The issue of nationality has always been very sharp. This is due not only to artificial factors, but also to the historical development of mankind. In primitive society, a stranger has always been perceived negatively, as a threat or “annoying” element that you want to get rid of. In the modern world, this issue has acquired more civilized forms, but still remains a key one. It makes no sense to condemn or give any assessments, since the behavior of people is mainly controlled by the herd instinct when it comes to “strangers”.
What is a national minority?
National minorities are groups of people who live in a particular country as its citizens. However, they do not belong to the indigenous or settled population of the territory and are considered a separate national community. Minorities may have the same rights and obligations as the general population, but attitudes toward them are often not very good for many reasons.
Vladimir Chaplinsky, a Polish scientist who carefully studied this topic, believes that national minorities are consolidated groups of people who most often live in certain regions of the country, strive for autonomy, but do not want to lose their ethnic characteristics - culture, language, religion , traditions, etc. Their numerical expression is much less than the ordinary population of the country. It is also important that national minorities never occupy a dominant or priority value in a state; their interests are more likely to be relegated to the background. Any recognized minority must live in the territory of a given country for a rather long period. It is also noteworthy that they need special protection from the state, as the population and individual citizens may be too aggressive towards another national group. Such behavior is very common in all countries of the world where certain ethnic groups of people live.
The protection of the rights of national minorities is a key issue in a number of countries, because the global acceptance of minorities does not lead to widespread change. Many countries are only adopting the first legislation to protect minorities.
The emergence of this issue
The rights of national minorities have become an urgent topic due to the fact that this issue is rather closely linked to state policy. Of course, the concept arose and was introduced into everyday life due to discrimination of the population on a national basis. As interest in this issue was only growing, the state could not remain aloof.
But what caused the interest in minorities? It all began in the 19th century, when many empires began to disintegrate. This entailed the fact that the population was “out of work”. The collapse of the empire of Napoleon, the Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman Empire, World War II - all this entailed the liberation of many people, even peoples. Many states gained independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The concept of "representative of a national minority" began to be used only in XVII in international law. At first it concerned only small regional minorities. The clearly formulated and correctly formulated question of minorities was raised only in 1899 at one of the congresses of the Social Democratic Party.
There is no exact and unified definition of the term. But the first attempts to form the essence of minorities belonged to the Austrian socialist O. Bauer.
Criteria
The criteria for national minorities were highlighted in 1975. A group of social scientists from the University of Helsinki decided to conduct a voluminous study on the topic of ethnic groups in each country. According to the results of the study, the following criteria for national minorities were identified:
- the common origin of the ethnic group;
- high self-identification;
- pronounced cultural features (especially their own language);
- the presence of a certain social organization that ensures productive interaction within and outside the minority.
It is important to note that scientists from the University of Helsinki did not focus on the number of groups, but on certain aspects of social and behavioral observations.
Another criterion can be considered positive discrimination, in which minorities are given many rights in different spheres of society. Such a situation is possible only with the correct state policy.
It is worth noting that countries whose national minority are a very small number of people tend to be more tolerant of them. This is due to a psychological phenomenon - in small groups, society does not see a threat and considers them fully controlled. Despite the quantitative component, the culture of national minorities is their main wealth.
Legal regulation
The issue of minorities was raised back in 1935. Then the Permanent Court of International Justice said that having minorities is a matter of fact, but not of law. An unclear legislative definition of a national minority is included in paragraph 32 of the 1990 SSCC Copenhagen Document. It says that a person can belong to any minority consciously, that is, of his own free will.
UN Declaration
Legal regulation of minorities exists in almost every country in the world. In each of them there is a certain community of people with their own ethnic group, culture, language, etc. All this only enriches the indigenous population of the territory. In many countries of the world there are legislative acts that control the development of minorities in the national, cultural and socio-economic terms. After the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic Minorities, this issue became of an international level. The declaration enshrines the rights of minorities to national identity, the ability to use their culture, speak their native language and have a free religion. Minorities can also form associations, establish contacts with their ethnic group living in another country, and participate in decisions that directly affect them. The declaration establishes the state’s responsibilities for the protection and protection of national minorities, taking into account their interests in foreign and domestic policies, providing conditions for the development of a minority culture, etc.
Framework convention
The creation of the UN Declaration served the fact that in a number of European countries legislative acts began to be created that disclosed the rights and obligations of national minorities living in one or another territory. It is worth noting that this issue really became serious only after UN intervention. Now the issue of minorities should not be regulated independently by the state, but based on world practice.
Since the 80s, the creation, development and improvement of a multilateral treaty has been actively pursued. This lengthy process ended with the adoption of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. She pointed out that the protection of minorities and the provision of appropriate rights to them had become a full-fledged part of the project on the international protection of the rights of an individual. To date, 36 countries have signed the Framework Convention. The Convention on National Minorities has shown that the world is not indifferent to the fate of certain ethnic groups.
At the same time, the CIS countries decided to adopt their universal law on the protection of minorities. The widespread creation of international documents on national minorities suggests that the issue has ceased to be a state issue and has become international.
Problems
We must not forget that countries that sign international treaties receive new problems. The provisions of the Convention provide for a significant change in legislation. Thus, a country needs to either change its legislative system or adopt many separate international acts. It should also be noted that in no international document can one find the definition of the term “national minorities”. This leads to a number of difficulties, since each state separately has to create and find signs that are recognized as common to all minorities. This all takes a long time, so the process is very slow. Despite international activity in this regard, in practice, things are somewhat worse. In addition, even the created criteria are often very incomplete and inaccurate, which causes a lot of problems and misunderstandings. Do not forget about the negative elements of each society, which only want to profit from this or that law. Thus, we understand that there are a lot of problems in this area of regulation by international law. They are solved gradually and individually, depending on the politics and personal preferences of each state.
