View source for Minority rights

{{Short description|Rights of members of minority groups}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2021}}
{{Rights |By claimant}}

'''Minority rights''' are the normal [[Individual and group rights|individual rights]] as applied to members of racial, [[ethnic]], [[social class|class]], [[minority religion|religious]], [[minority language|linguistic]] or [[LGBT|gender and sexual minorities]], and also the [[collective rights]] accorded to any [[minority group]].

[[Civil rights movements|Civil-rights movements]] often seek to ensure that individual rights are not denied on the basis of membership in a minority group. Such civil-rights advocates include the global [[women's rights|women's-rights]] and global [[LGBT rights|LGBT-rights]] movements, and various racial-minority rights movements around the world (such as the [[Civil Rights Movement]] in the [[United States]]).

Issues of minority rights intersect with debates over historical redress<ref>
For example:
{{cite book
 | last1 = Yoneyama
 | first1 = Lisa
 | title = Cold War Ruins: Transpacific Critique of American Justice and Japanese War Crimes
 | date = 15 September 2016
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=jI4BDQAAQBAJ
 | location = Durham, North Carolina
 | publisher = Duke University Press
 | publication-date = 2016
 | isbn = 9780822374114
 | access-date = 26 September 2020
 | quote = The link between memories, historical redress and efforts to extend and secure minority rights is best expressed in the 1988 proposal for the Law Pertaining to Postwar Reparations and the Guarantee of Human Rights for Resident Aliens from Former Colonies [...].
}}
</ref> or over [[positive discrimination]].<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Barten
 | first1 = Ulrike
 | chapter = Minority Rights
 | title = Minorities, Minority Rights and Internal Self-Determination
 | date = 23 September 2014
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=7OaZBAAAQBAJ
 | location = Cham, Zug
 | publisher = Springer
 | publication-date = 2014
 | page = 153
 | isbn = 9783319088761
 | access-date = 26 September 2020
 | quote = While discrimination is generally frowned upon[,] special treatment, also called affirmative action or positive discrimination, for certain groups is not unknown.
}}
</ref>

==History==
Prior to the [[Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920)]], the term "minority" primarily referred to political parties in national legislatures, not ethnic, national, linguistic or religious groups.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Robson |first=Laura |date=2021 |title=Capitulations Redux: The Imperial Genealogy of the Post–World War I "Minority" Regimes |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ahr/rhab358 |journal=The American Historical Review |volume=126 |issue=3 |pages=978–1000 |doi=10.1093/ahr/rhab358 |issn=0002-8762|url-access=subscription }}</ref> The Paris Conference has been attributed with coining the concept of minority rights and bringing prominence to it.<ref name=":0" />

The issue of minority rights was first raised in 1814, at the [[Congress of Vienna]], which discussed the fate of German [[Jew]]s and especially of the [[Polish people|Poles]] who were once again partitioned up.  The Congress expressed hope that [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]], [[Russian Empire|Russia]], and [[Austrian Empire|Austria]] would grant tolerance and protection to their minorities, which ultimately they disregarded, engaging in organized discrimination.

The 1856 [[Congress of Paris]] paid special attention to the status of Jews and [[Christians]] in the [[Ottoman Empire]]. In Britain, [[William Ewart Gladstone|William Gladstone]] made the massacres of [[Bulgarians]] by the Ottoman Empire a major campaign issue and demanded international attention. The [[Congress of Berlin]] in 1878 dealt with the status of Jews in [[United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia|Romania]], especially, and also [[Principality of Serbia|Serbia]], and [[Principality of Bulgaria|Bulgaria]]. On the whole, the 19th-century congresses failed to impose significant reforms.

