Ethnic Identity And Minority Protection

In Ethnic Identity and Minority Protection: Designation, Discrimination, and Brutalization, Thomas W. Simon examines a new framework for considering ethnic conflicts. In contrast to the more traditional theories of justice, Simon’s theory of injustice shifts focus away from group identity toward group harms, effectively making many problems, such as how to define minorities in international law, dramatically more manageable. Simon argues that instead of promoting legislative devices like proportional representation for minorities, it is more fruitful to seek adjudicative solutions to racial and ethnic-related conflicts. For example, resources could be shifted to quasi-judicial human-rights treaty bodies that have adopted an injustice approach. This injustice approach provides the foundation for Kosovo’s case for remedial secession, and helps to sort out the competing entitlement claims of Malays in different countries. Indeed, the priority of Thomas W. Simon’s Ethnic Identity and Minority Protection is to ensure the tales of designation and discrimination told at the beginning of the work do not become the stories of brutalization told at the end. In short, the challenge tackled in this text is to assure that reason reigns over hate.

The Second Edition of this award-winning volume in the field of language rights and language policy is a timely and useful revision of its core arguments and examples, addressing new theoretical and empirical developments since its initial publication.

This edited volume sets out to unravel various dimensions of a particular topical question pertaining to minorities and minority protection, which has not been explored yet, more particularly the socio-economic participation of minorities in relation to their right to (respect for) identity. This interrelation and interaction is studied from a multi-disciplinary perspective, spanning a broad range of disciplines, while drawing on a rich variety of case studies covering various corners of the world. This interrelation manifests itself in distinctive ways for religious minorities, ethnic minorities, and indigenous peoples. As it is impossible to provide a comprehensive coverage, this volume aims to offer a range of articles that reveal the breadth of the theme under review, while combining theoretical analysis with fascinating case studies.

In Identity Captured by Law, Sébastien Grammond explains how minority rights make identity legally relevant, providing a detailed account of struggles that have been fought concerning Indian status and admission to minority-language schools. Setting his analysis of the law in the wider interdisciplinary context of anthropology and political theory, Grammond assesses whether a group's membership rules are an accurate reflection of their ethnicity and are based on sound justifications of minority rights. He argues that membership rules do not violate equality rights if there is sufficient correspondence between the legal criteria that determine membership and the group's own cultural or relational conceptions of their ethnic identity. Comprehensive, interdisciplinary, and original in its comparison of indigenous peoples and linguistic minorities, Identity Captured by Law is an invaluable resource for legal and political scholars and students, as well as anyone interested in the controversies surrounding the legal recognition of identity.

This report, Minority Rights: The Key to Conflict Prevention, cogently argues that an understanding of minority rights is essential for anyone dealing with conflict prevention and resolution. The report’s authors, Clive Baldwin, Chris Chapman and Zoë Gray, demonstrate the strong links between minority rights violations and the outbreak of major conflicts, drawing on research carried out in China, India, Iraq, Kosovo, Nicaragua, the Philippines and Sudan, among other states. MRG’s report shows how minority rights violations are often warning signs of an approaching conflict. This new report looks at five themes: minority identity, the ability of minorities to participate in political and economic life, land/property rights and justice issues. Using case studies and providing practical advice, the authors show why ignoring early warning signs in any of these areas could lead to a build up of tensions and ultimately, violent conflict. The international community’s record on minority rights and conflict prevention is examined and found wanting. The report concludes with a checklist and a series of recommendations aimed at international bodies working on conflict prevention and resolution.

Examines questions of allegiance and identity in a globalised world through the disciplines of law, politics, philosophy and psychology.

Is the use of mechanisms that only focus on the protection of individual human rights sufficient to protect the cultural identity of minorities? Much more can be achieved by adopting a system that applies the principles of equality and non-discrimination, and encompasses the recognition of a collective right to cultural identity. Culture and cultural identity are indeed important for the identification of groups and ethnicity. But are the Roma an ethnic group? Are they a minority? In answering these questions, Italy is used as a case study to illustrate the limits of non-discrimination provisions and the need to recognise the collective right to cultural identity.

This publication is the first version of the World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples, published in 1997. The full Directory is now available and continually updated on our website. The large majority of violent conflicts in the world today are conflicts within states, with groups polarized across ethnic and religious divides and not across borders. Ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities are often among the poorest of the poor, suffer discrimination and are frequently the victims of human rights abuses. Time and time again in the past, the United Nations system, governments and even non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in the field of ‘conflict prevention’ have failed to promote the human rights of minorities or to take early action to promote cooperation between communities. Early action may have prevented the loss of millions of lives in many countries, ranging from Rwanda to the former Yugoslavia, and from Sri Lanka to Guatemala. It is also significant that the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the Dalai Lama in 1989 and to Jose´ Ramos-Horta and Bishop Carlos Belo in1996 as a result of their peaceful campaigns to promote the rights of their people. The situation of minorities is, then, a matter of major concern, and it is essential that accurate, objective and up-to-date information is made available. This Directory contributes to that process. It is difficult to assess accurately what proportion of the world’s population identify themselves as belonging to minority communities. Conservative estimates place this above 10 per cent, and some suggest that more than 20 per cent of the world’s population belongs to several thousand different minority groups and subgroups. National statistics are often skewed for political reasons, and there is no universally accepted definition of ‘minorities’. The word has different interpretations in different societies throughout the world, while the United Nations General Assembly has not sought to reach a definition beyond that implied in the title of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities adopted in December 1992. Minority Rights Group focuses its work on non-dominant ethnic, religious and linguistic communities, whether or not they are numerical minorities. The concept thus relates to any self-identified community that is marginalized, without power, unable to take decisions over its destiny and often experiencing high levels of illiteracy, under-education and overt or covert discrimination. The basic rights of such communities need protection and promotion. There is, however, a danger of generalizing about minorities and forgetting the complexity of their social composition, including the rural poor, urban migrants, older people, women and children. These groups may be considered as doubly vulnerable. What makes their situation particularly problematic is that there is often a deliberate political policy on the part of majorities and states not to give due regard to the legitimate interests of minorities, while members of minorities see their identity as central to their social and economic situation. They are often excluded from political power and decision-making in the development process, without equal opportunities to secure a better quality of life. One further danger may lie in regarding ethnicities as fixed, rather than as the potentially fluid phenomena that they often are. ‘Situational ethnicity’ does occur, and individuals and groups do modify their self-identifications depending on circumstances. Please note that the terminology in the fields of minority rights and indigenous peoples’ rights has changed over time. MRG strives to reflect these changes as well as respect the right to self-identification on the part of minorities and indigenous peoples. At the same time, after over 50 years’ work, we know that our archive is of considerable interest to activists and researchers. Therefore, we make available as much of our back catalogue as possible, while being aware that the language used may not reflect current thinking on these issues.