Journal articles on the topic 'Minorities – Civil rights – Europe, Eastern'
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1
Nowak, Manfred. "The Right of Self-Determination and Protection of Minorities in Central and Eastern Europe in light of the case-law of the Human Rights Committee." International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 1, no. 1 (1993): 7–16. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157181193x00077.
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AbstractThe right of self-determination and protection of minorities in Central and Eastern Europe is discussed in the light of the case law of the Human Rights Committee, which shows that many traditional minorities in Central and Eastern Europe are to be qualified as minorities within the meaning of article 27 of the UN Covenant. The author concludes that the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights still remains the only international treaty guaranteeing protection to minorities and providing measures of international supervision. He argues for a common and internationally binding European agreement providing adequate protection against minority rights violations, be it in the framework of the CSCE, Council of Europe or an enlarged European Communities.
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Phillips, Alan. "The Fall of the Iron Curtain and Its Significance for the Establishment of Minority Rights Regimes in Eastern Europe." European Yearbook of Minority Issues Online 13, no. 1 (May 22, 2016): 1–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/22116117_01301002.
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This article examines the development of minority rights regimes in Europe following the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. It shows how the foundations for democracy were reinforced by the Helsinki Final Act in 1975 and the opportunities it created for dialogue. The major concerns of many states to prevent irredentism and violent inter-ethnic conflicts provided the opportunity to adopt international standards on the protection and promotion of minority rights. Civil society, including members of minorities, were in the vanguard, as they promoted democratic change in 1989 and played a leading role in influencing minority rights standards and their implementation. The Conclusions of the 1990 csce Copenhagen Human Dimension influenced the undm, formed the backbone of the fcnm, and became an invaluable set of standards used by the hcnm for conflict prevention. Twenty-five years later, it is evident the fall of the Iron Curtain was highly significant for minority rights regimes throughout Europe.
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Gabor, Francis. "Reflections on NATO's New Mission: Conflict Prevention in the Struggles for Ethnic Self-Determination." Review of Central and East European Law 29, no. 2 (2004): 247–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/157303504774062439.
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AbstractDuring the Cold War, both NATO's role and purpose were clearly defined by the existence of the threat posed by the Soviet Union. The traditional confrontation between the NATO and the Warsaw Pact military organizations effectively has ceased to exist. The dissolution of the Warsaw Pact—combined with the emerging constitutional democracies in Central and Eastern Europe and the transformation of the Russian Federation—has essentially assured that the future threat of a confrontation between the major armies on the European continent is highly unlikely. However, it soon became obvious that several non-traditional, and quite unexpected, risks would give NATO a new mission and new challenges. One of the greatest challenges for post-Cold War Eastern Europe lies in the unresolved questions of ethnic self-determination. The unprecedented human tragedy of two world wars failed to resolve these questions. The concept of ethnic self-determination has been the central theme of the conflicts in the Yugoslav civil wars. NATO played a significant, if not central, role in the final resolution of the Yugoslav civil wars, particularly in the case of Kosovo. The Kosovo experience creates a real challenge for NATO and international legal scholars to create a more precisely defined body of international law to protect ethnic minorities and to build an effective institutional framework for the observation and implementation of so-called minority rights. which would have prevented the tragedy of the Yugoslavian civil war and can prevent future conflicts.
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Miroshnikov, S. N. "Adaptation of Eastern Europe to the EU’s <i>Acquis Communautaire</i>: Poland and Hungary in 2004–2021." Bulletin of Kemerovo State University 24, no. 3 (June 15, 2022): 320–25. http://dx.doi.org/10.21603/2078-8975-2022-24-3-320-325.
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This article features the special position that Poland and Hungary demonstrate towards the national government institutions and civil rights. The research objective was to describe the internal transformation and adaptation processes of Hungarian and Polish societies to the European concept of acquis communautaire, as well as the tensions between these two countries and the older EU members. This special position can be explained by the growing sentiments of national pride and identity. The social and economic achievements that happened aſter the 1990s allowed these states to increase the quality of life, and their citizens are not willing to give up on their identity to accommodate the demands of the European Union. For instance, people of Poland and Hungary saw a certain threat to their identity in the pressure from Brussels to welcome migrants from the Middle East, whom they could not accept on the mental and religious levels. Another threat was the Brussels’ pursuit to make Poland and Hungary accept sexual minorities in a very short timeframe, despite the fact that this process took Western Europe several centuries. Considering that the church had a very negative attitude to both issues, certain political parties managed to seize the power. They suppressed the freedom of speech, denied the independence of the judicial power, and challenged Brussels.
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Shankar Bharti, Mukesh. "The European Union and Cultural, Economic and Political Development of Minority in Central and Eastern Europe." Reality of Politics 19, no. 1 (January 31, 2022): 25–53. http://dx.doi.org/10.15804/rop2022102.
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This article aims to present the positions of minorities in Central and Eastern Europe since 1990. The analysis concentrates on relations between the various cultural and minorities group. The main outline is the concepts of minority rights and their multi-dimensional development of linguistic minorities and social development. There is a broad description of the social development of Roma in Central and Eastern Europe. Eastern European democracy promoters have made extensive use of their bilateral diplomatic channels to allow democratization laggards in the post-communist space a glimpse of what democracy looks like close to home and to give them encouragement and know-how to move forward with reforms.
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Kuzub, Halyna. "National minorities political rights in the context of decentralization of power in the Eastern European countries." Історико-політичні проблеми сучасного світу, no. 33-34 (August 25, 2017): 250–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.31861/mhpi2016.33-34.250-256.
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The question of political minorities rights is always crucial for European countries because of mutual history and border changes. Almost each of these countries are characterized by small groups of ethnic minorities who are living in boarding areas. Some representatives of these ethnic groups have separatistic points of view during the years. In some European countries situation becomes even more complicated because of assimilation policy which was provided by the former Soviet Union.
Decentralization is transferring of authorities to the local levels what is other serious accelerator of the questions of political minorities rights. The question of our research work is if the impact of decentralization process matches political minorities rights in Eastern Europe? In the present study we analyze the results of administrative and territorial reforms in Poland, the Czech Republic , Slovakia and we also took into consideration the impact of ethnic factor within new administrative and territorial division.
In conclusions author emphasizes that in Eastern Europe new division process mostly happened without taking into account historical areas where small groups of political minorities lived. Author also draws our attention to the possible separatism, which can be the reason of articulation of national minorities will, who live near the borders to other countries as to unite in some areas.
Keywords: Decentralization of authority, administrative-territorial reform, post-socialist transformation, minorities, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia
7
Tuluș, Arthur. "The Condition of National Minorities in Eastern Europe in a Secret Cia Report From 1965." Eminak, no. 2(34) (July 1, 2021): 210–28. http://dx.doi.org/10.33782/eminak2021.2(34).529.
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In the context of the Cold War, detailed knowledge of the opponent and espionage were fundamental elements in the security policies of the two antagonistic sides. The CIA, the United States’ foreign intelligence service, identified the condition of ethnic minorities as one of the possible vulnerabilities of the Eastern Camp, judging from the perspective of the restrictive policies that Communist states held regarding rights and freedoms. Our study is based on the analysis of a document prepared by the CIA in 1965, a memorandum that took data from the latest official censuses in Bulgaria, Romania, Yugoslavia, Albania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland, and recorded the effects of assimilation policies on national minorities within the Eastern Communist states. The document is all the more interesting as the issue of national minorities rights’ in the Communist world was taboo.