The first minority rights were proclaimed and enacted by the revolutionary Parliament of Hungary in July 1849.<ref>Laszlo Peter, Martyn C. Rady, Peter A. Sherwood: Lajos Kossuth sas word...: papers delivered on the occasion of the bicentenary of Kossuth's birth (page 101)</ref> Minority rights were codified in Austrian law in 1867.<ref>[http://www.verfassungen.de/at/stgg67-2.htm Staatsgrundgesetz vom 21. Dezember 1867 (R.G.Bl. 142/1867), über die allgemeinen Rechte der Staatsbürger für die im Reichsrate vertretenen Königreiche und Länder] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110807075910/http://www.verfassungen.de/at/stgg67-2.htm |date=7 August 2011 }} – see Article 19 {{in lang|de}}</ref>
Russia was especially active in protecting Orthodox Christians and Slavic peoples under the control of the Ottoman Empire.<ref>Denis Vovchenko, ''Containing Balkan Nationalism: Imperial Russia and Ottoman Christians, 1856–1914'' (Oxford University Press, 2016).</ref>  However the Russian government tolerated vicious [[pogrom]]s against Jews in its villages.  Russia was widely attacked for this policy.<ref>Irena Grosfeld, Seyhun Orcan Sakalli, and Ekaterina Zhuravskaya, "Middleman minorities and ethnic violence: anti-Jewish pogroms in the Russian empire." ''Review of Economic Studies'' 87.1 (2020): 289–342 [https://academic.oup.com/restud/article/87/1/289/5280103 online].</ref>  By contrast there was little or no international outrage regarding the treatment of other minorities, such as black people in the [[southern United States]] before the 1950s when African colonies became independent.<ref>Azza Salama Layton, ''International politics and civil rights policies in the United States, 1941–1960'' (Cambridge University Press, 2000).</ref>

Before the [[World War I]], only three European countries declared ethnic minority rights, and enacted minority-protecting laws: the first was Hungary (1849 and 1868), the second was Austria (1867), and the third was Belgium (1898). In the pre-WW1 era, the legal systems of other European countries did not allow the use of European minority languages in primary schools, in [[cultural institutions]], in offices of public administration and at the legal courts.<ref>Józsa Hévizi (2004): Autonomies in Hungary and Europe, A COMPARATIVE STUDY, The Regional and Ecclesiastic Autonomy of the Minorities and Nationality Groups [https://web.archive.org/web/20220319075337/http://hungarianhistory.com/lib/hevizi/hevizi.pdf]</ref>

===Minority rights at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919===
{{For|information about Minority rights at the Paris conference |Minority Treaties}}
At the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Versailles Peace Conference]] the Supreme Council established 'The Committee on New States and for The Protection of Minorities'. All the new successor states were compelled to sign minority rights treaties as a precondition of diplomatic recognition. It was agreed that although the new states had been recognized, they had not been 'created' before the signatures of the final peace treaties. The issue of German and Polish rights was a point of dispute as Polish rights in Germany remained unprotected, unlike the German minority in [[Poland]]. Like other principles adopted by the League, the Minorities Treaties were a part of the Wilsonian idealist approach to international relations; like the League itself, the Minority Treaties were increasingly ignored by the respective governments, with the entire system mostly collapsing in the late 1930s. Despite the political failure, they remained the basis of international law. After [[World War II]], the legal principles were incorporated in the UN Charter and a host of international human rights treaties.<ref>P. de  Azcarate, ''League of Nations and National Minorities'' (1945) [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.55314/page/n5/mode/2up online]</ref>

===International law===
{{LGBT rights sidebar}}

Minority rights, as applying to ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples, are an integral part of [[international human rights law]]. Like [[children's rights]], [[women's rights]] and [[refugee]] rights, minority rights are a legal framework designed to ensure that a specific group which is in a [[social vulnerability|vulnerable]], [[disadvantaged]] or [[social exclusion|marginalized]] position in society, is able to achieve equality and is protected from persecution. The first postwar international treaty to protect minorities, designed to protect them from the greatest threat to their existence, was the [[Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide]].

