Can national minorities' participation in decision-making processes be achieved in any constitutional context ? Can developing international standards assist governments in devising national policies? What are the challenges if states are to use cultural autonomy to improve minority participation? This publication presents The UniDem Seminar on "The participation of minorities in public life", which took place in Zagreb on 18 and 19 May 2007, discussed ways of answering these topical questions.This publication contains the reports presented and discussed at the UniDem Seminar organised by the European Commission for Democracy through law (the Venice Commission), under the patronage of the President of the Republic of Croatia and in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of the Republic of Croatia, the University of Zagreb and the University of Glasgow.
- Pages
- 140
- Published in
- France
Table of Contents
- SCIENCE AND TECHNIQUE OF 1
- THE PARTICIPATION OF MINORITIES 1
- IN PUBLIC LIFE 1
- Contents 4
- Introductory address 8
- Introduction 12
- Constitutional non-recognition of minorities in the context of unitary states an insurmountable obstacle 12
- 1. Introduction minorities and territories 26
- Territorial solutions for managing diversity and their changing role 26
- 2. Constitutional models compared 28
- 3. Territory and titular groups. The paradox of territoriality 35
- 4. Some final thoughts on the law of diversities and on its impact 41
- 5. Outlook 44
- 1. A new look at the concepts concerned the dialectical opposition between globalisation and the sense of a national identity 46
- Making minorities more influential in public life opportunities provided by existing constitutional arrangements and their limitations 46
- 2. A new look at the objectives of protection its object or purpose 48
- 3. A new look at legal protection techniques 49
- 1. Introduction 52
- Special measures to promote minority representation in elected bodies the experience of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities 52
- 2. HCNM interaction and co-operation with other OSCE institutions 55
- 3. General principles 56
- 4. Participation in the decision making 60
- 5. Self-governance 68
- 6. Guarantees 68
- 7. Concluding remarks 69
- Can international monoriting mechanisms and EU integration prospects help improve national minority participation at the domestic level 72
- 1. The diversity of international instruments 82
- 2. State obligations inferred from international standards with a special focus on the Framework Convention 82
- The development of a corpus of international standards and its influence at the domestic level to ensure minority participation 82
- 3. The experience of the OSCE High Commissioner 83
- 4. The case of Hungary 84
- 5. The impact of monitoring mechanisms and EU integration prospects on minority participation at the domestic level 84
- 6. Do the relevant international standards constitute a sufficient 85
- The revival of cultural autonomy in certain countries of eastern Europe were lessons drawn from the inter-war period 88
- Inter-war experiments with cultural autonomy 91
- Conclusions 99
- Contemporary forms of cultural autonomy in eastern Europe recurrent problems and prospects for improving the functioning of elected bodies of cultural autonomy 102
- Legitimacy and representation 104
- Determining the eligibility of the national minority registration 106
- Creation of electoral rolls 107
- Legislation 108
- Human resources 112
- Prospects and conclusion 112
- Introduction 114
- Personal autonomy through the communities system does the example of Belgium suggest that forms of non- territorial autonomy can make a difference in terms of minority participation 114
- Conclusions 130
- The reappearance of an old model cultural autonomy 132
- Venice Commissions Science and technique of democracy collection 136
- SCIENCE AND TECHNIQUE OF 140
- THE PARTICIPATION OF MINORITIES 140
- IN PUBLIC LIFE 140
