Devising an Adequate System of Minority Protection:Individual Human Rights, Minority Rights and the Right to Self-Determination

<p class=copymedium>The right to identity of minorities and the right to real, substantive equality are both used to assess the existing standards and jurisprudence and also to argue for additional rights of (members of) minorities and/or a more beneficial interpretation of existing rights.

<p class=copymedium>A definitional chapter is followed by three chapters which analyze and evaluate the relative contribution to minority protection of, respectively, individual human rights, minority rights and the right to self-determination.

<p class=copymedium>It is argued that the acquis of the first category of rights, namely individual human rights, is taken up, furthered and brought closer to the goal of minority protection by the next category, namely minority rights, as the latter deals more explicitly with essential concerns of minorities and thus with their right to identity.

<p class=copymedium>Finally, the right to self-determination, mainly in its internal dimension, is then turned to, as it seems to take up the acquis of both individual human rights and minority rights while enhancing the protection and promotion of the right to identity of minorities.

<p class=copymedium>It seems justified to conclude that individual human rights, minority rights and a right to (internal) self-determination would all three be needed and would interrelate for the elaboration of an adequate system of minority protection.