International Protection Of Minorities

This volume examines minority protection in international law. Its task is twofold: to examine existing methods of minority protection, and to analyse the underlying justifications of minority protection as reflected in international legal standards and discourse. Part I outlines the theoretical framework; Part II addresses minority protection and its justifications in the League of Nations, the Council of Europe, the OSCE and the United Nations. Finally, the author argues that it is possible to develop a working holistic approach to minority protection combining protection of peace, human dignity and culture.

The issue of minority rights continues to occupy a sensitive position in international law. Historical as well as contemporary events show that the subject is also capable of engulfing the international community as a whole. The contention of the present study is that international law is in itself a difficult medium for providing adequate rights for minorities and for effectively safeguarding those rights. This volume analyses the weaknesses in the international protection of minority rights through a detailed examination of the practices and policies of Pakistan. Thought-provoking and original in its approach, this volume will prove to be of enormous value to international human rights lawyers and to scholars engaged in the study of minority rights in South-Asia and Pakistan.

The revival of group consciousness in Eastern European countries in the wake of the Cold War has put the protection of subnational groups high on the political agenda. The present book bears witness to the renewed interest in the legal position of subnational groups in international law. This book and the Conference, at which provisional versions of most of the contributions were presented, originate in perceived deficiencies of contemporary international law to protect subnational groups within a legal framework of which the principal subjects are states. Divided into three parts, the book commences with an analysis of the antagonistic relation between the right of peoples to self-determination and the right of states to territorial integrity, and the need to redefine these concepts in the post-Cold War era. The book continues with the highly controversial issue of the attribution of rights to subnational groups and the identification of subnational groups which would be entitled to such rights. The second part deals with the identification and protection of peoples and minorities at different levels of organization, viz. subnational, national and supranational. This part is followed by an analysis of the modes and means by which international obligations vis-à-vis subnational groups can be enforced. Not only the judicial means are considered, but also the justifiability of recourse to military means to the cause of subnational groups. This book not only provides an in-depth analysis of contemporary international law with respect to the protection of peoples and minorities, but also of the law as it is developing in the post-Cold War era.

We live in a world that not only sets standards for, but also professes its commitment to promoting and protecting ‘rights’. Since ours is an age of heightened public interest in auditing the actual realisation of such standards and commitment, the first major focus of this book is a critical account of international standards aimed at the protection of minorities. To that end, it concentrates on four key dimensions. Firstly, it addresses the issue of the identification of minorities as understood by international law. Secondly, it outlines a brief history on the development of international law towards improving the protection of minorities. Thirdly, it gives an overview of international instruments and mechanisms on minorities. Finally, it analyses the rights of minorities under international standards. All these dimensions point to the fact that international minority rights lag behind the development of other branches of rights. The second major focus of this book is to relate international standards on minority protection to South Asian regimes. Concentrating on India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, the Maldives, and Afghanistan, an endeavor is made to examine the state of minorities and their protection under the domestic regimes. It emerges that the normative commitments of these states are more or less compatible with international standards. Nevertheless, majority-minority syndrome persistently remains as one of the causes behind multidimensional deprivation and victimization of South Asian minorities. The present book also assesses the extent to which regional cooperation in South Asia has so far contributed to extending protection to minorities. This ends with an argument that SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) has the potential to play a far greater role in this regard.

Minority protection is integral to a civilised standard of internal good governance. The goal of promoting friendly inter-group relations within states highlights the linkages between constitutionalism and the extending reach of international law in shaping domestic governance and structuring relations between the state, non-state communities and individuals. While law per se cannot guarantee the security and integrity of minority groups, law and legal institutions play a role in promoting a tolerant and pluralistic environment and a multicultural ethos that appreciates, rather than resents, ethno-cultural diversity. This book is a comprehensive, modern study of the important field of international protection of minority rights, focusing on 20th century developments. Minority rights regimes, which address the issue of group identity and autonomy, have essentially been a stabilising force, buttressing state survivability in the face of claims to self-determination or secession. These serve to promote the peaceful co-existence of distinct ethno-cultural groups, captured by the metaphor of ‘Babel’, within existing states. Despite overlaps, the content of minority protection is more modest than the claim of indigenous groups for collective rights or peoples’ rights to self-determination. As part of the contemporary corpus of human rights norms, minority protection may be appreciated as an aspect of the evolving content of the ‘internal’ dimension of the right to self-determination. Chapter 1 introduces some key definitional and conceptual problems in the field of minority protection and presents a brief historical review of international approaches up to 1919. Chapter 2 discusses the League of Nations era. Chapter 3 examines approaches towards minority protection after World War Two as reflected in the drafting of the United Nations Charter and efforts to protect minorities outside the UN regime. In this period, discussed in Chapters 4 and 5, minorities' issues remained largely submerged within the UN project of promoting universal individual human rights. Chapter 6 addresses the post-1989 revival in minorities' issues within the UN; Chapter 7 offers a succinct overview of what might be considered a parallel history with respect to the development of regional human rights schemes and what these afford to minority protection, closing with concluding observations. Meticulously researched, this volume offers a valuable synthesis of this important but often heart-breaking field.