The author gives an outline of constitutional and legal provisions regulating the rights of ethnic minorities in the Republic of Croatia as well as the site-based policy of the protection of minority rights. The major areas in which the Government of the Republic of Croatia has been supporting the activities of the minority groups' organisations are: publishing, cultural societies, libraries, minority curricula, preservation of the minority cultura heritage and research projects. Between 1992 and 1997, the Government of the Republic of Croatia earmarked 22 million DEM for the minorities' activities. The author concludes that the ethnic minorities in Croatia, despite the political and economic hardships, have enjoyed a high degree of minority rights and freedoms. (SOI : PM: S. 64)
Within contemporary geopolitical processes, respect for the rights of national minorities is no longer the discretion of a state, but rather is an indirect or direct international regulation of the minority issue. In the beginning of the 1990s, the political economical crisis and disintegration of the former SFRY opened the national question, that was considered to be permanently and successfully solved, in the most dramatic way, and ethnic conflicts and clashes followed the desintegration of the country. With the formation of a new states on the territory of the former Yugoslavia, the existence of numerous and different national minorities ("old" and "new") required a different approach to their protection and integration in complex political circumstances. Thus, the position of the so called new minorities drastically changed since they formed constituent nations in the former SFRY, while after secession they remained separated from their home nations and became national minorities almost overnight. Out of Serbia, in former Yugoslav republics live nearly half a million persons belonging to Serbian nationality as new national minority. The paper discusses the position and rights of the Serbian minority in the post Yugoslav states (Slovenia, Croatia, Northern Macedonia, Montenegro) as well as in some neighboring member states of the European Union (Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria). In addition to the analysis of basic demographic indicators (number and spatial distribution) that determine the realization of the rights and freedoms of each minority, the paper examines the issue of protecting the national, cultural and linguistic identity of Serbs, as well as the ways of its preservation and improvement. Although the social and legal status of the Serbian minority is determined by European standards, the analysis points to their undefined status, since they still do not recognize the status of a national minority in some countries, and that they are in practice faced with more or less assimilation. In order to fully realize minority rights and improve the position of the Serb minority, ratified international documents, bilateral agreements, national laws, as well as well-designed policies and assistance from the home state are of great importance.Respecting basic human rights and freedom, as well as national minority protection, represent the basic factors of stability, security and democratic and socio-economic development of every country.
In today's world, marked by an increasing interdependence, national security is becoming a component of international security, which is not a mere sum of individual national securities, but a permanent international framework of universally acceptable values. Interethnic relations today are central for a state's security, as well as for international order. There is the question whether the international system must guarantee individual and collective security of ethnic groups/minorities, regardless of the state they live in. Today, human and minority rights have become an important institutionalized international factor of security and stability and a concern of the entire international community, despite the fact that many states still claim that minority policy is their internal problem into which international community has no right to interfere. The affirmation of the rationalist approach to contemporary security implies that the responsibility for guaranteeing security lies not only on individual states and unions but also on the international system as a whole. (SOI : PM: S. 35)
Demokracija je oblika oblasti, ki jo danes večina ljudi dojema kot najbližjo idealni ureditvi države, saj temelji na svobodi, enakosti in varnosti – ciljih, za katere bi si morala prizadevati sodobna družba. V uvodu, ki je hkrati prvo poglavje magistrske naloge, podajam opredelitve demokracije in ustavne demokracije na način, kot jih trenutno razumem sama. V drugem poglavju se ukvarjam z načeli in pogoji ustavne demokracije ter z ustavno demokracijo v Republiki Sloveniji. V tretjem poglavju poskušam poudariti pomen ustave. Najbolj me zanima, ali ustava kot najpomembnejši pravni in politični akt svobodo v demokratični ureditvi omejuje ali jo zagotavlja. Čeprav je demokracija nepredstavljiva brez svobode kot svojega temeljnega elementa, ta svoboda ne sme in ne more biti neomejena. Si lahko predstavljamo družbo, v kateri svoboda nima meje, v kateri ni vrhovnega zakona, na katerega bi se lahko vsak posameznik skliceval, ko njegove pravice ogroža država ali drug posameznik? Prvo ključno vprašanje, s katerim se v tem kontekstu ukvarjam, je del četrtega poglavja z naslovom »Človekove pravice in svoboščine – srž ustavne demokracije?«. V petem poglavju namenim pozornost Ustavnemu sodišču. Bistvo ustavne demokracije je Ustavno sodišče opredelilo v odločbi št. U-I-111/04 z dne 8. 7. 2004, ki jo predstavim na koncu magistrske naloge. V sklepu predstavim moj osebni pogled na politični sistem, kakšna je ustavna demokracija ter potrdim oziroma zavrnem postavljene hipoteze ; Democracy is a form of government that is perceived by most people today as the closest to the ideal form of a state, since it is based on freedom, equality and security – the goals that every modern society should aim for. The introduction of the master's thesis, which is also its first chapter, defines democracy and constitutional democracy from our point of view. The second chapter focuses on the principles and conditions of the constitutional democracy and briefly presents the constitutional democracy in the Republic of Slovenia. The third chapter tries to underline the significance of the Constitution. We were mostly interested if the Constitution as the most important legal and political act in a democratic systemrestricts or guarantees ourfreedom. Although democracy is unperceivable without freedom as its fundamental element, it must not and cannot be unlimited. Is it possible to imagine a society in which freedom is unlimited and where there is no supreme law one can refer to in case their rights are undermined by the state or another individual? The first key question that is raised in this context is part of the forth chapter, titled Human Rights and Liberties – Core of Constitutional Democracy? The fifth chapter deals with the Constitutional Court. The essence of the constitutional democracy was defined by the Constitutional Court in the U-I111/04 decree on July 8th, 2004, which is presented at the very end of our master's thesis. The conclusion encompasses our personal view of the political system, such as the constitutional democracy, and either confirms or refutes our set hypotheses.
