Nacionalne manjine i integracija Europe
National Minorities and the Integration of Europe

Summary/Abstract: The paper presents a critical overview of the development of the European standards in (national) minority protection. It is less known that the term minority (first religious and then national) has historically preceded to the concepts of both national state and humans rights, which have essentially framed the discourse on (national) minorities and their rights in the modern time. Because the German Nazis misused the ostensible concern for the German national minorities in the neighboring countries national minority rights were not at all mentioned in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Only in 1966th the rights (of the members) of ethnic, religious and language minorities were for the fi rst time stipulated in an international legal document (Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights). The revival of national minority rights discourse was primarily the Western reaction to unexpectedly severe ethnic conflicts in the (new) post-communist states with huge forced migration flows. There can be distinguished two phases and two tracks in the development of the European minority protection instruments up to 1995. At the beginning it seemed that the European Union along with other European associations (the Council of Europe, the OSCE) was ready to adopt very progressive minority rights universal standards, including both semi-collective and territorial autonomy rights. Yet, soon prevailed the interests of those member states which either do not recognize (national) minorities at all on their territories or did not want to change anything in their internal arrangements in minority treatment. Therefore, in the second phase there was a kind of retreat towards rather negative (indirect) protection based on the human rights principle of non-discrimination. In order to impose on the Eastern European candidates higher standards and positive protection of their (national) minorities the West created another minority rights track, defi ned in terms of –security’, with the OESCE mandated to monitor whenever there might be ethnic conflict threat. However, the newly accepted members brought along their higher minority rights standard, and the previous ‘external’ EU minority policy has become this way ‘internal’ with the consequences for further minority rights dynamic to be seen.

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