MINELREL-L Archive (05282001-20:50:22-25846)

Fwd: GHM/MRG-G Statement to UN WGM: Unrecognized National Minorities in Europe


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Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 20:50:20 +0300 (EEST)
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Subject: Fwd: GHM/MRG-G Statement to UN WGM: Unrecognized National Minorities in Europe


From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>

Original sender: Panayote Elias Dimitras <[email protected]>

Fwd: GHM/MRG-G Statement to UN WGM: Unrecognized National
Minorities in Europe
 

GREEK HELSINKI MONITOR (GHM) 
MINORITY RIGHTS GROUP - GREECE 
Address: P.O. Box 60820, 15304 Glyka Nera 
Telephone: (+30-1) 347.22.59. Fax: (+30-1) 601.87.60. 
e-mail: [email protected] 
website: http://www.greekhelsinki.gr 
--------------------------------------------------------------- 

(Partly or Fully Unrecognized) National Minorities 
(Statement to the UN Working Group on Minorities, 7th session, Geneva,
14-18 May 2001) 

The existence of a minority is "a matter of fact, not a matter of law"
said the International Court of Justice in the interwar period.
"General Comment by the Human Rights Committee on Article 27 of the
ICCPR (UN 1994)," states inter alia that: "The existence of an ethnic,
religious or linguistic minority in a given State party does not
depend upon a decision by that State party but requires to be
established by objective criteria." UN CERD has issued two
recommendations on the right of minorities to self-identification
(Recommendation VIII of 1990) and on the uniform criteria to be
applied by all states for the recognition of the presence of
minorities in their territory (Recommendation XXIV of 1999). "I know a
minority when I see one" has said the OSCE High Commissioner on
National Minorities (HCNM).
 
It is therefore unfortunate that some states continue to claim that
minorities exist only when defined by domestic laws, and refuse to
recognize national minorities when "they see them." Respect for the
identity of any minority is the prerequisite for a country to be
considered that it respects minority rights. Minorities that are not
recognized are inevitably discriminated against and many of their
rights are curtailed. It is recommendable that the Working Group of
the U.N. Commission of Human Rights, along with regional institutions
like the OSCE HCNM, engages in a study of the issue and help the
countries that do not recognize (some of) their minorities - like the
European countries mentioned below - to adjust their constitution,
legislation and/or practice so as to formally recognize the existence
of minorities that the international community anyhow acknowledges,
irrespective of these countries' positions. The latter are in many
cases criticized by intergovernmental bodies like the HRC, UN CERD and
ECRI.
 
As ECRI stated, France's "republican model" rejects the concept of
minority groups among French citizens. But "ECRI considers that, de
facto, such groups exist and that ...the rights of individuals
connected with the identity of these groups of the population of
France are limited" (p. 12). France replied that "the legal concept of
'minority' does not exist in French law" (p. 26) as it is incompatible
with "the principles of the indivisibility of the nation" (p. 25).
France's other related arguments therein were inspired by strong
assimilationism. Scholars and minority rights activists have shown
that constitutional amendments are necessary but also possible for the
development of a multicultural concept of the Republic: after all, the
French constitution is being amended frequently, including as recently
as in 2000, on other matters.
 
A similar "republican model" based on the "indivisibility of the
nation" exists in Turkey, except that that country is obliged by the
Treaty of Lausanne to recognize its non-Muslim minorities. So, Turkey
rejects the concept of ethno-national minorities like the Kurds, and
moreover considers the non-Muslim communities as religious minorities,
even though they aspire to be ethnonational: for example, Turkey's
Greeks cannot call themselves Greeks ("Ynanli") but only
Greek-Orthodox ("Rum").
 
Its neighbor Greece, with an ideological construct of a "100%
homogeneity" to quote the Athens Journalists' Union president among
many others, is the other OSCE country besides Turkey that refuses to
recognize the presence of ethno-national minorities, like Macedonians
and Turks, while recognizing only one religious minority, the Muslims,
as imposed by the Treaty of Lausanne. The latter are denied the right
to call themselves and their associations Turks and Turkish (but
allowed to call themselves and their groups Pomak or Roma).
Restrictions of the freedom of association and expression of
Macedonians and Turks have been criticized by ECRI, while CERD has
appealed to Greece to respect self-identification and apply its
General Recommendations VIII and XXIV (see above).
 
