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National minorities: problems, protection and rights

The question of nationality has always been very sharp. This is due not only to artificial factors, but also to the historical development of mankind. In primitive society, a stranger has always been perceived negatively as a threat or "annoying" element from which one wants to get rid. In the modern world, this issue has taken on more civilized forms, but it has remained the key one. To condemn or give any assessment does not make sense, since the behavior of people is mainly led by a herd instinct when it comes to "strangers".

What is a national minority?

National minorities are groups of people who live in a particular country, being its citizens. However, they do not refer to the indigenous or settled population of the territory and are considered a separate national community. Minorities may have the same rights and duties as the ordinary population, but the attitude towards them is often not very good for a variety of reasons.

Vladimir Chaplinsky, a Polish scholar who carefully studied this topic, believes that national minorities are consolidated groups of people who most often live in separate regions of the country, seek autonomy, while they do not want to lose their ethnic traits - culture, language, religion , Traditions, etc. Their numerical expression is much smaller than the usual population of the country. It is also important that national minorities never occupy a dominant or priority role in the state, their interests are rather relegated to the background. Any recognized minority must live in the territory of a given country for a fairly long period. It is also noteworthy that they need special protection from the state, as the population and individual citizens can be too aggressive towards another national group. This behavior is very common in all countries of the world where certain ethnic groups of people live.

The protection of the rights of national minorities is a key issue in a number of countries, because the global acceptance of minorities does not lead to a change everywhere. Many countries only adopt the first legislative acts, which will be aimed at protecting minorities.

The emergence of this issue

The rights of national minorities have become a topical issue due to the fact that this issue is closely related to the state policy. Of course, the concept arose and was introduced into practice because of discrimination of the population on a national basis. As interest in this issue only increased, the state could not remain aloof.

But what caused the interest in minorities? It all started in the XIX century, when many empires began to disintegrate. This entailed the fact that the population was "out of work." The collapse of the empire of Napoleon, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman Empire, World War II - all this entailed the liberation of many people, even peoples. Many states gained independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The concept of "representative of the national minority" was used only in the XVII in international law. At first it concerned only small regional minorities. The clearly formulated and correctly formulated question of minorities was raised only in 1899 at a congress of the Social Democratic Party.

There is no precise and uniform definition of the term. But the first attempts to form the essence of minorities belonged to the Austrian socialist O. Bauer.

Criteria

Criteria for national minorities were singled out in 1975. A group of social scientists from Helsinki University decided to conduct a comprehensive study on the theme of ethnic groups in each country. Based on the results of the study, the following criteria for national minorities were singled out:

  • The general origin of the ethnic group;
  • High self-identification;
  • Pronounced cultural characteristics (especially their own language);
  • The existence of a certain social organization that ensures productive interaction within and outside the minority.

It is important to note that scientists from Helsinki University did not focus on the numerical composition of groups, but on certain aspects of social and behavioral observations.

Another criterion can be considered positive discrimination, in which minorities are given many rights in various spheres of society. This situation is possible only with the correct policy of the state.

It is worth noting that countries whose national minority is a very small number of people tend to treat them more tolerantly. This is explained by the psychological phenomenon - in small groups, society sees no threat and considers them fully controlled. Despite the quantitative component, the culture of national minorities is their main wealth.

Legal regulation

The question of minorities was raised in 1935. Then the Permanent Court of International Justice said that the existence of minorities is a matter of fact, but not a right. An unclear legislative definition of a national minority is present in paragraph 32 of the 1990 SSCC Copenhagen Document. It says that a person can belong to any minority consciously, that is, on his own.

The UN Declaration

Legal regulation of minorities exists practically in every country of the world. In each of them there is a certain community of people with their ethnicity, culture, language, etc. All this only enriches the indigenous population of the territory. In many countries of the world, there are legislative acts that control the development of minorities in the national, cultural and socio-economic terms. After the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic Minorities, this issue has become international. The Declaration affirms the rights of minorities to national identity, the opportunity to use their culture, speak their native language and have a free religion. Minorities can also form associations, establish contacts with their ethnic group living in another country, and participate in making decisions that directly affect them. The Declaration establishes the state's obligations to protect and protect national minorities, to take into account their interests in foreign and domestic policy, to provide conditions for the development of a culture of minorities, and so on.

Framework Convention

The creation of the UN Declaration served to the fact that in a number of European countries legislation was being created that revealed the rights and duties of national minorities living in a particular territory. It is worth noting that this issue became really serious only after the intervention of the UN. Now the issue of minorities should have been regulated not by the state alone, but based on world practice.

Since the 80s, the creation, development and improvement of a multilateral treaty has been active. This lengthy process ended with the adoption of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. She pointed out that the protection of minorities and the granting of their proper rights became a full-fledged part of the project on international protection of the rights of an individual. To date, the Framework Convention has been signed by 36 countries. The Convention of National Minorities has shown that the fate of certain ethnic groups is not indifferent to the world.

At the same time, the CIS countries decided to adopt their universal law on the protection of minorities. The universal creation of international documents on national minorities suggests that the issue has ceased to be a state issue and has become international.

Problems

We must not forget that countries that sign international treaties are getting new problems. The provisions of the Convention imply a significant change in legislation. Thus, the country needs either to change its legislative system, or to take many separate international acts. It should also be noted that no definition of the term "national minorities" can be found in any international document. This leads to a number of difficulties, since each state separately has to create and find signs that are recognized as common to all minorities. This all takes a long time, so the process is very slow. Despite international activity in this regard, in practice everything is somewhat worse. In addition, even the established criteria are often very incomplete and inaccurate, which gives rise to a lot of problems and misunderstandings. Do not forget about the negative elements of each society, which are only willing to cash in on this or that law. Thus, we understand that there are a lot of problems in this area of regulation by international law. They are solved gradually and individually, depending on the policy and own preferences of each state.

