The Rights of Minorities
PATRICK THORNBERRY
In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and to practise their own religion, or to use their own language.
Minority rights in international law have re-emerged as a category right in the context of a broadly universalist scheme of rights for all human beings.1 The immediate post-war antipathy to minority rights, generated in part by the experience of the League of Nations, led to the omission of specific minority rights from the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.2 The UN General Assembly considered nevertheless that the Organization 'cannot remain indifferent to the fate of minorities'3 which suggested that the case for a category of minority rights had not fallen out of consideration. The Commission on Human Rights established a Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities at its first session.4 The Sub-Commission embarked on a
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Publication information:
Book title: The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and United Kingdom Law.
Contributors: David Harris - Editor, Sarah Joseph - Editor.
Publisher: Clarendon Press.
Place of publication: Oxford.
Publication year: 1995.
Page number: 597.
This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.
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