Subsequent [[human rights]] standards that codify minority rights include the [[International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights]] (Article 27), the [[United Nations]] [[Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities]], two [[Council of Europe]] treaties (the [[Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities]] and the [[European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages]]), and the [[Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe]] (OSCE) [[Copenhagen Declaration|Copenhagen Document]] of 1990.

Minority rights cover protection of existence, protection from discrimination and persecution, protection and promotion of identity, and participation in political life. For the rights of [[LGBT]] people, the [[Yogyakarta Principles]] have been approved by the [[United Nations Human Rights Council]]. For the rights of persons with [[disability|disabilities]], the [[Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities]] has been adopted by [[United Nations General Assembly]].

To protect minority rights, many countries have specific laws and/or commissions or [[ombudsman]] institutions (for example the Hungarian Parliamentary Commissioner for National and Ethnic Minorities Rights).<ref>{{cite web |url-status=dead |url=http://www.obh.hu/nekh/en/index.htm |title=Parliamentary Commissioner for the National and Ethnic Minorities Rights |website=Országgyűlési Biztos Hivatala |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070223215718/http://www.obh.hu/nekh/en/index.htm |archive-date=23 February 2007 }}</ref>

While initially, the United Nations treated [[indigenous peoples]] as a sub-category of minorities, there is an expanding body of international law specifically devoted to them, in particular [[Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention, 1989|Convention 169]] of the [[International Labour Organization]] and the UN [[Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples]] (adopted 14 September 2007).

In 2008, a declaration on LGBT rights was presented in the [[UN General Assembly]], and in 2011, an LGBT rights resolution was passed in the United Nations Human Rights Council (''See [[LGBT rights at the United Nations]]'').

There are many political bodies which also feature minority group rights, which might be seen in [[affirmative action]] quotas or in guaranteed minority representation in a [[consociational state]].

== National minorities in the law of the EC/EU ==
The direct role of the [[European Union]] (and also the law of the EU/EC) in the area of protection of national minorities is still very limited (likewise the general protection of human rights). The EU has relied on general [[international law]] and a European regional system of international law (based on the [[Council of Europe]], [[Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe]], etc.) and in a case of necessity accepted their norms. But the "de-economisation of European integration", which started in the 1990s, is changing this situation. The political relevance of national minorities' protection is very high.

Now (2009), although protection of the national minorities has not become a generally accepted legally binding principle of the EU, in several legal acts issues of national minorities are mentioned. In external relations protection of national minorities became one of the main criteria for cooperation with the EU or accession.<ref>{{cite journal |author-link1=Daniel Šmihula |first1=Daniel |last1=Šmihula |date=September 2008 |title=National Minorities in the Law of the EC/EU |journal =Romanian Journal of European Affairs |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=51–81 |url=http://ns.ier.ro/site/documente/rjea_pdf/RJEA_Vol8_No3_Sept2008.pdf |access-date=2011-08-23 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110823110657/http://ns.ier.ro/site/documente/rjea_pdf/RJEA_Vol8_No3_Sept2008.pdf |archive-date=23 August 2011}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Civil rights]]
*[[Individual and group rights]]
*[[Cultural rights]]
*[[Disability rights movement]]
*[[European Centre for Minority Issues]]
*[[Global Human Rights Defence]]
*[[Intersex human rights]]
*[[Linguistic rights]]
*[[Minority Rights Group International]]
*[[Minoritarianism]]
*[[Tyranny of the majority]]
*[[European Roma Rights Centre]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* Azcarate, P. de. ''League of Nations and National Minorities'' (1945) [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.55314/page/n5/mode/2up online]
* Barzilai, G. 2003. ''Communities and Law: Politics and Cultures of Legal Identities''. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
* Fink, Carole. 2006. ''Defending the Rights of Others: The Great Powers, the Jews, and International Minority Protection, 1878–1938''  [https://www.amazon.com/Defending-Rights-Others-International-Protection/dp/0521029945/  excerpt and text search]
* Henrard, K. 2000. ''Devising an Adequate System of Minority Protection: Individual Human Rights, Minority Rights, and the Right to Self-Determination'' Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers
* Jackson Preece, J. 2005. ''Minority Rights: Between Diversity and Community'' Cambridge: Polity Press
* Malloy, T.H. 2005. ''National Minority Rights in Europe'' Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
* Pentassuglia, G. 2002. ''Minorities in international law: an introductory study'' Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publications
* Šmihula, D. 2008. "National Minorities in the Law of the EC/EU", ''Romanian Journal of European Affairs,'' Vol. 8 no. 3, pp.&nbsp;2008, pp.&nbsp;51–81. [https://web.archive.org/web/20110823110657/http://ns.ier.ro/site/documente/rjea_pdf/RJEA_Vol8_No3_Sept2008.pdf online]
* Thornberry, P. 1991. ''International Law and the Rights of Minorities.'' Oxford: Clarendon Press
* Weller, M. (ed.) 2006. ''The Rights of Minorities in Europe: A Commentary on the European Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.'' Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
* Weller, M., Denika Blacklock and Katherine Nobbs (eds.) 2008. ''The Protection of Minorities in the Wider Europe'' Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

