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National Minorities, Multiculturalism and
Migration in Euroasia – shaping legal and
            policy responses
             Iryna Ulasiuk
           Executive Training
            22 January 2013
Objective
interrelation of minority and migration issues
-the evolution of the treatment of national
minorities
-its effect on migration tendencies
-how the lessons learnt from the regulation of
minority issues in various countries from the
former SU can be applied to new migrants
‘National Minority’
- no internationally agreed definition
- - objective factors (such as the existence of a
  shared ethnicity, language or religion)
  - and subjective factors (including that
individuals must identify themselves as
members of a minority).
-
‘National Minority’
1977, F. Capotorti:
 A group numerically inferior to the rest of the
population of a State, in a non-dominant position,
whose members - being nationals of the State -
possess ethnic, religious or linguistic characteristics
differing from those of the rest of the population and
show, if only implicitly, a sense of solidarity, directed
towards preserving their culture, traditions, religion or
language’.
Framework Convention for the Protection
        of National Minorities
• pan-European dimension
• entered into force on 1 February 1998
• one of the most comprehensive treaties
• Thirty-nine states are party to this treaty
(Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia,
Moldova also Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan)
•
What commitments do State Parties undertake when
          they ratify the Framework Convention?
•    Non-discrimination • Promotion of effective equality • Promotion of conditions favouring
     the preservation and development of culture, religion, language and traditions
•    Freedom of assembly, association, expression, thought, conscience and religion
•    Access to and use of media
•    Linguistic freedoms: use of the minority language in private and in public as well as its use
     before administrative authorities; use of one’s own name in the minority language;
     display of information of a private nature in the minority language; topographical names in
     the minority language
•    Education: learning of and instruction in the minority language; freedom to set up
     educational institutions
•    Transfrontier contacts
•    Participation in economic, cultural and social life
•    Participation in public life
•    Prohibition of forced assimilation
What is a national minority?:FCNM
• Each Party to the FCNM is left room to assess which groups
  are to be covered.
• This selection must be made in good faith and according to
  principles of international law.
• The implementation of the Framework Convention should not
  be a source of arbitrary or unjustified distinctions.
• An article by article approach has been adopted to the
  question of the groups covered by the Framework
  Convention.
FCNM: scope of application
• Article 6
1 The Parties shall encourage a spirit of tolerance and intercultural dialogue and take
effective measures to promote mutual respect and understanding and co-operation
among all persons living on their territory, irrespective of those persons’ ethnic,
cultural, linguistic or religious identity, in particular in the fields of education, culture
and the media.
2 The Parties undertake to take appropriate measures to protect persons who may be
subject to threats or acts of discrimination, hostility or violence as a result of their
ethnic, cultural, linguistic or religious identity.
• Article 10
2 In areas inhabited by persons belonging to national minorities traditionally or in
substantial numbers, if those persons so request and where such a request
corresponds to a real need, the Parties shall endeavour to ensure, as far as possible,
the conditions which would make it possible to use the minority language in relations
between those persons and the administrative authorities.
Who decides whether someone belongs to a
                national minority?
• Individuals are free to decide whether or not
  they wish to be treated as belonging to a
  national minority.
• An individual’s choice must be based on
  objective criteria connected with that
  person’s identity, such as language, religion
  and culture.
‘National Minority’ in Different Jurisdictions

Armenia: “the nationals of the Republic of Armenia permanently
living in the Republic of Armenia who are different from the
basic popu
• Azerbaijan:
“Although there is no definition of «national minority» in the
national legislation, the Government of Azerbaijan had never
faced with the issue of recognition or non-recognition of any
language or ethnic groups as national minorities, since it
proceeded from the fact that every person has the right to freely
determine his belonging to any national minority.lation by its
ethnic origin”.
‘National Minority’ in Different Jurisdictions

• Belarus: ‘persons who permanently reside in the
  territory of the Republic of Belarus, hold the
  citizenship of the Republic Belarus and who differ
  from the majority of the population of the republic
  by their origin, language, culture or traditions.’
• Georgia: persons who have Georgian citizenship, are
  distinct from the majority of the population in terms
  of language, culture and ethnic identity, have lived
  on Georgian territory for a long period (and live
  “compactly” on Georgian territory).
‘National Minority’ in Different Jurisdictions

