National minority

Back in 1935, the Permanent Chamber of International Justice indicated that “the existence of minorities is a matter of fact, not law,” in the case of minority schools in Albania . ^[3]

A vague indication of the essence of a national minority is contained in paragraph 32 of the 1990 CSCE document of Copenhagen ^[4] - “The person's belonging to a national minority is the subject of his personal choice”. The first CSCE / OSCE Commissioner for National Minorities, Max van der Stoel , explained the concept: “I will not offer you my own [definition]. However, I would like to note that the existence of a minority is a matter of fact, not definition. (...) I dare say that I recognize a minority when I see it. First, a minority is a group that is distinguished from most by linguistic, ethnic, or cultural characteristics. Secondly, a minority is a group that usually not only seeks to maintain its identity, but also tries to give this identity a stronger expression. ” ^[five]

Russian Federation

International documents and legislation of the Russian Federation do not contain a definition of a national minority ^[6] , although it is mentioned as in international documents on the protection of human rights, for example, in Art. 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and in the Constitution of Russia (Articles 71, 72 - it is interesting that in them the protection of the rights of national minorities refers both to the jurisdiction of the federation and to the joint conduct of the federation and its subjects).

Ukraine

The legislation of Ukraine classifies national minorities as “groups of citizens of Ukraine who are not Ukrainians by nationality , show feelings of national identity and community among themselves.” ^[7]

Estonia

The Estonian Cultural Autonomy Act defines the national minority as “ Estonian citizens who live in Estonia, have long-standing, strong and permanent ties with Estonia, differ from Estonians in their ethnicity, cultural identity, religion or language, guided by the desire to preserve common efforts their cultural traditions, religion or language, which serve as the basis for their common identity. ” ^[eight]

Latvia

Latvia, upon ratification of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, recognized as national minorities “ Latvian citizens who differ from Latvians on the basis of culture, religion and language, have traditionally lived in Latvia for generations ^[9] and consider themselves to belong to the Latvian state and society, they wish to preserve and develop your culture, religion or language. ” ^[ten]

Moldova

The Moldovan law says that “persons belonging to national minorities are understood to be persons permanently residing in the Republic of Moldova, being its citizens, having ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious characteristics that distinguish them from the majority of the Moldovan population, and who recognize themselves as persons of a different ethnic origin. " ^[eleven]

In order to identify ethnic groups in Western Europe , a group of comparative sociological studies of the University of Helsinki conducted a comprehensive survey in 1975, during which it identified four main criteria for ethnic minorities:

• self-identification as such;
• origin;
• clearly defined cultural characteristics, primarily the presence of a common language ;
• the existence of a social organization that allows interaction within the minority and with other groups of the population. ^[2]

At the same time, the Helsinki University group gave preference in their work not to the numerical composition of a particular foreign language group, but to social and behavioral characteristics. ^[2]

Initially, the rights of minorities were enshrined in the legislation of individual countries (1867 - Article 19 of the Basic Law on the Rights of Citizens of Austria ^[12] ) and bilateral agreements between the country where a specific minority was located and the country-patroness of the minority, being one of the first in the international system human rights. This practice expanded into multilateral relations after the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-1878 (see: 1878 Berlin Treaty on the Religious Rights of Minorities). After the Versailles Peace Treaty , the establishment of the League of Nations and the Permanent Court of International Justice, and the conclusion rights in Europe have generally strengthened: this is evidenced by the sentences of the PMSC on cases of minority schools in Albania and Poland, and the assignment of autonomy to the Åland Islands. In addition to the Minority Treaties associated with the League of Nations, the rights of national minorities were also stipulated in the Soviet-Polish Riga Treaty (Article VII), in special treaties between Latvia and Estonia ^[13] , Lithuania and Latvia ^[14] . A striking exception against this background is the violent Greek-Turkish "population exchange" according to the Lausanne Peace Treaty .

In anticipation and at the beginning of World War II, minority rights were used as justification for the redistribution of borders in favor of Germany (Sudetenland - the Munich Agreement ) and Hungary (Northern Transylvania, southern Slovakia and Carpathian Russia - Vienna Arbitration ). Axis countries pursued a policy of genocide of Jews and Gypsies ; the rights of “suspicious” national minorities in the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition (Japanese in the USA and Canada , Germans and others in the USSR ) were noticeably limited. At the end of the war, the victorious powers allowed or carried out large-scale deportations of Germans (see: Benes Decrees ) and, to a lesser extent, Hungarians.

