2 PROMOTING AND PROTECTING MINORITY RIGHTS PART ONE MINORITY RIGHTS FOCUS IN THE UNITED NATIONS CHAPTER I OVERVIEW: DEVELOPMENT OF MINORITY RIGHTS IN INTERNATIONAL LAW Summary: The first significant attempt to identify internationally recognized minority rights was through a number of “minority treaties” adopted under the auspices of the League of Nations. With the creation of the United Nations, attention initially shifted to universal human rights and decolonization. However, the United Nations has gradually developed a number of norms, procedures and mechanisms concerned with minority issues, and the 1992 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Persons belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities is the fundamental instrument that guides the activities of the United Nations in this field today. The concepts of “minority” and “majority” are relatively recent in international law, although distinctions among communities have obviously existed throughout history. Some political systems did grant special community rights to their minorities, although this was not generally based on any recognition of minority “rights” per se. The millet system of the Ottoman Empire, for example, allowed a degree of cultural and religious autonomy to non-Muslim religious communities, such as Orthodox Christians, Armenians, Jews and others. The French and American revolutions in the late eighteenth century proclaimed the free exercise of religion as a fundamental right, although neither directly addressed the broader issue of minority protection. The 1815 Congress of Vienna, which dismantled the Napoleonic Empire, recognized minority rights to some extent, as did the 1878 Treaty of Berlin, which recognized special rights for the religious community of Mount Athos. Most international legal-political concerns during the nineteenth century, however, were directed towards justifying the unification of linguistic “nations” based on the principle of selfdetermination, rather than the protection of minority groups as such. As the lure of nationalism grew, people who did not share the ethnic, linguistic or religious identity of the majority within their country were increasingly under threat. The consolidation of States along linguistic lines, expansion of trade and increasing need for literate populations who could work successfully in the context of the industrial revolution placed pressures on smaller or less powerful communities to conform to dominant linguistic and cultural norms. By the time of the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, national or minority concerns were at the forefront of international politics, at least in Europe. The League of Nations Following the end of the First World War, minority issues became a central concern for the League of Nations. A series of so-called minority treaties was adopted to protect certain specified groups, addressing many of their key concerns.