• Moldova: “persons residing in the Republic of
  Moldova and of Moldovan nationality who have
  particular ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious
  features which distinguish them from the - Moldovan
  - majority of the population and who consider
  themselves to be of different ethnic origin”
• Ukraine: groups of Ukrainian citizens who are not of
  Ukrainian nationality, but show feeling of national
  self-awareness and affinity.
‘National Minority’ in Different Jurisdictions

RF:
‘practice has shown that in satisfying various demands of national
minorities two groups of entities in the ethnic composition of the Russian
Federation are singled out:
- established nations or nations living in the territory of Russia for an
extensive period of time, which can be conditionally called indigenous
peoples;
- ethnic groups of a relatively more recent origin whose "mother" ethnoses
live outside the Russian Federation (the CIS and Baltic countries, as well as
Bulgaria, Hungary, Germany, Korea, Poland, Finland and a number of another
countries), and also those groups that do not have state entities at all
(Assyrians, Karaites, Kurds and Gipsies).
ACFC:
• The federal authorities appear to be ready to apply the Framework
  Convention also to minorities that have arrived relatively recently to the
  Russian Federation and to provide also non-citizens belonging to these
  groups the possibility to rely on the protection of the Framework
  Convention.
• The Advisory Committee is of the opinion that it would be possible to
  consider including persons who belong to other groups, including non-
  citizens where appropriate, in the application of the Framework
  Convention on an article-by-article basis
Ethnic Minorities and Migration:
                Statistics: Armenia

               2001                             1989
Ethnic group   Total       Percentage      of   Total       Percentage       of
                           total population                 total population
Armenia        3.145.354   97.8                 3.083.616   93.3
Azeri          -           -                    84.860      2.6
Kurd           1.519       0.05                 4.151       0.1
Yezid          40.620      1.3                  51.976      1.6
Russian        14.660      0.5                  51.555      1.6
Ukrainian      1.633       0.05                 8.341       0.2
Assyrian       3.409       0.1                  5.963       0.2
Greek          1.176       0.04                 4.650       0.1
Other          4.640       0.1                  9.664       0.3
Total          3.213.011   100                  3.304.776   100
Ethnic Minorities and Migration:
                     Statistics:Azerbaijan
                      2009                      1999                      1989
Ethnic group          Total       Percentage    Total       Percentage of Total       Percentage of
                                  of      total             total                     total
                                  population                population                population

                      8.922.400   100           7.953.400   100           7.021.200   100
Azeris                8,172,800   91.6          7,205,500   90,6          5,805,500   82,7
Lezgins               180,300     2             178,000     2,2           171,400     2,4
Armenians             120,300     1.3           120,700     1,5           390,500     5,6
Russians              119,300     1.3           141,700     1,8           392,300     5,6
Talish                112,000     1.3           76,800      1,0           21,2        0,3
Avars                 49,800      0.6           59,900      0,6           44,1        0,6
Turks                 38,000      0.4           43,400      0,5           17,7        0,2
Tatars                25,900      0.3           30,000      0,4           28,6        0,4
Tats                  25,200      0.3           10,900      0,13          10,2        0.14
Ukrainians            21,500      0.3           29,000      0,4           32,3        0,5
Sakhurs               12,300      0.1           15,900      0,2           13,3        0,2
Georgians             9,900       0.1           14,900      0,2           14,2        0,2
Jews                  9,100       0.1           8,900       0,1           30,8        0,4
Kurds                 6,100       0.1           13,100      0,2           12,2        0,2
Udins                 3,800       0.04          4,100       0,05          6,1         0,1
Other                 9,500       0.1           9,6         0,12          41,5        0,6
Ethnic Minorities and Migration:
             Statistics: Georgia
               2002                            1989
Ethnic group
               Total       Percentage of total Total       Percentage of total
                           population                      population
Georgian       3,661,173   83.8                3,787,393   70.1
Azeri          284,761     6.1                 307,556     5.7
Armenian       248,929     5.7                 437,211     8.1
Russian        67,671      1.5                 341,172     6.3
Ossetian       38,028      0.9                 164,055     3.0
Yezid          18,329      0.4                 -           -

