Evaluation of Minority Rights in the Context of Human Rights

Today, there are no states other than micro-states with a homogeneous ethnic population. Within almost every state there are groups with different religions, languages and ethnic origins. Due to various reasons, these groups, which are small in the majority of the population in their state, have had problems in their protection due to their different characteristics. For this reason, as a result of demanding special rights, they have brought the protection of minorities and the creation of their own rights.

The question of the protection of minorities has become popular in the world, especially with the nationalist movement that emerged as a result of the French Revolution. However, the emergence of the nation-state and the demand for the formation of states by ethnic groups has turned into a global problem. The protection of minorities in this process has been done with the support of a large government or bilateral agreements. Through the 19th century, special rights were given to minorities through international organizations and protection was tried to be provided.

Especially with the establishment of the United Nations (UN), human rights have been universally institutionalized. At this time, the approach of the minority issue to the question of human rights at the core was adopted. In this understanding minority rights have been evaluated within the scope of human rights. Within this scope, individual qualities are emphasized in minority rights.

This work will be examined in the context of minority rights and human rights. For this purpose, the study is divided into three chapters. In the first chapter, the historical development of minority rights will be mentioned. In this section, the historical process of the protection of minorities in two periods, before and after international institutions, will be examined. Secondly, minority rights will be referred to in the second part. In this chapter, the problem of defining the concept of minority is first mentioned and defined by referring to the elements of the concept. It will then refer to the rights granted to minorities in international documents. In the last part, it will be evaluated in the context of human rights of minority rights. This section will highlight the problems that arise when minority rights are assessed within the scope of human rights and similar aspects of these rights.

Historical Development of Minority Rights

Historically, the protection of minorities dates back to the Middle Ages. Indeed, XIII. In the 20th century, and especially as a result of religious wars, agreements were made on minorities. Especially XVII. The issue of minorities as a whole has been a problem that has a religious dimension and creates problems in Europe. Later on, because of the weakened empires, it started to move out of the continent. When I look at the whole as a whole XX. The protection of minorities to a hundred percent is usually provided by bilateral agreements on the basis of religion.

Before the turn of the 20th century, nationalist movements began to be adopted in the world after the French Revolution. In this understanding, minorities adopted new attitudes towards the purpose of establishing a nation-state, and as a result, uprisings emerged. Thus, after the revolution, especially in the empires, confusion emerged. As a matter of fact, the Ottoman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire from the great empires in Europe became very weak due to minority uprisings. In particular, minorities living in the Balkans within the framework of the Ottoman Empire demanded political and cultural rights as well as religious rights in the wake of the uprisings and wars. In the end, due to the weakening of the empire, minorities were given many rights, including the right to political sovereignty.[1]. The problem of minorities that started in the east of Europe in the 15th century spread to Central Europe as of the end of the century, the century has gained a global quality.

It is a turning point that international regulations on minorities after World War I have been established. In this period, more than half of Europe constituted minorities. First of all, before the US entered the war, Wilson proclaimed that minorities, one of the fourteen principles, had the right to self-determination.[2] However, the constitution of the League of Nations (MC), which was established after the war, did not make a provision for minorities.[3] However, judging from the treaties after the war, provisions for minorities are seen. The content of these provisions extends from religious rights to self-determination. However, in the MC constitution, the principle of freedom of religion was in the principles of non-discrimination and equality.[4] In addition, MC has put in place the individual complaints mechanism.[5] However, the system was not effective enough because the Permanent Court of Justice decided to recommend these applications. This system has been adopted around the world and has become the basis for many agreements, while not being victimized by minorities, entitled to individual petition and equal treatment during the MC period.[6] Thus, through MC, minorities have become objects of international law.