Minorities in Situations of Humanitarian Crisis
It was Spring 1992 when Sarajevo came under a siege. International community reacted
swiftly and initiated delivery of humanitarian aid. The first round was distributed through
humanitarian agencies affiliated with local religious communities. The result was that I, like
other members of minority groups or citizens without any religious affiliation were left out of
humanitarian efforts in the very beginning. It has been changed soon but this example
shows how easy it is in situations of humanitarian crisis to forget about minorities and how
much more vulnerable they are than citizens within numerically larger communities.
Several decades earlier, in Cyprus, members of minority groups had to make decision
whether they should be accounted for as associates of one of the two major religious/ethnic
groups. This is another example showing concerns of national and international
organizations being with majority groups.
The situation, however, has improved. The crisis in Ukraine and a conflict between
supporters of two large communities and different political agendas has brought attention
to the plight of Crimean Tatars. It shows rightly that international community is concerned
not only with humanitarian crisis that affects everyone in the region but by pointing out at
the specific minority it sends strong message to whoever is in charge of the territory.
This comes as proof of the importance of access to rights, rather than status as carefully argued in
the Fourth Thematic Commentary of the Framework Convention on the Protection of the National
Minorities. Minority Rights are underlined as part of human rights and therefore universal regardless
of territory and particular situation. There is no equality without a full enjoyment and access to rights.
Nation states take different actions towards minorities. The Advisory Committee on the
Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities recently visited Austria
where significant number of refugees from outside of Europe have settled temporarily or
permanently. While this dilemma is settled, local authorities, especially those in Vienna,
have provided education for children refugees and putting in special efforts in this field.
Despite the lack of universal definition of minorities and Austrian insistence on
autochthonous minority groups, authorities have put in practice major efforts to help
minorities in situation of major humanitarian crisis.
This leads to concluding remark that minorities could need special concern and assistance
in different situations and these can be grouped as:
1. Humanitarian crisis in the region that minority traditionally inhabits that is caused by
conflict that minority is not part of.