Greek          15,166      0.3                 100,324     1.9
Kist           7,110       0.2                 -           -
Ukrainian      7,039       0.2                 52,443      1.0
Jew            3,772       0.1                 24,720      0.5
Abkhaz         3,527       0.1                 95,853      1.8
Assyrian       3,299       0.1                 6,206       0.1
Kurd           2,514       0.1                 33,331      0.6
Chechen        1,271       0.0                 609         0.0
Other          8,946       0.1                 49,968      0.9
Ethnic Minorities and Migration:
                    Statistics: Moldova
             2004          1989
Ethnic       Total         Total     Percentage of total population
group
Total        3,383,332     4,335,360 100
Moldovans    2,564,849     2,794,749 64.5
Ukrainians   282,406       600,366   13.8
Russians     201,218       562,069   13
Gagauzians   147,500       153,548   3.5
Romanians    73,276        2,477     0.1
Bulgarians   65,662        88,419    2
Others       30,157        51,623    1
Ethnic Minorities and Migration:
         Statistics: RF
               2002                                   1989
Ethnic group   Total      (Mln. Percentage       of   Total      (Mln. Percentage       of
               Persons)         total population      Persons)         total population
Total          145.16           100                   147.02           100
Russians       115.87           79.8                  119.87           81.5
Tatars         5.56             3.8                   5.52             3.8
Ukrainians     2.94             2.0                   4.36             3.0
Bashkirs       1.67             1.2                   1.35             0.9
Chuvashs       1.64             1.1                   1.77             1.2
Chechens       1.36             0.9                   0.90             0.6
Armenians      1.13             0.8                   0.53             0.4
Moldovans      0.84             0.6                   1.07             0.7
Belarusians    0.81             0.6                   1.21             0.8
Avars          0.76             0.5                   0.54             0.4
Kazakhs        0.66             0.5                   0.64             0.4
Udmurts        0.64             0.4                   0.71             0.5
Azerbaijani    0.62             0.4                   0.34             0.2
Maris          0.60             0.4                   0.64             0.4
Germans        0.60             0.4                   0.84             0.6
Kabardinians   0.52             0.4                   0.39             0.3
Ossets             0.51         0.4                   0.40             0.3
Darghins       0.51             0.4                   0.35             0.2
Buryats        0.45             0.3                   0.42             0.3
Yakuts         0.44             0.3                   0.38             0.3
Kumyks         0.42             0.3                   0.28             0.2
Ingushs        0.41             0.3                   0.22             0.1
Lezghins       0.41             0.3                   0.26             0.2
NMs and Migration: Present Day Challenge

• The nature of migration flows has changed.
• a significant percentage of national minorities are now forced migrants
   and refugees leaving neighboring states under threat of violence or
   because of discrimination.
• fears of losing the ability to return to one’s motherland
• fears of being left without citizenship
• fears of being trapped across a border from one's family members and
   friends.
• limited possibilities to exercise professional capacity and
REASON: inadequate legal protection + poor implementation of the existing
laws + lassez faire approach adopted by the governments???
Legal Treatment of NMs: challenges

• Few legislations governing the treatment of
  national minorities are unified under one
  legal act (vague, provisions of the
  constitution, a series of laws and
  governmental decisions)
• No comprehensive anti-discrimination
  legislation
Legal Treatment of NMs: challenges

• no crime on the grounds of national/ethnic origin or
  racial hatred has been or the number of crimes
  recorded is very low.
• - the unawareness of the persons belonging to
  national minorities of their rights;
   - persons’ poor command of the state
      language
- lack of statistics
Language Issue
Effective multi-ethnic state
• Marginalization of violence and coercion as a
  tool of cultural politics
• Open Discourse over Cultural Difference
• Respect for the Cultural Rights of Individuals
• Opportunities for Minority Voice Within
  Institutions of Power
• Equality and Social Justice for Minorities
Marginalization of violence and coercion as a
            tool of cultural politics
Violence and coercion as tools of cultural politics must be
marginal to political practice.
Coercion and violence rarely solve cultural conflicts and usually
only create new grievances revolving around the very use of
violence.
 “Solutions” that are imposed on society are just as problematic
as “solutions” that are violently imposed on states by ethnic
movements.
They create legacies that haunt interethnic relations long after
the violence recedes
Open Discourse over Cultural Difference