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Johns, Michael. "“Do as I Say, Not as I Do”: The European Union, Eastern Europe and Minority Rights." East European Politics and Societies: and Cultures 17, no. 4 (November 2003): 682–99. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0888325403258291.
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This article tests the assumption that the European Union has forced the potential new members from Eastern Europe to adhere to standards regarding the treatment of national minorities current member states do not meet. The article examines the treatment of the Russian minorities in Latvia and Estonia and the Roma population in Slovakia compared to the treatment of the Turks in Germany and the Roma in Italy. Using EU accession reports, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) recommendations, and the Minorities at Risk data set, a double standard becomes apparent. The newly democratized states of Eastern Europe are being forced to choose between the economic advantages of membership in the EU and legislation designed to protect the language and culture of the majority group. The article concludes with an examination of the histories of Estonia and Latvia to illustrate why being forced into altering laws concerning culture and citizenship is so difficult.
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Dedurin, G. G. "International legal determination of the national minorities’ status in the Central and Eastern European countries within the Versailles system." Bulletin of Kharkiv National University of Internal Affairs 97, no. 2 (June 30, 2022): 269–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.32631/v.2022.2.24.
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Peculiarities of the international legal status determination of the national minorities within the Versailles system have been studied using the example of a number of Central and Eastern European countries. The governments of Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Hungary were asked, based on the norms of international law, to develop appropriate provisions for the protection of the rights of national minorities in order to prevent new conflicts and threats to peace.
The system of treaties, declarations and agreements, which were supposed to ensure the observance of the rights of national minorities and whose guarantor was the League of Nations, has been analyzed. In practice, this was embodied in giving minorities the right to submit petitions to the Council or Assembly of the League of Nations, as well as in the activities of the Permanent Chamber of International Justice. The right to submit petitions was used at different times by representatives of the Ruthenian minority in Czechoslovakia, the Russian minority in Eastern Galicia, the Jewish minority in Hungary, the German minority in Poland, etc.
The weaknesses of this system have been identified, which prevented the creation of effective international mechanisms for the protection of the rights of national minorities in the specified regions of Europe. In particular, it has been emphasized that the majority of treaties, conventions, treatises, etc. were openly sabotaged by the countries that were supposed to fulfill them. The governments of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe considered the proposed system unequal, because its conditions did not apply to a number of other multinational states that had similar problems. Conflict situations surrounding the problem of national minorities continued to arise. They were caused by various factors: from divided loyalties and irredentist movements to manifestations of governmental and social discrimination.
10
Robson, Laura. "Minorities Treaties and Mandatory Regimes." Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 41, no. 3 (December 1, 2021): 332–39. http://dx.doi.org/10.1215/1089201x-9407845.
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Abstract The post–World War I treaties of Versailles, Sèvres, and Lausanne collectively created two related frames for ongoing Allied control over unreliable territory: a system of “minority protection” in the new and fragile states of eastern Europe, and a neocolonial regime of externally monitored “mandates” in the Mashriq and elsewhere, with both systems falling under the jurisdiction of the newly constructed League of Nations based in Geneva. This article explores how the architects of the peace agreements developed the concepts of minority rights and mandatory responsibilities in conjunction, as a way of codifying, formalizing, and legitimizing restrictions on sovereignty along immovable racial lines.
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Illés, Veronika. "Mniejszości narodowe i ich ochrona w prawie międzynarodowym w XX w. Kwestie definicyjne na przykładzie Polaków i Węgrów na Ukrainie." Doctrina. Studia społeczno-polityczne, no. 17 (March 15, 2021): 41–67. http://dx.doi.org/10.34739/doc.2020.17.03.
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The issue of national minorities already has a rich historiography, but so far no uniform definition of the concept of minority has been formulated. It is no coincidence, because it depends on a number of factors which features of a particular social group the legislator wishes to protect or along which features it grants them additional rights. I attempt to analyze these factors in order to provide a comprehensive picture of who we mean by minorities, what minority protection means, and how their rights developed in the 20th century. Modern international minority protection law developed after the First World War. As a result of the border arrangements after the Great War, a number of new minorities were born, so it was inevitable to place their situation within the interna-tional framework. The experience of World War I changed attitudes towards mi-norities. However, after World War II, the emphasis shifted from collective rights to individual, human rights, and minority rights were relegated to the background. I would like to support this issue with examples from the situation in Central and Eastern Europe, including the Polish and Hungarian minorities living in Ukraine.
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Klímová-Alexander, Ilona. "Development and Institutionalisation of Romani Representation and Administration. Part 1." Nationalities Papers 32, no. 3 (September 2004): 599–629. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0090599042000246415.
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The post-1989 rise of ethnic conflicts in the former Eastern Bloc have led to the renewed salience of minority rights and their prominence in international relations. The 1990s witnessed a proliferation of legal instruments and offices dedicated to minority rights at the intergovernmental level (mainly within the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Council of Europe, but also the United Nations). After decades of arguing that rights of persons belonging to national, ethnic or religious minorities can be sufficiently ensured within the framework of universal human rights, attributed to individuals regardless of group membership, liberal political theorists (most notably Will Kymlicka) have started to advocate the need to supplement these traditional human rights with minority rights (meaning certain group-differentiated rights or “special status” for minority cultures) in order to ensure justice in multicultural states.
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Swanson, John C. "Minority Building in the German Diaspora: The Hungarian-Germans." Austrian History Yearbook 36 (January 2005): 148–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0067237800004872.
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Issues concerning the status and rights of ethnic minorities in Central and Eastern Europe have become significant in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. A focus on co-nations in neighboring states, “others” in so-called nation-states, and questions of immigration dominate the media in many areas in Europe. Even though ethnic minorities and ethnic identity are part of modern conversation, the subject of ethnic minorities needs to receive serious scholarly attention to demonstrate its nuanced sense of meaning. Like nations, ethnic minorities are not static entities; they are not primordial. They are constructed or imagined in the same way nations are, even though there has been little scholarly attention devoted to minority building. In order to understand the complex meaning of an ethnic minority, one needs to view the creation of a minority—minority building—on different levels, and understand it as members of the minority understand it and as others perceive it.
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Grødeland, Åse B. "Perceptions of civil rights, security and the “war on terror”: East and West compared." Communist and Post-Communist Studies 48, no. 4 (November 6, 2015): 317–35. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.postcomstud.2015.10.003.
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This article explores the tension between civil rights and security by examining the perceptions of the general public and elites in Eastern and Western Europe on (i) the terrorist threat; (ii) external pressure to stay within or step outside the law when combatting terrorism; and (iii) how best to combat terrorism. Large scale qualitative and quantitative data collected in Western and Eastern Europe before the terrorist act in Norway in 2011 and the Russian intervention in Ukraine and subsequent annexation of the Crimea in 2014 suggest that at the time terrorism was perceived as a greater threat in Western than in Eastern Europe. Further, Europeans felt that the US had extended pressure on their countries to combat terrorism by stepping outside the law. While ordinary citizens believed that terrorism should be fought by introducing more security — if necessary at the expense of civil rights — elites emphasized the need to protect civil rights while combating terrorism. Finally, European Muslims claimed that the terrorist threat was exaggerated and that protecting civil rights is more important than combating terrorism.