Legal regulation in different countries of the world
The rights of national minorities vary widely around the world. Despite the general and international acceptance of minorities as a separate group of people, which should have their rights, the attitude of individual political leaders can still be subjective. The absence of clear, detailed criteria for the selection of a minority only contributes to this influence. Consider the situation and problems of national minorities in different parts of the world.
In the documents of the Russian Federation there is no specific definition of the term. However, it is often used not only in international documents of the Russian Federation, but also in the Constitution of Russia. It is worth noting that the protection of minorities is considered in the context of the conduct of the federation and in the context of the joint conduct of the federation and its subjects. National minorities in Russia have enough rights, therefore it cannot be said that the Russian Federation is too conservative.
Ukrainian legislation tried to explain the term “national minority”, saying that this is a certain group of people who are not Ukrainians on a national basis, have their own ethnic identity and communities within themselves.
The Estonian Cultural Autonomy Act states that a national minority is an Estonian citizen who has been historically and ethnically associated with it for a long time, but differs from the Estonians in their particular culture, religion, language, traditions, etc. That is what is a sign of minority self-identification.
Latvia adopted the Framework Convention. Latvian legislation defines minorities as citizens of a country who are distinguished by culture, language and religion, but for centuries have been attached to this territory. It is also indicated that they belong to Latvian society, preserve and develop their own culture.
In Slavic countries, the attitude towards persons of national minorities is more loyal than in other countries of the world. For example, national minorities in Russia exist almost on the same basis as indigenous Russians, while in some countries minorities are not even recognized as existing.
Other approaches to the issue
In the world there are countries that differ in their special approach to the issue of national minorities. There can be many reasons for this. One of the most frequent is a long centuries-long hostility with a minority, which for a long time hindered the development of the country, oppressed the indigenous people and sought to occupy the most favorable position in society. Countries that look at the issue of minorities differently include France and North Korea.
France is the only EU country that has refused to sign the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. Also, before this, the French Constitutional Council rejected the ratification of the European Charter for Regional Languages.
The official documents of the country say that there are no minorities in France, and also that constitutional considerations do not allow France to sign international acts on the protection and accession of national minorities. UN bodies believe that the state should decisively revise its views on this issue, since officially there are many linguistic, ethnic and religious minorities in the country who must have their legal rights. Nevertheless, at the moment, this issue has hung in the air, since France does not want to reconsider its decision.
North Korea is a country that in many ways differs from other countries in the world. It is not surprising that in this matter she did not agree with the majority opinion. Official documents say that the DPRK is a state of one nation, which is why the question of the existence of minorities cannot exist in principle. However, it is obvious that this is not so. Minorities are present almost everywhere; it is an ordinary fact that stems from historical and territorial aspects. Well, if unspoken minorities are raised to the level of the indigenous population, this is only for the better. However, it is possible that minorities are severely infringed on their rights not only by the state, but also by individuals who are hateful and aggressive towards minorities.
Society attitude
The law on national minorities is observed differently in each country. Despite official recognition of minorities, minority discrimination, racism, and social exclusion are often found in every society. There can be many reasons for this: different views on religion, rejection and rejection of a different nationality as such, etc. It is not worth saying that discrimination by society is a serious problem that can lead to many serious and complex conflicts at the state level. In the UN, the issue of minorities has been relevant for about 60 years. Despite this, many states remain indifferent to the fate of any group within the country.
The attitude of society towards national minorities largely depends on state policy, its intensity and persuasiveness. Many people just like to hate, because they still won’t be punished for it. However, hatred never ends just like that. People unite in groups, and here mass psychology begins to manifest itself. What one person would never do because of fear or morality breaks out when he is in a crowd. Similar situations really took place to be in many countries of the world. In each case, this led to terrible consequences, deaths and crippled lives.
The issue of national minorities in every society should be raised from an early age, so that children learn to respect a person of a different nationality and understand that they have equal rights. There is no uniform development of this issue in the world: some countries are actively succeeding in enlightenment, some are still captured by primitive hatred and stupidity.
Negative moments
Ethnic ethnic minorities have many problems, even in the modern intelligent world. Most often, discrimination against a minority is not based on racism or hatred, but on ordinary factors dictated by the socio-economic aspect. This largely depends on the state, which, most likely, does not pay enough attention to the social security of its citizens.
Most often, problems arise in the areas of recruitment, education and housing. Studies and interviews with many leading experts indicate that the practice of discrimination against national minorities really takes place. Many employers may refuse to be hired for various reasons. Especially such discrimination applies to arrivals from Asia and people of Caucasian nationality. If at a low level, when you just need cheap labor, this question is less obvious, but when hiring a highly paid position, this trend is very bright.
With regard to education, employers often do not trust the diplomas of persons from minorities for many reasons. Indeed, there is an opinion that foreign students come just to get a plastic certificate of education.
The issue of housing also remains very relevant. Ordinary citizens do not want to risk and take their own walls to suspicious persons. They prefer to give up profits than to contact people of a different nationality. However, each question has a price. That is why it is most difficult for foreign students who do not have too much money at their disposal. Those who can afford a good existence, most often get what they want.
The protection of national minorities is an important issue for the entire world community, because every person, as a result of historical events, may be a member of the minority. Unfortunately, not all countries are ready to understand and accept ethnic groups with which there has been enmity in the past. However, the protection of national minorities reaches a new level every year. This is shown by world statistics, as the rules are becoming more and more loyal.