A Popular Guide to Minority Rights

Perhaps no other right has been so highly valued and widely sought by oppressed peoples worldwide as the right to self-determination. Yet for numerically smaller groups within multinational states, the key to achieving and sustaining equal status may lie in the possibilities afforded for collective empowerment by minority rights in addition to civil rights. Addressing this universal problematic with particular reference to the situation of American national minorities, Avlam Solfer (Dean, Boston College Law School) questions the viability of non-discrimination policies as interpreted by U.S. courts: Ronald Walters (Dept. of Political Science, Howard University) traces the rise of white nationalism as a response to perceived threat to majority dominance posed by post-1960s affirmative action; and Y. N. Kly (Associate Professor, International Law, University of Regina) addresses the problem of democratic expression and realization of minority needs in the majoritarian state.