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Barth, William. "Minority Rights, Multiculturalism and the Roma of Europe." Nordic Journal of International Law 76, no. 4 (2007): 363–406. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/090273507x249200.
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AbstractIn this article, I review legal initiativaes to improve conditions for the Roma peoples who live in the states of Europe. The question is timely given the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the European Union on 1 January 2007. Romania contains the largest concentration of the Roma population in Europe. My article uncovers a schism between political theory and international law on the question of minority rights. I distinguish how the conclusions of Will Kymlicka, one of the most prolific writers on the subject of multiculturalism in political theory, differ from the international jurisprudence that protects minority groups. In this essay, I analyse Kymlicka's claim that multicultural policies are contextually dependent, and an inappropriate subject for a common legal regime of international human rights treaties. To determine the implications of human rights jurisprudence for this normative claim, I also research court cases filed by the Roma under the European Framework Convention for the Protection of Minorities and the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. I contrast the international treaties that protect minority groups from political theorist accounts of multiculturalism in three areas. First, my article discusses jurisdictional issues concerning whether the particular groups defined by minority rights, irrespective of their geographical location or contextual experience, are proper subjects for protection by a common rights regime. Next, I illustrate how cultural rights are distinguishable from traditional civil rights laws. Finally, I examine how the historic persecution of the Roma violates human rights standards that protect minorities. The Roma have a long and unique relationship with the European states, which serves to demonstrate whether or not a common regime of minority rights safeguards the cultural development of the Roma.
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Chiva, Cristina. "Ethnic Minority Rights in Central and Eastern Europe: The Case of the Hungarian ‘Status Law’." Government and Opposition 41, no. 3 (2006): 401–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1477-7053.2006.00181.x.
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AbstractThe international controversy concerning the Hungarian ‘status law’ of 2001 attests to the vital importance of ethnic minority rights in Central and Eastern Europe, as well as within an enlarged European Union. The paper examines the unique challenges raised by the law from its initial adoption in June 2001 to its subsequent amendment in June 2003. It looks at the interaction between four principal kinds of actors: Hungary (a kin state legislating support for ethnic co- nationals in neighbouring countries), Romania and Slovakia (home states to sizeable Hungarian ethnic groups), the Hungarian minorities in Romania and Slovakia, and the European institutions that became involved in the dispute as mediators.
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Dragostinova, Theodora. "Navigating Nationality in the Emigration of Minorities between Bulgaria and Greece, 1919—1941." East European Politics and Societies: and Cultures 23, no. 2 (April 29, 2009): 185–212. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0888325408326787.
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The 1919 Convention for Emigration of Minorities between Bulgaria and Greece was an important prototype for minority handling and population exchange in Eastern Europe after World War I. Based on research in Bulgarian and Greek archives, this article offers a comparative analysis of the conflicting pursuits of the two countries and the multiple opinions of various groups affected by displacement. Despite the optimism of the League of Nations that the Convention would solve ethnic conflict by bolstering individual rights, people's unwillingness to prioritize nationality undermined the execution of voluntary exchange. Instead, emigration occurred as an “actual exchange,” and refugees fled their birthplaces under harsh circumstances. Yet individuals inventively navigated their nationality and often defied the priorities of the nation-states to further their personal strategies. Because of the failure of this first international experiment of voluntary exchange in Eastern Europe, future proponents of population management adopted the principle of compulsory exchange.
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Coenders, Marcel, Marcel Lubbers, and Peer Scheepers. "Opposition to Civil Rights for Legal Migrants in Central and Eastern Europe." East European Politics and Societies: and Cultures 23, no. 2 (April 29, 2009): 146–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0888325408327847.
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We set out to answer three questions: (a) to what extent do (former) EU candidate countries differ from Western European countries regarding opposition to civil rights for legal migrants? (b) to what extent do the (former) EU candidate countries differ among themselves in terms of this particular anti-immigrant sentiment, that is, opposition to civil rights for legal migrants? and (c) to what extent can we explain such cross-national differences, considering cross-national demographic or economic conditions, taking into account individual differences? We found that former EU candidate countries were really on comparable levels as EU member states in terms of opposition to civil rights for legal migrants. We found rather strong differences with countries like Estonia, Latvia and Hungary standing out, whereas countries like Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Lithuania and Turkey showed low levels. We found that these differences were (rather strongly) explained by the migrant stock in the country. Although none of the other national characteristics turned out to reach significance, their parameters were in the direction we proposed.
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Habermas, Jürgen. "Religious Tolerance—The Pacemaker for Cultural Rights." Philosophy 79, no. 1 (January 2004): 5–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0031819104000026.
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Religious toleration first became legally enshrined in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. Religious toleration led to the practice of more general inter-subjective recognition of members of democratic states which took precedence over differences of conviction and practice. After considering the extent to which a democracy may defend itself against the enemies of democracy and to which it should be prepared to tolerate civil disobedience, the article analyses the contemporary dialectic between the notion of civil inclusion and multiculturalism. Religious toleration is seen as the pacemaker for modern multiculturalism, in which the claims of minorities to civic inclusion are recognized so long as members of all groups understand themselves to be citizens of one and the same political community.
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Muskaj, Blerina. "The International Organization, OSCE and Its Presence in Central Eastern Europe." European Journal of Social Sciences 3, no. 1 (January 1, 2020): 83. http://dx.doi.org/10.26417/ejss-2020.v3i1-87.
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International organizations have gained the right importance and have been named as the main actors in international relations with the end of the wars. States realized that it would be more reasonable to cooperate, thus achieving higher and faster results. For this reason, organizations of different types began to be created either by the nature of the operation or the geographic extent. Their roles and objectives have been different, some focus on the political aspects of relations between states and others have more administrative or technical functions to facilitate the work of states and form faster services to individuals. Other organizations deal with security issues and police and human rights issues. In this category are created many organisms, such as NATO, charged with state security and military interventions or the Council of Europe, with the aim of promoting democratic values, implanting them and protecting human rights. The organization that will focus on this paper is the OSCE: Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Among the first created in this area, with objectives to coordinate the work in the fields of state and human security, the fight against terrorism, promotion of democracy and fundamental freedoms, environmental and economic protection, and the area of protection of Human Rights and Minorities, we will mainly see the focus of this organization in East Central Europe. During the time I've been involved with, I tried to bring a historical flow of events to understand how the OSCE missions work in the field and what is the difference with the theory and how the OSCE mission emerges CEE, as a case study Albania.
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Muskaj, Blerina. "The International Organization, OSCE and Its Presence in Central Eastern Europe." European Journal of Social Sciences 3, no. 1 (January 1, 2020): 83. http://dx.doi.org/10.26417/ejss.v3i1.p83-89.