• an open public discourse over issues associated with cultural
  difference is needed in order to manage cultural conflict
  consensually.
• we cannot simply equate the absence of conflict with a
  positive outcome if the possibilities for expressing grievances
  are at the same time limited.
• Some degree of conflict over issues associated with cultural
  difference is a natural part of any multiethnic society
• problems will only persist when a public discourse over issues
  of cultural pluralism is choked off.
Respect for the Cultural Rights of Individuals

the cultural rights of the individual must be respected
 minimizing discrimination against individuals on the
basis of cultural difference
providing opportunities for them to practice their
culture and religion freely, to form and associate within
cultural communities, to learn the language of their
chosen community, and to select their identities freely
Opportunities for Minority Voice Within Institutions of Power

• political processes need to give voice to minorities
• the policies that are produced take into consideration the
  interests of all sides to the conflict.
• the effective multiethnic state does not force minorities into
  exit, but instead, by allowing voice, breeds minority loyalty.
• when political processes contain incentives for politicians to
  take into consideration the needs of minorities, win-win
  outcomes are more likely to occur.
Equality and Social Justice for Minorities

The effective multiethnic state attempts to
address the sources of inequality between
groups and aspirations for social justice among
minorities.
deep-seated grievances need to be addressed
proactively, not to become the cause of violent
conflict.

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National minorities, multiculturalism and migration in Eurasia - Shaping legal and policy responses