The proposal to include the rights of national minorities in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights met with opposition from the United States, France, Australia, Chile, Brazil, although some Western countries (Denmark, Belgium) and the socialist USSR, Poland and Yugoslavia, and India alone advocated from the first representatives of the "third world" in the UN. As a result, minority rights as such were outside the declaration, although it condemned discrimination. The rationale for the accepted position was, in particular, an individualistic understanding of human rights. ^[15]

Certain guarantees of the rights of national minorities in the UN legal system during the Cold War era, however, provided Art. 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1966 ^[16] , the convention against genocide (adopted in 1948, almost simultaneously with the UDHR), apartheid and racial discrimination.

The surge in the development of the rights of national minorities as such, especially in Europe, occurred in 1990-1995, when ethnic conflicts erupted in Rwanda, in the territories of the former USSR and the SFRY. The UN General Assembly adopted a declaration on the rights of persons belonging to national minorities. The CSCE created the post of High Commissioner for National Minorities , which made a number of recommendations on their rights. All these documents, however, are soft law (recommendatory, indicating norms for development).

The Council of Europe, along with soft law, also adopted binding treaties - the Charter of Regional Languages ​​in 1992 and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in 1995 (both entered into force in 1998); In 1994, the CIS countries adopted the Convention on Ensuring the Rights of Persons Belonging to National Minorities. ^[17] They, however, do not provide for the consideration of individual complaints, unlike the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights, some of which are also used to protect minority rights (see, for example, the famous Belgian linguistic case in ECHR ^[18] and the case of the Quebec Charter of the French Language in the UN HRC ^[19] ). For this moderation, the Framework Convention was immediately criticized by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe itself after its adoption. ^[20]

France

The French Constitutional Council did not allow ratification of the European Charter for Regional Languages ; France is the only EU country that has not signed the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.

In joining the ICCPR , France made a declaration: “8. In the light of Article 2 of the Constitution of the French Republic , the French Government declares that Article 27 does not apply to the extent that it affects the Republic. ” ^[21] Her position is specified in the reports on the implementation of the ICCPR: “France is a country without minorities” (1997 ^[22] ) and “constitutional considerations do not allow France to accede to international conventions that recognize minorities as such and as carriers of collective is right ”(2007 ^[23] ). The UN HRC claims that France should reconsider its position on the official recognition of ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities. ^[24]

North Korea

North Korea, in a report on the implementation of the ICCPR, states that “DPRK is a country of one and only one nation. Therefore, the issue of minorities in the DPRK does not exist ” ^[25]

• Yuryev S. S. Annotation, foreword, table of contents // Legal status of national minorities (theoretical and legal aspects). URSS, 2000.
• Boden M. Nationalitäten, Minderheiten und ethnische Konflikte in Europa. München: Olzog Verlag , 1993. ISBN 3-7892-8640-0 .
• Maninger S. Ethnische Konflikte entlang der Entwicklungsperipherie. // Ordo Inter Nationes 6, Juni 1998, Institut für internationale Politik und Völkerrecht, München
• The Rights of Minorities in Europe / Ed. M. Weller. - Oxford: 2005
• Thornberry P. International Law and the Rights of Minorities. - Oxford: Clarendon Press , 1994

Documents "soft law"

• United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities
  • Commentary on the Declaration
• Recommendations of the United Nations Forum on Minority Rights (English) , 2008
• General Comment of the Human Rights Committee No. 23. “Article 27” , UN
• Recommendation 1255 (1995) on the protection of the rights of national minorities , PACE
• Thematic recommendations of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities
• UNESCO Universal Declaration of Language Rights

Interstate organizations

• OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities
• PACE Sub-Commission on Minority Rights
• European Center for Minority Rights , Germany — Denmark
• Independent Expert on Minority Issues and the Forum on Minority Issues , UN
• Minority Rights in the UN System

International NGOs

• Organization of European Minorities
• Minority Rights Group International
• CEDIME-SE

Catalogs

• A set of links on the topic of national minorities on the Council of Europe portal
• Selection of international instruments
• Minority Rights in Post-Socialist Countries of Europe
• National minorities on the website of Human Rights in Russia
• Ethnic, national minorities and indigenous peoples on hri.ru

Academic Institutions, Research

• Institute for Minority Rights, European Academy of Bolzano
• Blishchenko I., Abashidze A. Rights of national minorities in the light of world experience , 1992
• Tishkov V. A. What are “national minorities”? , 2002
• Kocharyan V.V. National minorities and their protection in international law , 1995
• Tsilevich B. EU Enlargement and the Protection of National Minorities: Opportunities, Myths, and Prospects
• National minorities // Lecture by S. Sokolovsky in the Post-Science project (05/02/2013)