Suchergebnisse

Abstract
This contribution accounts for the key 2020 international developments related to social inclusion, economic and cultural rights, education and issues concerning media in the context of European minorities. Among the most significant advancements are the recognition of the associative element of the right to peaceful assembly in General Comment No. 37 to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; and clarification the scope of positive obligations in two European Court of Human Rights cases, those of Adám and others v. Romania concerning education in minority languages and of Hudorovič and others v. Slovenia related to accessing fresh water and sanitation by minority communities. No less significant is the speeding up of the process of elaborating a concrete definition of 'a minority' by the UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues.

The present article reviews international developments in 2021 which relate to cultural activities and facilities in the context of European minorities, not to mention mediarelated problems and– more broadly– freedom of expression. Among the highlights are the series of cases from the European Court of Human Rights; these specify the criteria for counteracting hate speech in public discourse and the rules for investigating alleged racial bias in the ill-treatment of members of national minorities by law enforcement bodies. The theme of strengthening the freedom of minority self-identification and pursuing two-way cultural exchange in diverse societies is also evident through the analysis of activities and the official documents issued by the UN Special Rapporteur on Cultural Rights, and monitoring organs within the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.

This article reviews international developments which took place in 2019 with a focus on economic and social rights of members of European minorities, including the right to education. The developments are reviewed based on the practice of the UN, CoE, as well as EU organizations and their bodies whose activities relate to human rights issues. This review also covers the documents of the said bodies adopted in 2018 yet having remained non- promulgated until 2019.
In a nutshell, probably the most significant developments— in terms not only of the greater number of cases resolved but also of new rules proclaimed— occurred within the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). In particular, the ECtHR used the notion of 'institutional racism' in connection with police violence against Roma individuals in the case Lingurar v. Romania. The Court also articulated an extremely limited ratione materiae right to obtaining psychiatric treatment in a minority language in Rooman v. Belgium. Advancements include developments at unesco which adopted the first- ever international treaty on higher education and continued efforts in approximating diversity in education by elaborating on multi- language education.

This article provides an overview of international developments in the area of the sociocultural and economic rights of European minorities, including access to and portrayal in the media, throughout 2017. The year brought several significant advancements in these areas. The adoption of the 2017 UNESCO Declaration of Ethical Principles in Relation to Climate Change acknowledged the role of indigenous knowledge in counteracting the challenge of climate change. Protection and integration of Roma was addressed in the activities of the human rights organizations and bodies at the level of the UN, the Council of Europe, the OSCE and the EU. The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) delivered a series of significant judgments specifying the factors that would allow a court to classify an act as a hate crime. The ECtHR also instituted procedural rules protecting people from violence based on ethnic and racial motives.

From the perspective of the rights of minorities in Europe, this section overviews international developments concerning economic and socio-cultural entitlements, including those related to education and the media. It is thematically structured around two clusters related to the minority rights: (a) cultural activities and facilities, including the media; and (b) economic and social life, including education, which are covered by the provisions of the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages (ETS. No. 148). This review starts with an analysis of the 2016 developments at the UN level, and continues with an overview of advancements at the levels of the OSCE, the EU, and the Council of Europe. The adoption of the Thematic Commentary No. 4 "The Scope of Application of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities" by the Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (ACFC) is among the most important highlights.

This section gives an overview of international developments from the perspective of minority rights concerning cultural activities and cultural facilities, as well as the issues of the media and, more broadly, freedom of expression. In dealing with cultural activities and facilities, it departs from the provisions of Article 12 of the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages (ETS No. 148). Although the provisions of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages provide the conceptual point of departure, this section does not limit its analysis to only language issues but addresses a wider framework of cultural rights of persons belonging to minorities. International developments in the said fields are tracked not only at the European level of minority rights regulation but also at the level of the United Nations. By examining the UN praxis in the area of minority rights, we remain focused on minority issues, including indigenous issues, within the European legal context. This section starts with the analysis of the 2015 developments inside the un, and continues to address those of the OSCE, the EU, and the Council of Europe.

The role of civil society in implementing Russia's foreign agreements belongs to the most relevant themes of this article. Various avenues for such participation are studied on the basis of disparate provisions of Russian political documents, the decrees of the public authorities. According to the 2013 Concept of External Policy, Russia is increasingly relying on "soft power" in promoting its foreign political course, exemplified hereby by Nordic-Russian co-operation. Insofar as the mechanisms of "soft power" are entrenched in civil society, this article focuses on legal norms empowering NGOs, universities, and individuals to engage in implementing international agreements ( on the example of Nordic-Russian agreements). The author is preoccupied with several issues: How Russian legal thought conceptualizes Russia's "soft power" approach with respect to the Nordic states? What are the contents of this approach? What opportunities are provided for Russian NGOs, universities, and firms in order to engage in implementing "soft power" within the frames of Nordic-Russian agreements on co-operation? How (if at all) Russian law empowers civil society to collaborate with the state in implementing its "soft power" policies? DOI:10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4s3p424

Upon acquisition of independence in 1991, Kazakhstan was the only post- Soviet state where the titular nation did not have an overwhelming majority, the number of Kazakhs being fewer than the number of ethnic Russians. This explains to a certain extent why the Russian language, unlike other minority languages, has, to date, enjoyed a position of lingua franca in Kazakhstan and is used on equal grounds with Kazakh. Our contribution attempts to study the possible impact on the status of the Russian language of a 2017 project known as the 'trinity of languages'— Kazakh, Russian and English— which includes a reform to Latinize the Kazakh alphabet. It will consider the possible polarization in the society with the younger generation probably choosing English and the older generation preferring the language as they know it.