  • 1. National Minorities, Multiculturalism and Migration in Euroasia – shaping legal and policy responses Iryna Ulasiuk Executive Training 22 January 2013
  • 2. Objective interrelation of minority and migration issues -the evolution of the treatment of national minorities -its effect on migration tendencies -how the lessons learnt from the regulation of minority issues in various countries from the former SU can be applied to new migrants
  • 3. ‘National Minority’ - no internationally agreed definition - - objective factors (such as the existence of a shared ethnicity, language or religion) - and subjective factors (including that individuals must identify themselves as members of a minority). -
  • 4. ‘National Minority’ 1977, F. Capotorti: A group numerically inferior to the rest of the population of a State, in a non-dominant position, whose members - being nationals of the State - possess ethnic, religious or linguistic characteristics differing from those of the rest of the population and show, if only implicitly, a sense of solidarity, directed towards preserving their culture, traditions, religion or language’.
  • 5. Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities • pan-European dimension • entered into force on 1 February 1998 • one of the most comprehensive treaties • Thirty-nine states are party to this treaty (Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Moldova also Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan) •
  • 6. What commitments do State Parties undertake when they ratify the Framework Convention? • Non-discrimination • Promotion of effective equality • Promotion of conditions favouring the preservation and development of culture, religion, language and traditions • Freedom of assembly, association, expression, thought, conscience and religion • Access to and use of media • Linguistic freedoms: use of the minority language in private and in public as well as its use before administrative authorities; use of one’s own name in the minority language; display of information of a private nature in the minority language; topographical names in the minority language • Education: learning of and instruction in the minority language; freedom to set up educational institutions • Transfrontier contacts • Participation in economic, cultural and social life • Participation in public life • Prohibition of forced assimilation
  • 7. What is a national minority?:FCNM • Each Party to the FCNM is left room to assess which groups are to be covered. • This selection must be made in good faith and according to principles of international law. • The implementation of the Framework Convention should not be a source of arbitrary or unjustified distinctions. • An article by article approach has been adopted to the question of the groups covered by the Framework Convention.
  • 8. FCNM: scope of application • Article 6 1 The Parties shall encourage a spirit of tolerance and intercultural dialogue and take effective measures to promote mutual respect and understanding and co-operation among all persons living on their territory, irrespective of those persons’ ethnic, cultural, linguistic or religious identity, in particular in the fields of education, culture and the media. 2 The Parties undertake to take appropriate measures to protect persons who may be subject to threats or acts of discrimination, hostility or violence as a result of their ethnic, cultural, linguistic or religious identity. • Article 10 2 In areas inhabited by persons belonging to national minorities traditionally or in substantial numbers, if those persons so request and where such a request corresponds to a real need, the Parties shall endeavour to ensure, as far as possible, the conditions which would make it possible to use the minority language in relations between those persons and the administrative authorities.
  • 9. Who decides whether someone belongs to a national minority? • Individuals are free to decide whether or not they wish to be treated as belonging to a national minority. • An individual’s choice must be based on objective criteria connected with that person’s identity, such as language, religion and culture.
  • 10. ‘National Minority’ in Different Jurisdictions Armenia: “the nationals of the Republic of Armenia permanently living in the Republic of Armenia who are different from the basic popu • Azerbaijan: “Although there is no definition of «national minority» in the national legislation, the Government of Azerbaijan had never faced with the issue of recognition or non-recognition of any language or ethnic groups as national minorities, since it proceeded from the fact that every person has the right to freely determine his belonging to any national minority.lation by its ethnic origin”.
  • 11. ‘National Minority’ in Different Jurisdictions • Belarus: ‘persons who permanently reside in the territory of the Republic of Belarus, hold the citizenship of the Republic Belarus and who differ from the majority of the population of the republic by their origin, language, culture or traditions.’ • Georgia: persons who have Georgian citizenship, are distinct from the majority of the population in terms of language, culture and ethnic identity, have lived on Georgian territory for a long period (and live “compactly” on Georgian territory).
  • 12. ‘National Minority’ in Different Jurisdictions • Moldova: “persons residing in the Republic of Moldova and of Moldovan nationality who have particular ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious features which distinguish them from the - Moldovan - majority of the population and who consider themselves to be of different ethnic origin” • Ukraine: groups of Ukrainian citizens who are not of Ukrainian nationality, but show feeling of national self-awareness and affinity.
