Emerging European Standards of Minority Protection through Soft Jurisprudence?

Author(s):  
Emma Lantschner
2008 ◽  
Vol 15 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 413-425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bill Bowring

AbstractThis review essay questions whether European standards for the protection of minorities are “a major historical achievement”. Two questions are posed. Why has this development taken place in Europe? Why has it taken place since 1990? These questions are answered in the light of the historical and political context. After a brief account of the extraordinary experiment in minority rights protection in the inter-War period, the review turns to the origins of the Council and of the OSCE in the Cold War, and comments on the legitimacy and efficacy of these texts and mechanisms.


Sociologija ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 53 (4) ◽  
pp. 417-432
Author(s):  
Nada Raduski

Recent political changes in states founded on the territory of the former Yugoslavia have resulted in profound changes in relation to minorities. The factual status of Serbian minorities in the neighboring countries has been influenced by various circumstances - demographic, political, legal, historical, etc. Outside Serbia, in former Yugoslav republics there are nearly half a million persons belonging to Serbian nationality who have the status of national minority. Although their social and legal status is defined according to European standards of minority protection, closer analysis points to a rather unfavorable status of Serbian minorities. A reason for such a situation may also be found in the poorly designed and insufficiently organized policy of the homeland country. Bilateral treaties are a way to protect more efficiently compatriots in other countries, as well as an efficient mechanism for better integration of minorities in all fields of social life in the territorial country. Minorities? rights stipulated in most bilateral treaties are the right to ethnic identity, linguistic rights, right to education, media rights, etc.


2010 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-166
Author(s):  
Vesna Stankovic-Pejnovic

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.


2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 178-192
Author(s):  
Roberta Medda-Windischer

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. 


Author(s):  
Bashkim Selmani ◽  
Bekim Maksuti

The profound changes within the Albanian society, including Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia, before and after they proclaimed independence (in exception of Albania), with the establishment of the parliamentary system resulted in mass spread social negative consequences such as crime, drugs, prostitution, child beggars on the street etc. As a result of these occurred circumstances emerged a substantial need for changes within the legal system in order to meet and achieve the European standards or behaviors and the need for adoption of many laws imported from abroad, but without actually reading the factual situation of the psycho-economic position of the citizens and the consequences of the peoples’ occupations without proper compensation, as a remedy for the victims of war or peace in these countries. The sad truth is that the perpetrators not only weren’t sanctioned, but these regions remained an untouched haven for further development of criminal activities, be it from the public state officials through property privatization or in the private field. The organized crime groups, almost in all cases, are perceived by the human mind as “Mafia” and it is a fact that this cannot be denied easily. The widely spread term “Mafia” is mostly known around the world to define criminal organizations.The Balkan Peninsula is highly involved in these illegal groups of organized crime whose practice of criminal activities is largely extended through the Balkan countries such as Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Montenegro, etc. Many factors contributed to these strategic countries to be part of these types of activities. In general, some of the countries have been affected more specifically, but in all of the abovementioned countries organized crime has affected all areas of life, leaving a black mark in the history of these states.


Author(s):  
Nina Batechko

The article outlines the conceptual framework for adapting Ukrainian higher education to the Standards and Recommendations for Quality Assurance in the European higher education area. The role of the Bologna Declaration in ensuring the quality of higher education in Europe has been explained. The conceptual foundations and the essence of standards and recommendations on quality assurance in the European higher education area have been defined. The Ukrainian realities of the adaptation of higher education of Ukraine to the educational European standards of quality have been characterized.


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