Legal regulation in different countries of the world

The rights of national minorities vary considerably from country to country. Despite the general and international acceptance of minorities as a separate group of people, which should have their rights, the attitude of individual political leaders can still be subjective. The absence of clear detailed criteria for the selection of a minority only contributes to this influence. Let us consider the situation and problems of national minorities in different parts of the world.

There is no specific definition of the term in the documents of the Russian Federation. However, it is often used not only in international documents of the Russian Federation, but also in the Russian Constitution. It should be noted that the protection of minorities is considered in the context of maintaining the federation and in the context of joint management of the federation and its subjects. National minorities in Russia have enough rights, so you can not say that Russia is too conservative country.

Ukrainian legislation tried to explain the term "national minority", saying that this is a certain group of people who are not Ukrainians by nationality, have their own ethnic identity and community within themselves.

The Estonian Cultural Autonomy Act states that the national minority are Estonian citizens who are associated with it historically and ethnically, have long been living in the country, but differ from Estonians in a particular culture, religion, language, traditions, etc. This is the sign of the self-identification of the minority.

Latvia adopted the Framework Convention. Latvian legislation defines minorities as citizens of the country, which differ in culture, language and religion, but have been attached to this territory for centuries. It is also indicated that they belong to Latvian society, preserve and develop their own culture.

In Slavic countries, the attitude towards persons of national minorities is more loyal than in other countries of the world. For example, national minorities in Russia exist almost on the same rights as indigenous Russians, while in a number of countries, minorities are not even recognized as existing.

Other approaches to the issue

In the world there are countries that differ in their particular approach to the issue of national minorities. There can be many reasons for this. One of the most frequent - this is a long-standing age-old enmity with the minority, which for a long time hampered the development of the country, oppressed the indigenous people and sought to occupy the most advantageous position in society. To countries that otherwise look at the issue of minorities, one can include France and North Korea.

France is the only EU country that has refused to sign the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. Also before that, the Constitutional Council of France rejected the ratification of the European Charter for Regional Languages.

Official documents of the country say that there are no minorities in France, and that constitutional considerations do not allow France to sign international acts on the protection and accession of national minorities. The UN bodies believe that the state should resolutely review its views on this issue, since officially there are many linguistic, ethnic and religious minorities in the country who must have their legal rights. Nevertheless, at the moment, this issue is frozen in the air, as France does not want to reconsider its decision.

North Korea is a country that differs in many respects from other countries in the world. It is not surprising that in this matter she did not agree with the opinion of the majority. Official documents say that the DPRK is a state of one nation, that is why the question of the existence of minorities can not exist in principle. However, it is obvious that this is not so. Minorities are present almost everywhere, it is an ordinary fact that flows from historical and territorial aspects. Well, if tacit minorities are raised to the level of the indigenous population, this is only for the best. However, it is possible that minorities are severely disadvantaged in their rights, not only by the state, but also by individual citizens who, with hatred and aggression, belong to minorities.

The attitude of society

The law on national minorities in each country is observed in different ways. Despite the official recognition of minorities, discrimination against minorities, racism and social exclusion is common in every society. There can be many reasons for this: different views on religion, rejection and rejection of another nationality as such, etc. It is not necessary to say that discrimination by society is a serious problem that can lead to a multitude of serious and complex conflicts at the state level. In the UN, the issue of minorities is relevant for about 60 years. Despite this, many states remain indifferent to the fate of any group within the country.

The attitude of society to national minorities depends largely on the policy of the state, its intensity and credibility. Many people just like to hate, because they will not be punished for it anyway. However, hatred never ends just like that. People unite in groups, and then mass psychology begins to manifest itself. What one person would never have done because of fear or morality breaks out when he is in a crowd. Such situations did take place in many countries of the world. In each case, this led to terrible consequences, deaths and crippled lives.

The question of national minorities in every society must be raised from the earliest years, so that children are taught to respect a person of a different nationality and to understand that they have equal rights. There is no uniform development of this issue in the world: some countries are actively succeeding in enlightenment, some are still captured by primitive hatred and stupidity.

Negative moments

Ethnic national minorities have many problems even in a modern, rational world. Most often, minority discrimination is not based on racism or hatred, but on conventional factors dictated by the socio-economic aspect. This largely depends on the state, which, most likely, does not pay enough attention to the social security of its citizens.

Most often, problems arise in the sphere of hiring, education and housing. Studies and interviews with many leading experts indicate that the practice of discrimination against national minorities does take place. Many employers may refuse to apply for work for various reasons. Especially such discrimination concerns those who arrived from Asia and people of Caucasian nationality. If at a low level, when you just need cheap labor, this question is less clear, but when you apply for a highly paid position this tendency is very bright.

As for education, employers often do not trust the diplomas of persons from minority groups for many reasons. Indeed, it is believed that foreign students come just to get a plastic certificate of education.

The issue of housing is also very relevant. Ordinary citizens do not want to take risks and hand over their native walls to suspicious persons. They prefer to give up profits than to contact people of a different nationality. However, each issue has its price. That is why the hardest part is for foreign students who do not have too much money at their disposal. Those who can afford a good existence often get what they want.

The protection of national minorities is an important issue for the entire world community, because every person, due to historical events, may become a member of the minority. Unfortunately, not all countries are ready to understand and accept ethnic groups with whom there has been antagonism in the past. However, the protection of national minorities is reaching a new level every year. This is shown by world statistics, as the rules become more and more loyal.

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