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International organizations have gained the right importance and have been named as the main actors in international relations with the end of the wars. States realized that it would be more reasonable to cooperate, thus achieving higher and faster results. For this reason, organizations of different types began to be created either by the nature of the operation or the geographic extent. Their roles and objectives have been different, some focus on the political aspects of relations between states and others have more administrative or technical functions to facilitate the work of states and form faster services to individuals. Other organizations deal with security issues and police and human rights issues. In this category are created many organisms, such as NATO, charged with state security and military interventions or the Council of Europe, with the aim of promoting democratic values, implanting them and protecting human rights. The organization that will focus on this paper is the OSCE: Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. Among the first created in this area, with objectives to coordinate the work in the fields of state and human security, the fight against terrorism, promotion of democracy and fundamental freedoms, environmental and economic protection, and the area of protection of Human Rights and Minorities, we will mainly see the focus of this organization in East Central Europe. During the time I've been involved with, I tried to bring a historical flow of events to understand how the OSCE missions work in the field and what is the difference with the theory and how the OSCE mission emerges CEE, as a case study Albania.
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Popov, Anton, and Igor Kuznetsov. "Ethnic Discrimination and the Discourse of “Indigenization”: The Regional Regime, “Indigenous Majority” and Ethnic Minorities in Krasnodar Krai in Russia." Nationalities Papers 36, no. 2 (May 2008): 223–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00905990801934322.
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To many in both the East and the West it seemed axiomatic that the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 was due to “nationality reasons,” which were viewed as a natural process in the last empire's decline. Then, during the democratic reform of a totalitarian state, ethnic minority rights were first spoken of, and the growth of national self-awareness appeared to be an integral part of society's liberalization. Time has since shown that liberal changes in the economy and in the political and social spheres are not always accompanied by the establishment of social justice; indeed, it has frequently been minorities who are among the most unfortunate and marginalized groups in society. Defending the rights of minorities and combating ethnic and racial discrimination remains one of the most relevant issues in practically all post-socialist countries of the former Soviet Union and Eastern and Central Europe.
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Ploszka, Adam. "Shrinking Space for Civil Society: A Case Study of Poland." European Public Law 26, Issue 4 (December 1, 2020): 941–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.54648/euro2020072.
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This article discusses the phenomenon of shrinking space for civil society organizations in Poland, a Member States of the European Union and Council of Europe. It describes the tools used by Polish public authorities to restrict the operational capacity of civil society and compares these tools with the applicable constitutional and human rights standards. The article’s summary presents recommendations concerning the methods of addressing this phenomenon in Poland, which are capable of being applied in a broader context of other countries of Central and Eastern Europe. human rights, ECHR, shrinking space, civil society
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Yusoff, Mohammad Agus, Athambawa Sarjoon, and Zawiyah Mohd Zain. "Minorities, Territoriality and Politics for Autonomy: An Analysis of Competing Ethnic Politics in Eastern Sri Lanka." Academic Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 8, no. 2 (July 1, 2019): 68–82. http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/ajis-2019-0018.
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Abstract Regional politics play a decisive role in national politics when region poses ethnic groups in competing manner. Sri Lanka’s Eastern province has been a contested region in terms of ethnic and territorial integration as well as the integration of majority and minorities from the independence of the country, during civil war, and in the post-civil war era. This study explores the ethnic groups’ competition for political control and autonomy, as well as its impact in Eastern Sri Lanka. This study has employed both qualitative and quantitative data, collected mainly through secondary sources such as literary books, book chapters, journal articles, newspaper cuttings, and government documents, which are analyzed and presented through interpretive and descriptive manners. The study has found that the Eastern province has been a contested choice for the ethnic majority to extend their ethnic domination, and to implement ethno-centric development-cum settlement policies and programs, all of which are ultimately induced to change the ethnic composition of the region and pushed ethnic minorities to mobilize and demand for more decentralized power and autonomy in the region. The thirty-year prolonged civil war made the region not only a war-torn, but also let to undermining regional democratic principles, including minorities’ rights for autonomy. The study also reveals that the new emerging post-war political context at the provincial and national levels continues to undermine the minorities’ hopes for autonomy in the region. Nevertheless, the region has emerged as ‘role-model’ for ethnic cohesive politics.
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MAZOWER, MARK. "THE STRANGE TRIUMPH OF HUMAN RIGHTS, 1933–1950." Historical Journal 47, no. 2 (May 24, 2004): 379–98. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0018246x04003723.
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This article explores the origins of the UN's commitment to human rights and links this to the wartime decision to abandon the interwar system of an international regime for the protection of minority rights. After 1918, the League of Nations developed a comprehensive machinery for guaranteeing the national minorities of eastern Europe. But by 1940 the League's policies were widely regarded as a failure and the coalition of forces which had supported them after the First World War had disintegrated. German abuse of the system after 1933, and the Third Reich's use of ethnic German groups as fifth columns to undermine the Versailles settlement were cited by east European politicians as sufficient justification for a new approach which would combine mass expulsion, on the one hand, with a new international doctrine of individual human rights on the other. The Great Powers supported this because they thereby escaped the specific commitments which the previous arrangements had imposed on them, and which Russian control over post-war eastern Europe rendered no longer practicable. But they also supported it because the new rights regime had no binding legal force. In respect, therefore, of the degree to which the principle of absolute state sovereignty was threatened by these arrangements, the rights regime of the new UN represented a considerable weakening of international will compared with the interwar League. But acquiescing in a weaker international organization was probably the price necessary for US and Soviet participation.
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Karadjova, Mariana. "Property Restitution in Eastern Europe: Domestic and International Human Rights Law Responses." Review of Central and East European Law 29, no. 3 (2004): 325–63. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/1573035042132932.
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AbstractThis article presents an overview of how those East European countries that are members of the Council of Europe have approached the problems of restitution as a means of reparation for past injustices. In doing so, attention will be paid to: the entitled persons and the extent of restitution; the underlying motivations vis-à-vis the form of reparation (restitution in kind or compensation), and attitudes towards minority groups and foreigners as part of the restitution process. Emphasis will also be given to the role played by international instruments (the ECHR and its future Protocol 12, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, various UN resolutions, etc), as well as by judicial institutions (the European Court of Human Rights, the UN Human Rights Committee) in the evolution of the restitution process in Eastern Europe in general, and regarding such issues as equality between foreigners and nationals as well as minority and religious groups and the elaboration of an international standard of restitution as reparation for abuses of human rights in particular. The bodies of the ECHR have managed to avoid problems related to restitution and reparations for past injustices by arguing that the right of restitution is not guaranteed by art.1 of Protocol 1 to the the ECHR. But the entry into force of a new Protocol 12 to the Convention will likely result in changes being made in this thought process, at least as regards the position of foreigners. If measures denying restitution, owing to the claimant's nationality, were taken after ratifi cation of Protocol 12, the way should be opened in the future to foreigners (in addition to procedures before the UN Human Rights Committee) to more effectively defend their rights relative to such restorative measures: notably, the possibility of seizing the Strasbourg Court with claims relating to justifi cation for "unequal treatment". The right to remedy the injustices committed to the victims of violations of human rights and international humanitarian law has appeared with increasing frequency on the agenda of the UN Commission on Human Rights. Furthermore, in its recent case law, the UN Human Rights Committee has evidenced a concern over several questions relating to the respect of possessions; it has already opted for the proposition that any discrimination on the basis of nationality in restitution legislation can be deemed to be a violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Lastly, after ratifi cation of Protocol 12, we can expect a link to be forged between the vision of the UN Commission on Human Rights and that of the European Court of Human Rights that may—in the future—lead to the elaboration of a common international mechanism regulating restitution as a means for the reparation of abuses of human rights.
