of minorities might be resolved. It argues that owing to the strong conceptual and doctrinal overlap between the two areas, the enforcement of minority rights is a suitable strategy for advancing a self-determination claim. However, two bars within existing international human rights enforcement procedures – the non-justiciability of self-determination, and the requirement that complainants must be “victims of a violation” – substantially reduce the utility of this strategy at present.

scholarly journals Refugee Protection as Human Rights Protection: International Principles and Practice in India

Refuge ◽  
1997 ◽  
pp. 39-44
Author(s):  
Brian Gorlick ◽  
Sumbul Rimi Khan
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Human Rights Protection ◽  
Refugee Protection ◽  
National Human ◽  
International Human ◽  
The United Nations

This article focuses on the relationship between international human rights standards and refugee protection. The foundational status of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other human rights treaties are surveyed in light of India's international legal obligations. The authors argue that international human rights law and practice have had a significant impact on the protection activities of the Ofice of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) both in countries of asylum, countries of origin and in relation to the United Nations and other human rights actors. In this context, courts and national human rights institutions are important players in safeguarding the rights of refugees. As none of the countries of South Asia is party to the international refugee instruments nor have any of them adopted a national refugee law or procedure, the activities of the Indian National Human Rights Commission stand out as a positive example of national institution expanding the legal protection of refugees in the region.

scholarly journals Democracy and the Preservation of Minority Identity: Fragmentation within the European Human Rights Framework

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 205-228
Author(s):  
Stephanie E. Berry
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Council Of Europe ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Minority Identity ◽  
European Court ◽  
International Human ◽  
Different Origins ◽  
Historical Origins ◽  
Institutional Fragmentation

The international human rights (ihr) and international minority rights (imr) regimes have very different origins. However, the two regimes converged in the 20th century, and imr are now understood to be a sub-regime of ihr. This article argues that the different historical origins of the two regimes impact how actors within each regime interpret their mission, and have resulted in institutional fragmentation within the Council of Europe. The mission of the European Court of Human Rights is the promotion and protection of democracy, whereas the Advisory Committee to the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minority’s mission is the preservation of minority identity. In practice, this has led to conflicting interpretations of multi-sourced equivalent norms. It is suggested that inter-institutional dialogue provides an avenue through which these conflicting interpretations can be mediated.

18. The right to self-determination

2019 ◽  
pp. 330-347
Author(s):  
Rhona K. M. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Human Rights Law ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Territorial Integrity ◽  
The Future ◽  
International Human ◽  
The Right

This chapter examines the right to self-determination in international human rights law. It traces the origins of this right and considers issues characterizing the current debate on the future of self-determination. The chapter suggests that while self-determination is acceptable for divesting States of colonial powers, problems can arise when groups that are not the sole occupants of a State territory choose to exercise self-determination. The right to self-determination may sit uneasily with respect for territorial integrity of States. Various forms of modern self-determination, including partial or full autonomy within States are emerging.

Art.32 International Cooperation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lord Janet E ◽  
Stein Michael Ashley
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
United Nations ◽  
International Cooperation ◽  
Environmental Law ◽  
Inclusive Development ◽  
Treaty Rights ◽  
International Human Rights ◽  
Persons With Disabilities ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
International Human

This chapter examines Article 32 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which deals with the issue of international cooperation. The provision on international cooperation in the CRPD sprang from framework conventions in the international criminal and environmental law spheres, where such provisions are ubiquitous, rather than from prior human rights treaty practice. Article 32 was thus a highly contentious text to negotiate due to the far more limited meaning ascribed to the term ‘international cooperation’ in other international human rights instruments. Article 32 sits holistically within the CRPD framework, and is thus informed by its principles and general obligations, and should be read in conjunction with the specific, substantive rights of the remainder of the treaty. Rights and duties in the CRPD hang together; discerning the meaning of disability inclusive development cannot be achieved by examining any one provision in isolation.

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