This work explores the contribution that international law may make to the resolution of culture conflicts--political disputes between the members of different ethno-cultural groups--in democratic States. International law recognizes that persons belonging to minorities have the right to enjoy their own culture and peoples have the right to self-determination without detailing how these principles are to be put into effect. The emergence of democracy as a legal obligation of States permits the international community to concern itself with both the procedure and substance of 'democratic' decisions concerning ethno-cultural groups.

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.

This publication aims to make the Venice Commission's work in the field of protection of minorities more available to the public. It includes, on the one hand, the Proposal for a European Convention on the protection of minorities, as a reply to the heartfelt need for protection of minorities at the European level. The proposal and its explanatory report appear in the first chapter of the publication. This publication includes, in addition, firstly the report on the protection of minorities at domestic law level which was drawn up within the framework of the Venice Commission and secondly the report concerning the special protection of which minorities can take advantage in States with a Federal or Regional structure. The report in question was established on the basis of replies provided by representatives of several European and non-European States to a questionnaire drawn up by the Commission; the questionnaire, together with the replies, appears in an Appendix to the report. Perusal of the replies given by representatives of different States to the same question allows for a rapid appraisal of the solutions adopted in national laws to identical problems of protection of minorities. The European Commission for Democracy through Law considers the question of the protection of minorities to be one of the most important fields of its activity. (Adapted from.

This book addresses the impact of a range of destabilising issues on minority rights in Europe and North America. This collection stems from the fact that liberal democracy did not bring about the “end of history” but rather that the transatlantic region of Europe and North America has encountered a new era of instability, particularly since the global financial crisis. The transatlantic region may have appeared to be entering a period of stability, but terrorist attacks on the soil of Euro-Atlantic states, the financial crisis itself and other changes, including mass migration, the rise of populism, changes in fundamental political conceptions, technological change, and most recently the Covid pandemic, have brought increasing uncertainties and instabilities in existing orders. In these contexts, the book investigates the resulting difficulties and opportunities for minority rights. Bringing together scholars from a range of disciplines who are engaged in work on various unstable orders, the book provides a unique and largely neglected perspective on present developments as well as addressing the pressing issue of the future of the minority rights regime at global, regional and national levels. This book will appeal to those with interests in minority rights, human rights, nationalism, law and politics.

At the beginning of the 1990's, all CSCE (Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe) States committed themselves to pluralist democracy, the rule of law and human rights and fundamental freedoms. The idea of pluralist democracy is also gaining ground in other parts of the world.

Set against previous stages of minority protection under international law, this book discusses the role of courts and court-like bodies – particularly in the Americas, Africa and Europe – in articulating and accommodating the interests and needs of ethno-cultural minority groups as part of the human rights discourse. Conceptually, it exposes different moments of intervention by such bodies involving the recognition of group existence or identity, the adjustment of human rights norms to accommodate the group’s perspectives, the establishment of processes designed to address the complexities resulting from competing claims, and the expansion of procedural avenues within litigation. The result is a fresh comparative – practical and theoretical – perspective on international jurisprudence as an emerging distinctive component in the complex history of the field.

Published in association with UNESCO, Democracy and Human Rights in Multicultural Societies examines the political governance of cultural diversity, specifically how public policy-making has dealt with the claims for cultural recognition that have increasingly been expressed by ethno-national movements, language groups, religious minorities, indigenous peoples and migrant communities. Its principle aim is to understand, explain and assess public-policy responses to ethnic, linguistic and religious diversity. Adopting interdisciplinary perspectives of comparative social sciences, the contributors address the conditions, forms, and consequences of democratic and human-rights-based governance of multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-faith societies.