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Pogány, István. "Refashioning Rights in Central and Eastern Europe: Some Implications for the Region’s Roma." European Public Law 10, Issue 1 (March 1, 2004): 85–106. http://dx.doi.org/10.54648/euro2004006.
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This article seeks to provide some insight into the multiple human rights challenges facing the Roma of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Under Communism, the bulk of the Roma benefited from wide-ranging social and economic rights introduced in the CEE states including rights to work, housing, healthcare and education. Paradoxically, the transition to democracy, economic liberty and a new emphasis on civil and political rights has precipitated a massive crisis for the region’s Roma. Subject to spiralling unemployment and sharply escalating living costs, most Roma have not been able to take advantage of the political, cultural or economic opportunities now available to them. Similarly, the recognition of minority rights in both regional instruments and national legislation, particularly since 1990, has had relatively little impact on the Roma of Central and Eastern Europe. Against a background of heightened racial animosity and persistent assaults on Roma victims, many Roma are afraid to assert their identity. For the mass of impoverished Roma, notions of minority rights are irrelevant. Finally, the article explores the failure of criminal justice systems in Central and Eastern Europe to respond to widespread physical intimidation directed against Roma subjects.
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Grizo, Melina, Jovan Ananiev, and Zaneta Poposka. "The Right of the Minorities to Participate in the Public Life on Local Level: The Case of Republic of Macedonia in the Framework of the EU Policy of ‘Regional Approach’." Lex localis - Journal of Local Self-Government 13, no. 3 (July 31, 2015): 879–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.4335/13.3.879-895(2015).
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The paper aims to contribute to the clarification of several aspects of the minorities’ right to participate in public life on local level. It considers the following elements: analysis of the Macedonian legal and constitutional framework; analysis of relevant provision of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the European Union’s treatment of the issue in the framework of its foreign policy of ‘Regional Approach’ (1996-1999). The analysis relies on two comparisons. Firstly, it contrasts the content of the EU conditionality in the field of minority rights developed during the 1990’s in the framework of the eastern enlargement with the content of conditionality in the same field developed in the framework of the ‘Regional Approach’. Secondly, the study encompasses a brief comparison with the later development of the relevant standards within the framework of the subsequently developed EU enlargement policy of Stabilisation and Association Process (SAP). Considering that the EU relies on the standards developed in the system of Council of Europe in the field of minority rights, the analysis in particular attempts to contribute to the understanding of the dynamics of this ‘’borrowing’’, during which the Council and the Commission rely on certain aspects of the body of rules of the Council of Europe, while omitting others.
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Priestly, Tom. "The Position of the Slovenes in Austria: Recent Developments in Political (and other) Attitudes." Nationalities Papers 27, no. 1 (March 1999): 103–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/009059999109217.
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The Slovene-speaking minority in Austria—when compared with many other linguistic minorities in Europe—is in an enviable position. Superficially, its minority rights are both constitutionally guaranteed and, for the most part, legally enforced; in the province of Carinthia/Kärnten/Koroška (the home of nearly all the minority; see Map 1) bilingual education is available in many communities at the primary level, and there is a thriving bilingual secondary school; Slovene is officially used in many offices and churches, and can be heard in many shops and on many street corners; there are two weekly newspapers. The picture below the surface is not quite as pleasant: there is anti-Slovene discrimination in several forms, and the pressure on minority members to Germanize themselves is strong; in particular, it must be emphasized that although the minority enjoys virtually full support from the federal government in Vienna, the provincial government in Carinthia has seldom been as favorably disposed. Still, most of the other minorities in Central and Eastern Europe can only dream of living in conditions like those of the Carinthian Slovenes.
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Szoke, László. "Hungarian Perspectives on Emigration and Immigration in the New European Architecture." International Migration Review 26, no. 2 (June 1992): 305–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/019791839202600207.
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Since the downfall of the dictatorship, Hungary's approach to migration, traditionally a liberal one, is now mainly shaped by the country's intention to be reintegrated into Europe and, to have its migration practice harmonized with that of the Western democracies. Decisionmakers in Budapest show no great concern about emigration, which is expected to remain relatively insignificant. Attention is therefore concentrated on the possibility of a massive influx of immigrants, especially from the neighboring states. This could easily undermine Hungary's political stability and economic development. The question of international migration can be addressed only in an all-European framework. Experts are convinced that migratory pressures originating in Eastern and Central Europe could be considerably limited by measures taken to guarantee the rights of ethnic minorities.
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Kozachuk, Oleh. "Liberal Pluralism and Multiculturalism in Central and Eastern Europe (W. Kymlicka Views’ Analysis)." Історико-політичні проблеми сучасного світу, no. 33-34 (August 25, 2017): 230–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.31861/mhpi2016.33-34.230-237.
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Will Kymlicka is widely known in the world for the research in the field of the theoretical principles of liberal pluralism and justification of the policy of multiculturalism. In his scientific work, he pays attention not onlyto his native Canada but also draws attention to other regions of the world, including Central and Eastern Europe. The scientist asks whether the export of Western model of liberal pluralism and multiculturalism policies available in the region? Are Western models of multiculturalism and minority rights relevant for the post-Communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe? In the following article, we analyze Will Kymlicka’s views on this issue. Kymlicka explains why conventional ways of distinguishing between ethnic relations in the East and West do not help in understanding or responding to ethnic conflicts in the post-Communist world. He argues why the states of Central and Eastern Europe are not inherent in the territorial autonomy in their state building. He also argues why federalism as a form of government is not the solution of interethnic interaction’s problems. In addition, Will Kymlicka tries to highlight the unique characteristics of the region, which do not suggest the possibility of the introduction of liberal pluralism and multiculturalism in Central and Eastern Europe in the near future.
Keywords: Liberal pluralism, multiculturalism, territorial autonomy, federalism, minorities
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Moroz, Olga. "Practical experience of self-government of the italian minority of Slovenia." Bulletin of Mariupol State University. Series: History. Political Studies 11, no. 31-32 (2021): 168–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.34079/2226-2830-2021-11-31-32-168-179.
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The Republic of Slovenia is a multinational state that appeared on the political map of Central and Eastern Europe as a result of disintegrating processes in socialist Yugoslavia. The problems of national minorities have been further deteriorated at the end of the SFRY existence, despite the fact that the Yugoslav leaders tended minority issues. National relations in modern Slovenia are a legacy of the socialist period. Italians and Hungarians are only two of national minorities in the republic who exercise their constitutional rights and guarantees. The Slovenian Constitution defines these minorities as autochthonous (historical). The article offers an analysis of situation and political activity of the autochthonous minorities in Slovenia using the example of the Italian community. Despite the fact that Slovenian Italians enjoy broad powers of autonomy in education, language, and they are actively involved in the political life of the state, there are still a number of unresolved problems of the coexistence of the Italian minority and the Slovenian majority, which are common to both autochthonous minorities and largely concern all other national communities of the Republic of Slovenia. The resettlement of Italians on the territory of Slovenia is characterized by compactness, which positively influenced the processes of consolidation of the minority in the matter of protecting their constitutional rights and guarantees. In the article, the author reasoned conclusion that Slovenian society has always been marked by a high level of xenophobia, also developed on the basis of the consequences of disintegration processes in socialist Yugoslavia. The concept of autochtonomism has become a kind of society response to the threat of external migration, and, according to the official Ljubljana, poses a danger to the titular nation and language. The Italians and Hungarians, in the minds of the Slovenes and the Slovenian government, are the lesser evil compared to the so-called unconstitutional minorities - immigrants from the former SFRY.
