III. A. MINORITY RIGHTS PROTECTION UNDER INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS LAW Main sources of minority rights In 1992 the General Assembly adopted the United Nations Minorities Declaration by consensus (resolution 47/135). It is the main reference document for minority rights. It grants to persons belonging to minorities: xProtection, by States, of their existence and their national or ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic identity (art. 1); x The right to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise their own religion, and to use their own language in private and in public (art. 2 (1)); x The right to participate effectively in cultural, religious, social, economic and public life (art. 2 (2)); x The right to participate effectively in decisions which affect them on the national and regional levels (art. 2 (3)); x The right to establish and maintain their own associations (art. 2 (4)); x The right to establish and maintain peaceful contacts with other members of their group and with persons belonging to other minorities, both within their own country and across State borders (art. 2 (5)); and x The freedom to exercise their rights, individually as well as in community with other members of their group, without discrimination (art. 3). States are to protect and promote the rights of persons belonging to minorities by taking measures to: x Ensure that they may exercise fully and effectively all their human rights and fundamental freedoms without any discrimination and in full equality before the law (art. 4 (1)); x Create favourable conditions to enable them to express their characteristics and to develop their culture, language, religion, traditions and customs (art. 4 (2)); x Allow them adequate opportunities to learn their mother tongue or to have instruction in their mother tongue (art. 4 (3)); 14