The article explores the process that led to Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence and argues that the willingness of many countries to contribute to the creation of Kosovo as cannot be explained solely by humanitarian concerns, and the remedial understanding of the right to self-determination. What seems to have motivated the Western powers was also the recent memory of the UN's failure to stop the internecine wars which characterised the SFRY's dissolution (particularly the war in Bosnia), as well as the rejection on the part of the international community with the way in which Kosovan autonomy, previously entrenched in the SFRY constitution of 1974, had been emasculated from 1989 onwards by both Serbia and the FRY in a process which served to deny Kosovo Albanians both the minority rights and the right of internal self-determination. Finally, the article speculates on the long-term implications of the Kosovo intervention. Instead of being seen as a 'unique case', the intervention in Kosovo may be seen as the consolidation of a growing European commitment to the rights of internal minorities, including the right to territorial autonomy for national minorities. Adapted from the source document.
The Republic of Serbia has already missed several historical chances to join the European Union but is currently in a a position to define and accelerate the process leading to a united Europe, and therefore confirming that it historically, economically, regionally and culturally belongs to the European family of nations. Accession to the EU is one of the most important goals of modern Serbia which realization Serbia will become an organized state, gain political stability and provide intensive economic development. Defining the development strategy of Serbia to join European Union includes the necessary political conditions (stability of democracy and its institutions, respect for fundamental human and minority rights), economic conditions (the existence of a functioning market economy that is able to withstand the pressure of competition in the internal market of the European Union) as well as administrative requirements (the ability of future members to take and apply the primary and secondary EU legislation and to implement the aims of political, economic and monetary union). Joining single market of the European Union opens up opportunities for marketing of domestic products and services, where it should be noted that the export of our companies in the EU amounts to over 50% of total domestic exports. This proves that the European Union is traditionally the most important export market for Serbia. Therefore, the integration of Serbia into the European Union is viewed as the headquarters of growth of the Serbian economy through the growth of export of domestic products to the EU market. The most positive effects are measurable in the area of agriculture, where our country has a surplus in agricultural trade with the EU. Serbia has preferential status for 90% of agricultural products, which should be taken advantage of, so that agrarian reform is going in the direction of maximum increase in production until joining the EU. There are also great chances in car industry, where most of the commercial reorientation is done under the auspices of the European Agreement.
In numerous European countries, majority nations and national minorities that live in them, aware of the complexity of relations between majorities and minorities in the ethnic sense, and the ensuing dangers, have engaged in mutual accommodation and compromise, thus fashioning certain models of coexistence. Constitutional provisions of European states prove that there is no single model of the recognition of the rights of national minorities. Still, European states may be divided into three groups. The first group includes those states which advocate the constitutional principle of the integral nation and refuse to recognize any other ethnic origin of their citizens. The second group comprises those states which do not divide its ethnic communities into majority and minority ones, which practically means that they do not recognize the category of the national minority; they protect the ethnic identity of their members by dividing their equal citizens by the languages they use. The third group includes those countries which recognize the notion of the majority nation and national minorities. This group has elaborated the provisions regarding the rights of national minorities, particularly the protection of their national, cultural, religious and linguistic identity, with major differences in the scope of individual rights. (SOI : PM: S. 84)