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Dembinska, Magdalena, László Máracz, and Márton Tonk. "Introduction to the special section: minority politics and the territoriality principle in Europe." Nationalities Papers 42, no. 3 (May 2014): 355–75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00905992.2013.867934.
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Territorial arrangements for managing interethnic relations within states are far from consensual. Although self-governance for minorities is commonly advocated, international documents are ambiguously formulated. Conflicting pairs of principles, territoriality vs. personality, and self-determination vs. territorial integrity, along with diverging state interests account for this gap. Together, the articles in this special section address the territoriality principle and its hardly operative practice on the ground, with particular attention to European cases. An additional theme reveals itself in the articles: the ambiguity of minority recognition politics. This introductory article briefly presents these two common themes, followed by an outline of three recent proposals discussed especially in Eastern Europe that seek to bypass the controversial territorial autonomy model: cultural rights in municipalities with a “substantial” proportion of minority members; the cultural autonomy model; and European regionalism and multi-level governance.
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Barwiński, Marek. "Polish Interstate Relations with Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania After 1990 in the Context of the Situation of National Minorities." European Spatial Research and Policy 20, no. 1 (July 3, 2013): 5–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.2478/esrp-2013-0001.
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When we compare the contemporary ethnic structure and national policy of Poland and its eastern neighbours, we can see clear asymmetry in both quantitative and legal-institutional aspects. There is currently a markedly smaller population of Ukrainians, Belarusians and Lithuanians living in Poland than the Polish population in the territories of our eastern neighbours. At the same time, the national minorities in Poland enjoy wider rights and better conditions to operate than Poles living in Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania.
Additional complicating factor in bilateral relations between national minority and the home state is different political status of Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine and different processes of transformation the consequence of which is differentiated state of political relations of Poland with its eastern neighbours. Lithuania, like Poland, is a member of EU, Ukraine, outside the structures of European integration, pursued a variable foreign policy, depending on the ruling options and the economic situation, and Belarus, because of internal policy which is unacceptable in the EU countries, is located on the political periphery of Europe.
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Donskis, Leonidas. "War and Peace in Eastern Europe: The Ukrainian Lessons." Romanian Journal for Baltic and Nordic Studies 6, no. 2 (December 15, 2014): 7–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.53604/rjbns.v16i2_2.
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The issue of war and peace in Eastern Europe is discussed in this interpretive essay on the grounds of war between Russia and Ukraine in Eastern Ukraine. Focus is on what happened to the worlds of geopolitics, EU core values, European liberal consensus on human rights and civil liberties, and present Russia with its increasing rejection of the aforementioned liberal attitudes and democratic values. Made up by a series of insights into the clashes of Russian and EU politics, this essay offers a philosophical perspective on why and how ongoing low intensity conflicts waged and orchestrated by Russia in Ukraine and in Eastern Partnership countries substantially changed the character of war and peace over the past years. The question raised here is as to what kind of political implications we can expect from this process. The trajectories of moral and political consciousness in present Russia and the EU are examined and compared with the help of an overview of some recent political and cultural events.
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Rikhof, Joseph. "Exclusion Law and International Law: Sui Generis or Overlap?" International Journal on Minority and Group Rights 20, no. 2 (2013): 199–232. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/15718115-02002004.
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There exists a strong synergy between the regulation at the international level of minority rights, asylum and criminal prosecutions of violations of human rights. The aspirations of minorities as a human right are recognised in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights while the violation of such a right can confer on a victim the status of refugee in a third country. As well, persons who are responsible for causing very serious disruptions to the rights of minorities and other groups can be brought to justice for the commission of genocide and crimes against humanity, particularly persecution. While in general there has been a clear distinction between the granting of asylum or refugee status to victims of persecution one hand and the prosecution of perpetrators of persecution on the other, these two notions have been brought together into the concept of exclusion in order to address the phenomenon of persons with a criminal background being part of the refugee stream arriving in a third country. Exclusion is an essential part of refugee law to ensure that persons who have committed criminal acts will not benefit from the benefits set out in the Refugee Convention. This article will discuss the parameters of exclusion as determined by the jurisprudence in six countries in North America and Europe where this issue has been at the forefront in the last decade.
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Niessen, Jan. "The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe and Other European Fora on Migration." International Migration Review 28, no. 3 (September 1994): 580–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/019791839402800308.
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In the 1970s, during the Cold War era, European and North American states began a dialogue in Helsinki which became known as the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), or the Helsinki process. For Western states the CSCE served as a platform to raise questions related to security in Europe and the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Eastern European states considered the CSCE as a means to secure the postwar borders and an opportunity to discuss economic and scientific cooperation. Today, 51 European States, plus the United States of America and Canada, participate in this process. Notwithstanding the many and often intense political tensions between the West and the East during those twenty years, quite a number of conferences, seminars and other meetings were held and a great many agreements were adopted and documents issued, dealing with matters related to CSCE's three main areas of concern: security in Europe; cooperation in the fields of economics, science, technology and environment; the promotion of human rights. In response to the fundamental changes in Europe in the late 1980s, the CSCE was given a new impetus and its operational framework was broadened. CSCE offices were established in Prague (CSCE Secretariat), Vienna (Conflict Prevention Center) and Warsaw (Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights) with the aim to strengthen and monitor compliance with CSCE commitments, especially in the area of human rights. A Parliamentary Assembly was established and met twice, first in Budapest and then in Helsinki. A General Secretary and a High Commissioner on Minorities were appointed, with offices in Vienna and The Hague, respectively.
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Gearty, C. A. "The European Court of Human Rights and the Protection of Civil Liberties: an Overview." Cambridge Law Journal 52, no. 1 (March 1993): 89–127. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0008197300017256.
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It is doubtful whether there is a more famous court in Europe than the European Court of Human Rights. The town in which it is located, Strasbourg, has become a rallying cry for disappointed litigants from Iceland to Istanbul. Through its application of the European Convention on Human Rights, the Court is seen to have played an important role in the protection of individual freedom in western Europe, and its case-law has ballooned dramatically in recent years. So successful has it been that the Court's jurisdiction is coveted by the newly emerging democracies in eastern and central Europe as a badge of legitimacy and a bulwark against future tyranny. Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Bulgaria already have judges on the Court and representatives from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are expected in the not too distant future. There is even talk of Russian membership. Moves are afoot to rationalise the Court's procedures, and to incorporate its law within the European Community.1 Some- time in the next few years it will have a fine new building, designed by Sir Richard Rogers. All the signs are that its jurisprudence will continue to grow at a hectic pace. It is not improbable that the Court will emerge over time as a supreme court of Europe, at least so far as human rights are concerned.