===Links===
* Gabriel N. Toggenburg, [https://web.archive.org/web/20091022010321/http://lgi.osi.hu/publications_datasheet.php?id=261 Minority Protection and the European Union], OSI, Budapest 2004
* Gabriel N. Toggenburg / Günther Rautz, [https://elibrary.utb.de/doi/book/10.36198/9783838532691 Das ABC des Minderheitenschutz in Europa], Böhlau, Wien 2010
* Gabriel N. Toggenburg, [https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20171019154415/http://cadmus.eui.eu/dspace/bitstream/1814/4428/1/LAW%202006.15.pdf The Union's role vis-a-vis its minorities after the enlargement decade: a remaining share or a new part?], European University Institute, Florence 2006

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120106024749/http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/minorities.htm U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Minorities]
**[https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/414524 Commentary to the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities], United Nations Working Group on Minorities
*[https://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/minorities/expert/index.htm U.N. Independent Expert on Minority Issues]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120702104345/http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/minority/forum.htm U.N. Forum on Minority Issues], [http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Press/Recommendations_of_the%20Forum_on%20Minority_Issues.pdf its recommendations]
*[https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/special-adviser-prevention-genocide.shtml U.N. Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide]
*[https://minorityrights.org/ Minority Rights Group International]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20110727222939/http://www.romatogether.org/documents/OHCHR_project_report.pdf Minority rights implemented at grassroot level]
*[https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/9/c/14304.pdf OSCE Copenhagen Document 1990]
*[[Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe]] [https://www.osce.org/hcnm/hague-recommendations Hague recommendations regarding the education rights of national minorities & explanatory note]
*[[Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe]] [https://www.osce.org/hcnm/oslo-recommendations Oslo recommendation regarding the linguistic rights of national minorities]
*[[Congress of the Council of Europe]] Recommendation 222 (2007) [https://rm.coe.int/168071919f Language Education in Regional or Minority Languages]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20121112060344/http://www.venice.coe.int/docs/2011/CDL(2011)018-e.pdf Compilation of reports and opinions concerning the protection of national minorities] [[Venice Commission]]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20091012163816/http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/minorities/documents.htm Documents submitted to the Working Group on Minorities] that was replaced by the Forum on Minority Issues, established by Human Rights Council resolution 6/15
*{{Cite web|url = https://www.dandc.eu/en/article/relevant-reading-how-protect-minorities|title = "Protecting and promoting minorities" German Institute for Human Rights (DIMR)|publisher = In: D+C, Vol.42.2015:5}}

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[[Category:Minority rights| ]]
[[Category:Affirmative action]]
[[Category:Majority–minority relations]]