The minorities in Europe under the EU and the UN protection

Résumé du document

"We must do more to prevent conflicts happening at all. Most conflicts happen in [?] countries, especially those which are badly governed or where power and wealth are very unfairly distributed between ethnic or religious groups. So the best way to prevent conflict is promote political arrangements in which all groups are fairly represented, combined with human rights, minority rights and broad-based economic development." said the former Secretary General of the UN on the 3rd of April 2000 in the introduction of his Millennium Report. In this way, he showed the strategic role of the minority rights protection. This statement tallies with the various declarations and documents adopted by the UN and the EU in favor of the minority rights, there is obviously an increasing will to protect them and a consciousness of the impact of the violations of these rights. However history shows that goodwill is usually not sufficient to solve this type of continuing issues.

Extraits

[...] - Forum on Minority Issues, Resolution 6/15, Human Rights Council, 21st meeting 28, September 2007. (Available on http://ap.ohchr.org/documents/E/HRC/resolutions/A_HRC_RES_6_15.pdf). - Mc Dougall “Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the rights to development”, Report of the independent expert on minority issues, A/HRC/7/23/Add March 2008. (Available on http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G08/115/12/PDF/G0811512.pdf?OpenEleme nt). - “Rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities”, Human Rights Resolution 2005/79, The Commission on Human Rights, 60th meeting April 2005. [...]

[...] The EU international commitments In addition to its own commitments in favour of minorities in Europe, the EU is also indirectly involved in the promotion and the respect of minority rights through its commitments to UN texts. Regarding the theoretical statements of the UN and the EU one can not see significant differences. Consequently the UN documents concerning minority rights constitute mainly a strengthening of the others EU declarations on the subject. It is interesting to notice the same evolution regarding the texts protecting the minority rights in the UN as in the EU, at the beginning the protection of the minorities was underlying in documents concerning human rights in general such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. [...]

[...] There are other documents really specific to improve the situation of the minorities that have been adopted during the past decade, for example the 1996 Hague Recommendations Regarding the Education Rights of National Minorities, the 1998 Oslo Recommendations Regarding the Linguistic Rights of National Minorities, and the Lund Recommendations on the Effective Participation of National Minorities in Public Life, September 1999[8]. The importance of these texts is due to the fact that they underline the will to continue and to specify the minority rights protection. [...]

[...] But the EU has showed some involvement into the subject far before the Copenhagen criteria. Obviously, the EU or at that time the European Economic Community made some statements against all forms of discrimination before 1993, as for example in the Convention for protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms signed in Rome in the 4th of November 1950 : "The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in this Convention on any ground such as sex, race, colour, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, association with a national minority, property, birth or other status If the first EU commitments were usually against discrimination in general, the Copenhagen criteria show that the EU progressively focuses more precisely on the issue of minority rights. [...]

[...] The minorities in Europe under the EU and the UN protection To what extent is the EU protecting and promoting minorities through its own commitments and the UN documents? The Roma community of Pata Rat, built near the garbage dump of Cluj, Romania. Introduction "We must do more to prevent conflicts happening at all. Most conflicts happen in [ ] countries, especially those which are badly governed or where power and wealth are very unfairly distributed between ethnic or religious groups. [...]