SUBJECT

Title

Minority Rights and Minority Protection

Type of instruction

lecture

Level

master

Part of degree program
Credits

4

Recommended in

Semester 1

Typically offered in

Autumn semester

Course description

The course aims at analysing the various rights-based approaches to recognizing minorities. As for instance: justification of minority rights, individual v. collective rights, discrimination and affirmative action, the security-based approach. That is also an important question, how these can be connected to the analysis of specific and specialized legal systems and institutions, which would include the assessment of indigenous rights, refugee protection, diaspora policies, legal conceptualization of minority identity and the processing of ethnic data. The seminars will also discuss the main documents of minority protection accepted by various international organisations (UN, Council of Europe, OSCE) and the accessible monitoring mechanisms. The lectures will deal with the ambitions of EU minority protection, and analyze the important relevations of the monitoring mechanism of minority protection in connection with Hungary.

Readings

  • Benoit-Rohmer, Florence: The Minority Question in Europe: towards a coherent system of protection for national minorities. Starsbourg: Council of Europe Publishing, 1996.
  • Kinga Gál (ed.): Minority Governance in Europe. OSI, Budapest, 2002.
  • Henrard, Kristin: Devising an Adequate System of Minority Protection. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 2000.
  • Thornberry, Patrick: International Law and the Rights of Minorities. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.
  • Bruce White William: Human rights and national security. Harvard Human Rights Journal. 2004. 17.
  • Balázs, Majtényi – Balázs, Vizi (eds.): A Minority in Europe. (Selected International Documents Regarding the Roma) Gondolat Kiadó, Budapest, 2006.
  • Máté Dániel, Szabó (ed.) Privacy protection and Minority Rights. Budapest, Eötvös Károly Policy Institute, 2009
  • Balázs, Majtényi: What Has Happened to Our Model Child? The Creation and Evolution of the Hungarian Minority Act European Yearbook of Minority Issues Vol. 5. 2006.
  • Beyond Sovereignty: From Satus Law to Trans-national Citizenship? /Editor in chief: Osamu Ieda/ Sapporo, Slavic Research Center, Hokkaido University, 2006.