Somewhat similar is Slovenia's position. In its 2000 recommendations
for that country CERD "notes that different minority groups are
provided by law differentiated protection measures in different areas
of daily life, such as political representation, access to media,
education and culture. The Committee notes that minority groups, such
as Croats, Serbs, Bosnian and Roma, do not enjoy the same level of
protection from the State party as the Italian and Hungarian
minorities. In this connection, the Committee recommends that the
State party, in accordance with article 2 of the ICERD, ensure that
persons or groups of persons belonging to other minority groups are
not discriminated against." The reason is that besides Italians and
Hungarians, the other and more numerous groups are not recognized as
minorities. It is ironic, but also indicative of its direction, that
the Stability Pact for Southeast Europe has decided to fund an
institute on minorities as a joint Greek-Slovenian venture.
 
Macedonia also has a legalistic approach: it formally recognizes some
minorities - including in an interpretative declaration to the FCNM -
and provides them, at least on paper, with a large array of rights.
But other minorities, like - mostly recently established - Bosniaks or
- historical ethno-national "rivals" - Bulgarians, though probably
more numerous than the recognized Aromanians, are denied recognition.
Bulgarian parties and associations are denied registration.
 
Across the border, Bulgaria "reciprocates" by recognizing a large
array of "minority groups" - that it does not like to call minorities
though - but refusing to include Macedonians among them, and
restricting their freedoms of association and of assembly. ECRI
acknowledges the presence of an "ethnic Macedonian identity," notes
that complaints for violations of the right to assembly won
admissibility at the ECHR, and "hopes that Bulgarian authorities will
take steps to ensure that all groups in Bulgaria effectively enjoy the
right to peaceful assembly."
 
Finally, Albania recognizes a Greek and a Macedonian minority, but
only in the Southern regions. Those who identify as Macedonians and
Greeks outside these minority regions are denied the minority rights
granted in the south, including minority classes at state schools. The
2000 Himara municipal election tensions were related to an effort of
the Greek minority to have its existence recognized, which was
successful insofar as even the OSCE ODIHR reported that "in Himara,
.. there is a Greek-speaking minority." In a statement to the 2000
OSCE Implementation Review meeting, in response to a related GHM/MRG-G
statement, Albania declared that "the boundaries of minority zones
result solely from the course of Albania's history." In the
forthcoming census, Albania did not include questions on national
identity and religion (unlike in previous ones) to avoid seeing its
official policy on minorities refuted by census data, even though ECRI
recommended the inclusion of such questions.

_____________________________
GHM Board: Panayote Dimitras, Orestis Georgiadis, Dimitrina Petrova,
Alan Phillips, Gregory Vallianatos.
MRG-G Spokesperson: Nafsika Papanikolatos
International Advisory Committee: Savvas Agouridis, Teuta Arifi, Ivo
Banac, Vladimir Bilandzic, Marcel Courthiade, Loring Danforth, Fernand
de Varennes, Eran Fraenkel, Victor-Yves Ghebali, Henri Giordan,
Krassimir Kanev, Will Kymlicka, Remzi Lani, Theodore S. Orlin, Magda
Opalski, Dimitrina Petrova, Alan Phillips, Aaron Rhodes, Vladimir
Solonari, Patrick Thornberry, Stefan Troebst, Boris Tsilevich, Tibor
Varady, Marc Weller.
Affiliation to International Organizations: Consortium of Minority
Resources (COMIR), Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN),
European Roma Rights Center (ERRC), International Freedom of
Expression Exchange (IFEX), International Helsinki Federation for
Human Rights (IHF), Minority Rights Group International (MRGI),
OneWorld.Net, South East Europe Media Organization (SEEMO).
 
_______________________________________
Panayote Dimitras
Spokesperson
Greek Helsinki Monitor
e-mail: [email protected]
 
Internet Addresses:
Balkan Human Rights Web Pages: http://www.greekhelsinki.gr
The Balkan Human Rights List: http://www.egroups.com/group/balkanhr
The Greek Human Rights List: http://www.egroups.com/group/greekhr
Dikaiomatika! [monthly human rights review in Greek]:
http://www.egroups.com/group/dikaiomatika
Alternative Information Network (AIM) - Athens [articles in Greek]:
http://www.egroups.com/group/aimgreek
AIM - Athens [articles in English]:
http://www.greekhelsinki.gr/english/articles/AIMN-Articles-Greece
 
Mail Address:
P.O. Box 60820
GR-15304 Glyka Nera, Greece
 
Telephone and Fax:
Tel. +30-1-347.22.59;
Fax +30-1-601.87.60
________________________________________

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