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Medda-Windischer, Roberta. "New Minorities, Old Instruments? A Common but Differentiated System of Minority Protection." International Community Law Review 13, no. 4 (2011): 361–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/187197311x599441.
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AbstractQuestions concerning whether and how the rights of minorities should be recognised in politics, and how to maintain and strengthen the bonds of community in ethnically diverse societies are among the most salient and vexing on the political agenda of many societies. All policies that seek to reconcile social cohesion, unity and diversity are confronted with a veritable mine-field of dilemmas. Whatever policy options, or mixes of policy options, one wants to choose, one has to face hard trade-offs and serious policy-problems that have been addressed, though in different ways, by moral and political philosophers, political theorists, social scientists, lawyers and by politicians and civil servants. The present paper contends that it is possible to address these issues by bridging two fields of research: minorities and migration. Studying the interaction and complementarities between old and new minority groups is a rather new task because so far these topics have been studied in isolation from each other. It is also an important task for future research in Europe where many states have established systems of old minority rights, but have not yet developed sound policies for the integration of new minority groups originating from migration.
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Anderson, Christopher J., Aida Paskeviciute, Maria Elena Sandovici, and Yuliya V. Tverdova. "In the Eye of the Beholder?" Comparative Political Studies 38, no. 7 (September 2005): 771–98. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0010414004274399.
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Using cross-national survey data and information on government practices concerning human rights collected in 17 post-Communist states in Central and Eastern Europe, the authors examine the determinants of people’s attitudes about their country’s human rights situation. They find that not all people in countries that systematically violate human rights develop more negative opinions about their country’s human rights situation. However, results show high levels of disregard for human rights strongly affect evaluations of human rights practices among individuals with higher levels of education. Thus better educated respondents were significantly more likely to say there was respect for human rights in their country if they lived in a country with fewer violations of the integrity of the person or that protected political and civil rights; conversely, they were less likely to say so if they lived in a more repressive country or a country where political and civil rights were frequently violated.
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Lerner, Natan. "A Review of: “Peter G. Danchin and Elizabeth A. Cole (eds.), Protecting the Human Rights of Religious Minorities in Eastern Europe.”." Nationalism and Ethnic Politics 11, no. 3 (October 2005): 420–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13537110590934397.
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Kochenov, Dimitry. "Democracy and Human Rights-Not for Gay People?: EU Eastern Enlargement and Its Impact on the Protection of the Rights of Sexual Minorities." Texas Wesleyan Law Review 13, no. 2 (March 2007): 459–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.37419/twlr.v13.i2.7.
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Gays and lesbians in Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs) did not have any rights under communism, where homosexuality had either been a criminal offence or, at best, the official attitude towards it could be characterised as repressive tolerance. The development of civil rights and freedoms, which started after the collapse of the communist regimes, did not immediately result in a break through in the sphere of gay rights: "[i]n the midst of the multifaceted transformation of [the CEECs], the status of gay and lesbian residents has undergone varied and dramatic changes and is still in flux." Many hopes for change in this situation were related to the process of enlargement of the European Union (EU) and were fuelled by the belief that the EU would ensure that no country turning a blind eye to the problems related to gay rights and allowing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation would be permitted to join. As it turned out, these hopes were only partly justified. The actions of the EU were timid, ill-focused, and stopped short of realising the potential for change offered by the legal context of enlargement preparation. Such developments can be explained by the limited nature of Community competences in this field, especially true at the very beginning of the enlargement process and which were certainly influenced by the questionable gay rights record of the European Court of Justice (ECJ). The EU did not decouple the pre-accession human rights monitoring of the candidate countries from its own internal incompetence in the field of gay rights and the limited scope of the acquis in this area. While the situation improved slightly over the last few years preceding the enlargement, it is clear that the current adopted practice is unsustainable and that the EU should seriously consider allowing gay rights to play a more prominent role in the course of the preparation of future enlargements.
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Mullins, Marty Manor. "Forgotten Velvet: Understanding Eastern Slovakia's 1989." New Perspectives 27, no. 3 (October 2019): 1–38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2336825x1902700304.
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By focussing on the experience of Eastern Slovakia during Czechoslovakia's 1989 Velvet Revolution, this article examines the motivations propelling local revolutionaries who opposed the Communist regime at great risk to themselves and their families. It asks what inspired those who countered the government 30 years ago and argues that, for many, ideological factors were the primary driver, rather than economic considerations. Exploring these questions through the lens of Košice provides a counterpoint to accounts of the Velvet Revolution in Prague and Bratislava, which have come to dominate understandings of Czechoslovakia in 1989 and which obscure the particularities of the revolution in other significant places across the country. The text draws on regional archival and period newspaper accounts which foreground the voices of students, steel workers, dramatists, minorities and local Communist Party leaders. These sources indicate the active but uncertain nature of civil society in those crucial November and December days. The article also underscores the urban rivalry between Bratislava and Košice, which manifested itself when Košice sided with Prague's protest organization over Bratislava's. The 30th anniversary of the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe provides a timely platform for a glimpse into the largely untold story of Eastern Slovakia's Velvet Revolution.
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Marangudakis, Manussos, and William Kelly. "Strategic Minorities and the Global Network of Power: Western Thrace and Northern Ireland in Comparative Perspective." Sociological Research Online 4, no. 4 (February 2000): 28–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.5153/sro.389.
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The relationship between ethnic communities who share a common national space is often affected by factors above civil society, such as inter-state relations, political and economic alliances, and geopolitical interests. The relevance of ethnic minorities’ identity and behaviour to the international political environment becomes clear whenever an ethnic minority occupies territory of geopolitical and/or geo-economic importance to countries with conflicting interests in the area - we will call such a minority, ‘strategic minority’. Using a model of ‘network compatibility’ we could delineate the mechanisms and factors which affect the social outlook of a given minority. To highlight the paramount importance of national and international relations in shaping ethnic minorities’ identity and behaviour the paper examines and compares two strategic minorities situated at the fringes of Europe: The Northern Irish Catholic minority and the Muslim minority in Western Thrace, North Eastern Greece. Using as our analytic tool the theory of ‘networks of social power’ we tentatively conclude that the formation as well as the current identity, status, and behaviour of the two minorities cannot be fully understood unless we examine the role of the two sets of neighboring countries (G. Britain - Ireland, and Greece - Turkey), as well as the two major Western political powers, i.e., the European Union, and the United States, in the two contested regions.
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Carboni, Luca. "Nascita e morte delle rappresentanze pontificie e dei loro archivi nell’Europa centro-orientale. Dalla “grande guerra” alla “guerra fredda” (1918–1952)." Textus et Studia, no. 2(2) (May 8, 2017): 117–77. http://dx.doi.org/10.15633/tes.01206.
