The development of international standards for the protection of minorities has been slow and fragmented. In the absence of a comprehensive and universal binding set of rules, the development of minority protection has been left to regional agreements and judicial interpretation of wider human rights treaties. Universal Minority Rights brings together, for the first time, the full set of all regional and international jurisprudence from courts and treaty bodies concerned with issues of minority rights. The commentary is arranged around ten thematic areas of investigation, including religious rights, education, cultural rights, political participation and socio-economic opportunities. Each substantive chapter offers an introduction to the issue at hand and its special relevance to minority communities, a general survey of legal standards addressing the issue, and an examination of specific problems that are being tackled through legal standards and judicial review. Each chapter concludes with an evaluation of the contribution of the case-law reviewed to the development of universal standards of protection.Throughout, the commentary takes full account of international treaties and their associated bodies, including the ICCPR, the ICESCR, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. In addition, the commentary analyzes the regional standards that have developed through the Council of Europe and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and the African Commission on Human and People's Rights. Through an exhaustive, comparative analysis of principles and substantive rules, the commentary provides an invaluable reference point for the development of minority protection.

Universal Minority Rights: A Commentary on the Jurisprudence of International Courts and Treaty Bodies

Weller, Marc

Foreign & International Law

Oxford University Press

This book offers the first critical analysis of the international attempts to settle the Kosovo crisis from its inception to Kosovo's declaration of independence. The author participated in most of these settlement attempts, including the Carrington Conference on the former Yugoslavia and the Rambouillet and Ahtisaari negotiations. On this basis, the book provides first hand insights into the failure of high-level international diplomacy in dealing with one of the most explosive crises to hit the European continent since 1945. The introductory chapters offer a brief account of the background to the crisis, identifying the structural tensions in the modern international system that made it so difficult for the organized international community to address the episode effectively. The book addresses the initial settlement attempts, from the London Peace Conference on Yugoslavia of 1991 to the Geneva negotiations and the impact of the Dayton peace conference on the situation in Kosovo. The second part of the book considers the first attempt of addressing the Kosovo crisis on its own terms, initially through the shuttle diplomacy of US Ambassador Chris Hill over the summer of 1998. The Holbrooke agreement, obtained under the threat of NATO air strikes and providing for a cease-fire is then considered, along with further attempts to obtain a political settlement during this purported breathing space. The book then turns to the extraordinary episode of the Rambouillet Peace Conference and the subsequent use of force against the rump Yugoslavia. The final part of the book addresses the attempts to prepare for final status during the UN administration of Kosovo. The initial constitutional framework for Kosovo is discussed, along with the abortive 'standards before status' policy. This is followed by a detailed analysis of the Vienna negotiations on final status, and the subsequent tug of war at the United Nations about Security Council endorsement of the result. The book concludes with an analysis of the comprehensive proposal for a settlement proposed by UN envoy Martti Ahtisaari and its eventual recasting into the constitution of Kosovo upon unilateral independence. This book ties together several strands of analysis, including the tension between state sovereignty and humanitarian concerns, the problem of squaring the doctrine of territorial unity with the principle of self-determination, the reluctance of international actors to involve themselves in internal conflicts, in particular where secessionist conflicts are concerned, and the role of the threat or use of force in the context of coercive international diplomacy.

Contested Statehood: Kosovo's Struggle for Independence

This Commentary provides the reader with a review of international standards and practice relating to the political participation of minorities. Political participation has been increasingly recognized as a foundational issue in the debate about minority rights. It is argued that minorities are more likely to feel co-ownership in the state if they have the opportunity to participate freely and effectively in all aspects of its governance, and that sustained and meaningful engagement will guard against the sense of alienation and exclusion among minorities that often emerges in ethnically divided societies.Taking as its starting point the two most important standard-setting documents in the field - the Lund Recommendations on the Effective Participation of National Minorities in Public Life, developed by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the Council of Europe's Thematic Commentary on the Issue of Political Participation of Minorities - the Commentary locates the international legal entitlement to political participation within the wider context of the right to democratic governance. It also considers effective participation in relation to the right to full and effective equality, as well as the legal entrenchment of these provisions and implementation mechanisms. Individual chapters then consider each of the principal mechanisms aimed at enhancing political participation, ranging from procedures covering minority representation in political institutions to consultative mechanisms and autonomy solutions. The Commentary draws on a team of experts, all of whom are recognized authorities in this specialized area of minority issues.

Political Participation of Minorities: A Commentary on International Standards and Practice

Reference

Nobbs, Katherine

Words, Language & Grammar

The prohibition of the use of force is one of the most crucial elements of the international legal order. Our understanding of that rule was both advanced and challenged during the period commencing with the termination of the Iran-Iraq war and the invasion of Kuwait, and concluding with the invasion and occupation of Iraq. The initial phase was characterized by hopes for a functioning collective security system administered by the United Nations as part of a New World Order. The liberation of Kuwait, in particular, was seen by some as a powerful vindication of the prohibition of the use of force and of the UN Security Council. However, the operation was not really conducted in accordance with the requirements for collective security established in the UN Charter. In a second phase, an international coalition launched a humanitarian intervention operation, first in the north of Iraq, and subsequently in the south. That episode is often seen as the fountainhead of the post-Cold War claim to a new legal justification for the use of force in circumstances of grave humanitarian emergency-a claim subsequently challenged during the armed action concerning Kosovo. There then followed repeated uses of force against Iraq in the context of the international campaign to remove its present or future weapons of mass destruction potential. Finally, the episode reached its controversial zenith with the full scale invasion of Iraq led by the US and the UK in 2003. This book analyzes these developments, and their impact on the rule prohibiting force in international relations, in a comprehensive and accessible way. It is the first to draw upon classified materials released by the UK Chilcot inquiry shedding light on the decision to go to war in 2003 and the role played by international law in that context.

Iraq and the Use of Force in International Law

This book focuses on the resolution of self-determined conflicts, in which self-defined population groups fight to determine their own destiny within the boundaries of existing states.

Autonomy, Self Governance and Conflict Resolution: Innovative approaches to Institutional Design in Divided Societies (Routledge Advances in International Relations and Global Politics)

Wolff, Stefan

Routledge

This volume contains all the United Nations documents necessary to grasp the scale of the legal aspects involved.

The Kuwait Crisis: Basic Documents (Cambridge International Documents Series, Series Number 1)

Lauterpacht, E.

Greenwood, C. J.

Bethlehem, Daniel

Cambridge University Press

This volume presents documents collected relating to the wide and extended international involvement in the conflict of the Kuwait Crisis and Gulf War, drawn from a wide variety of sources and rigorously sifted for pertinent materials.

Iraq and Kuwait: The Hostilities and Their Aftermath (Cambridge International Documents Series, Series Number 3)

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