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Birth and death of pontifical representatives and their archives in Central Eastern Europe. From the “great war” to the “cold war” At the end of World War I in the Central Eastern Europe new national states replaced the multinational empires. The international policy of the Holy See aimed at the recognition of the new nation-states, which had numerous non-native minorities on its territory. The Holy See, despite the difference in approaching to the Eastern issues between Benedict XV and his successor Pius XI, opened new apostolic nunciatures (and where it was not possible new apostolic delegations) whose main purpose was to sign concordats to define the generality of relations between State and Church, mainly by ensuring the freedom of ecclesiastical appointments (against the ancient rights of patronage) and dissolving the conflict between local hierarchy and the Holy See in favor of the latter, thanks to the new role assigned to the papal nuncios. The article traces the vicissitudes that had to face during the interwar period the pontifical representatives in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, often in situations where national identity was identified with the religious one. With the outbreak of World War II and the advent of the new pope Pius XII, the Holy See had to face the sad period of the war, trying to maintain a benevolent neutrality towards someone and a critical one towards others. At the end of the conflict, with the birth of the “Iron Curtain”, the strong action against the danger of an “impassive omnipotence of a materialistic state, without a celestial ideal, no religion and no God” assumed, in the eyes of the pope, the perspective of an apocalyptic struggle between good and evil, which led in a few years to close all the pontifical representatives.
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Hausman, Daniel M. "Liberalism, Welfare Economics, and Freedom." Social Philosophy and Policy 10, no. 2 (1993): 172–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0265052500004192.
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With the collapse of the centrally controlled economies and the authoritarian governments of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics, political leaders are, with appreciable public support, espousing “liberal” economic and political transformations—the reinstitution of markets, the securing of civil and political rights, and the establishment of representative governments. But those supporting reform have many aims, and the liberalism to which they look for political guidance is not an unambiguous doctrine.
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Przedańska, Justyna. "The faces of freedom in the concepts of a liberal and non-liberal state." Studia nad Autorytaryzmem i Totalitaryzmem 43, no. 1 (November 17, 2021): 155–72. http://dx.doi.org/10.19195/2300-7249.43.1.10.
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The last decade has exposed the recession of freedom throughout the world. It arises from the latest Freedom in the World 2020 report that civil liberties and political rights have deteriorated in 64 countries, while only 37 have seen a slight improvement in these areas. The principles of liberal democracy (the rule of law, free elections, minority rights and freedom of expression) in Europe, historically the best-performing region in terms of freedom in the world, have come under serious pressure in recent years.
In the article, starting from an analysis of the categories of freedom presented in many aspects, followed by a discussion of the assumptions and concepts of liberalism, as well as the political project referred to as non-liberal democracy, which has grown out of their criticism, the author identifies the problem of instrumentalization and relativization of freedom, which leads to the restriction of freedom of speech, freedom of minorities, religious freedom and sexual freedom, replacing the individual freedoms of the citizens with the so-called collective freedom.
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MacFarlane, S. Neil. "Democratization, Nationalism and Regional Security in the Southern Caucasus." Government and Opposition 32, no. 3 (July 1997): 399–420. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1477-7053.1997.tb00777.x.
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FOR SOME YEARS NOW, WESTERN ACADEMICS AND POLICY-MAKERS HAVE embraced the cause of democratic reform in Central and Eastern Europe. To take but one well-known example, President Clinton in the 1994 State of the Union Address cited the absence of war among democracies as a reason for promotion of democracy around the world. Assistance to former Warsaw Pact and newly independent states has been made conditional to varying degrees on the acceptance of democratic change. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the European Union, the United States Agency for International Development and associated non-governmental organizations have unleashed armies of promoters of democracy throughout the region to: observe elections; monitor human rights; draft new constitutions and laws defending civil and political rights; train judges and police personnel; and organize and assist political parties, media and non-governmental pressure groups. In short, they have sought to transplant the fabric of civil society and democratic institutions. These armies have landed on terrain often quite foreign to them and have often displayed little sensitivity to the social, economic and political context in which they are operating. This may have contributed to results other than those intended.
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Datta, Neil. "Modern-Day Crusaders in Europe. Tradition, Family and Property." Političke perspektive 8, no. 3 (May 23, 2019): 69–105. http://dx.doi.org/10.20901/pp.8.3.03.
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Three recent events affecting human rights in sexuality and reproduction (a proposed ban on abortion in Poland, blocking support for She Decides in Croatia and halting a civil union law in Estonia) were spearheaded by organizations which appear to be the national antennae of the transnational, socially conservative network called Tradition, Family and Property (TFP). TFP refers to a set of interrelated conservative, Catholic-inspired organizations which share a common world view inspired by the TFP founder, Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira. Originating in Brazil in 1960 and eventually spreading throughout the world, TFP has long been an insurrection movement within Catholicism, with a distinct way of working by fusing social conservatism with economic hyper-liberalism and a legacy of complicity with far-right movements. Having withered away from Latin America, TFP is now an active European network with positions against sexual and reproductive rights (SRR ) among its priorities. TFP’s influence on SRR takes three main routes: social mobilization; norm entrepreneur and entering decision-making spaces. TFP has found new horizons in Eastern Europe and ambitions to influence the European Union and the United Nations. The reactionary narrative of TFP espousing religious orthodoxy and sanctifying economic inequality could become attractive to some by offering religious legitimization for illiberalism and authoritarianism.
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Macewicz, Jakub J. "SYSTEM TRANSFORMATION IN CENTRAL AND EASTERN EUROPE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND SUBJECTIVE WELL‐BEING." CREATIVITY STUDIES 3, no. 2 (December 31, 2010): 133–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.3846/limes.2010.14.
Full textAbstract:
One of the vital questions connected with the system transformation in Poland and other former Soviet Bloc countries is whether the overthrow of the communist system was caused by the poor state of their economies or rather people's struggle for their civil rights. However, the “either/or nature” of this question is disturbed by another possibility: it might have been a relatively good state of the economy which made the overthrow possible. Moreover, there is no doubt that the introduction of free market and democracy resulted in many positive changes in people's lives: from the increase in life expectancy and subjective well‐being to the growth of civil liberty. Yet, economic development and (more broadly) modernity also produce extensively described negative effects which, at certain point, seem to “neutralise” their positive ones. Poland and other Central and Eastern European countries seem to follow this path. Sistemos transformacija vidurio ir Rytų Europoje, ekonomikos plėtra ir subjektyvioji gerovė Santrauka Vienas svarbiausių klausimų, susijusių su sistemos transformacija Lenkijoje ir kitose buvusiose sovietinio bloko šalyse, yra toks – ar komunistinio režimo nuvertimas buvo sukeltas neturtingų valstybių ekonomikos, ar žmonių kovos dėl savo teisių? Kad ir kaip būtų, šio klausimo atsakymui „arba... arba“ trukdo kita galimybė: tai galėtų būti gera valstybė, kurios ekonomika sudarė palankias sąlygas nuversti minėtą režimą. Be to, nėra abejonių, kad laisvos rinkos ir demokratijos įvedimas sukėlė daug pozityvių pokyčių žmonių gyvenime – nuo didėjančių galimybių ir gerovės iki augančios pilietinės laisvės. Vis dėlto ekonomikos plėtra ir modernumas taip pat sukelia plačiai aprašytų negatyvių pasekmių, kurios tam tikrais atvejais naikina pozityviąsias. Lenkija ir kitos Vidurio bei Rytų Europos šalys eina šiuo keliu.