  • 13. ‘National Minority’ in Different Jurisdictions RF: ‘practice has shown that in satisfying various demands of national minorities two groups of entities in the ethnic composition of the Russian Federation are singled out: - established nations or nations living in the territory of Russia for an extensive period of time, which can be conditionally called indigenous peoples; - ethnic groups of a relatively more recent origin whose "mother" ethnoses live outside the Russian Federation (the CIS and Baltic countries, as well as Bulgaria, Hungary, Germany, Korea, Poland, Finland and a number of another countries), and also those groups that do not have state entities at all (Assyrians, Karaites, Kurds and Gipsies).
  • 14. ACFC: • The federal authorities appear to be ready to apply the Framework Convention also to minorities that have arrived relatively recently to the Russian Federation and to provide also non-citizens belonging to these groups the possibility to rely on the protection of the Framework Convention. • The Advisory Committee is of the opinion that it would be possible to consider including persons who belong to other groups, including non- citizens where appropriate, in the application of the Framework Convention on an article-by-article basis
  • 15. Ethnic Minorities and Migration: Statistics: Armenia 2001 1989 Ethnic group Total Percentage of Total Percentage of total population total population Armenia 3.145.354 97.8 3.083.616 93.3 Azeri - - 84.860 2.6 Kurd 1.519 0.05 4.151 0.1 Yezid 40.620 1.3 51.976 1.6 Russian 14.660 0.5 51.555 1.6 Ukrainian 1.633 0.05 8.341 0.2 Assyrian 3.409 0.1 5.963 0.2 Greek 1.176 0.04 4.650 0.1 Other 4.640 0.1 9.664 0.3 Total 3.213.011 100 3.304.776 100
  • 16. Ethnic Minorities and Migration: Statistics:Azerbaijan 2009 1999 1989 Ethnic group Total Percentage Total Percentage of Total Percentage of of total total total population population population 8.922.400 100 7.953.400 100 7.021.200 100 Azeris 8,172,800 91.6 7,205,500 90,6 5,805,500 82,7 Lezgins 180,300 2 178,000 2,2 171,400 2,4 Armenians 120,300 1.3 120,700 1,5 390,500 5,6 Russians 119,300 1.3 141,700 1,8 392,300 5,6 Talish 112,000 1.3 76,800 1,0 21,2 0,3 Avars 49,800 0.6 59,900 0,6 44,1 0,6 Turks 38,000 0.4 43,400 0,5 17,7 0,2 Tatars 25,900 0.3 30,000 0,4 28,6 0,4 Tats 25,200 0.3 10,900 0,13 10,2 0.14 Ukrainians 21,500 0.3 29,000 0,4 32,3 0,5 Sakhurs 12,300 0.1 15,900 0,2 13,3 0,2 Georgians 9,900 0.1 14,900 0,2 14,2 0,2 Jews 9,100 0.1 8,900 0,1 30,8 0,4 Kurds 6,100 0.1 13,100 0,2 12,2 0,2 Udins 3,800 0.04 4,100 0,05 6,1 0,1 Other 9,500 0.1 9,6 0,12 41,5 0,6
  • 17. Ethnic Minorities and Migration: Statistics: Georgia 2002 1989 Ethnic group Total Percentage of total Total Percentage of total population population Georgian 3,661,173 83.8 3,787,393 70.1 Azeri 284,761 6.1 307,556 5.7 Armenian 248,929 5.7 437,211 8.1 Russian 67,671 1.5 341,172 6.3 Ossetian 38,028 0.9 164,055 3.0 Yezid 18,329 0.4 - - Greek 15,166 0.3 100,324 1.9 Kist 7,110 0.2 - - Ukrainian 7,039 0.2 52,443 1.0 Jew 3,772 0.1 24,720 0.5 Abkhaz 3,527 0.1 95,853 1.8 Assyrian 3,299 0.1 6,206 0.1 Kurd 2,514 0.1 33,331 0.6 Chechen 1,271 0.0 609 0.0 Other 8,946 0.1 49,968 0.9
  • 18. Ethnic Minorities and Migration: Statistics: Moldova 2004 1989 Ethnic Total Total Percentage of total population group Total 3,383,332 4,335,360 100 Moldovans 2,564,849 2,794,749 64.5 Ukrainians 282,406 600,366 13.8 Russians 201,218 562,069 13 Gagauzians 147,500 153,548 3.5 Romanians 73,276 2,477 0.1 Bulgarians 65,662 88,419 2 Others 30,157 51,623 1
  • 19. Ethnic Minorities and Migration: Statistics: RF 2002 1989 Ethnic group Total (Mln. Percentage of Total (Mln. Percentage of Persons) total population Persons) total population Total 145.16 100 147.02 100 Russians 115.87 79.8 119.87 81.5 Tatars 5.56 3.8 5.52 3.8 Ukrainians 2.94 2.0 4.36 3.0 Bashkirs 1.67 1.2 1.35 0.9 Chuvashs 1.64 1.1 1.77 1.2 Chechens 1.36 0.9 0.90 0.6 Armenians 1.13 0.8 0.53 0.4 Moldovans 0.84 0.6 1.07 0.7 Belarusians 0.81 0.6 1.21 0.8 Avars 0.76 0.5 0.54 0.4 Kazakhs 0.66 0.5 0.64 0.4 Udmurts 0.64 0.4 0.71 0.5 Azerbaijani 0.62 0.4 0.34 0.2 Maris 0.60 0.4 0.64 0.4 Germans 0.60 0.4 0.84 0.6 Kabardinians 0.52 0.4 0.39 0.3 Ossets 0.51 0.4 0.40 0.3 Darghins 0.51 0.4 0.35 0.2 Buryats 0.45 0.3 0.42 0.3 Yakuts 0.44 0.3 0.38 0.3 Kumyks 0.42 0.3 0.28 0.2 Ingushs 0.41 0.3 0.22 0.1 Lezghins 0.41 0.3 0.26 0.2
  • 20. NMs and Migration: Present Day Challenge • The nature of migration flows has changed. • a significant percentage of national minorities are now forced migrants and refugees leaving neighboring states under threat of violence or because of discrimination. • fears of losing the ability to return to one’s motherland • fears of being left without citizenship • fears of being trapped across a border from one's family members and friends. • limited possibilities to exercise professional capacity and REASON: inadequate legal protection + poor implementation of the existing laws + lassez faire approach adopted by the governments???
  • 21. Legal Treatment of NMs: challenges • Few legislations governing the treatment of national minorities are unified under one legal act (vague, provisions of the constitution, a series of laws and governmental decisions) • No comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation
  • 22. Legal Treatment of NMs: challenges • no crime on the grounds of national/ethnic origin or racial hatred has been or the number of crimes recorded is very low. • - the unawareness of the persons belonging to national minorities of their rights; - persons’ poor command of the state language - lack of statistics Language Issue
  • 23. Effective multi-ethnic state • Marginalization of violence and coercion as a tool of cultural politics • Open Discourse over Cultural Difference • Respect for the Cultural Rights of Individuals • Opportunities for Minority Voice Within Institutions of Power • Equality and Social Justice for Minorities
  • 24. Marginalization of violence and coercion as a tool of cultural politics Violence and coercion as tools of cultural politics must be marginal to political practice. Coercion and violence rarely solve cultural conflicts and usually only create new grievances revolving around the very use of violence. “Solutions” that are imposed on society are just as problematic as “solutions” that are violently imposed on states by ethnic movements. They create legacies that haunt interethnic relations long after the violence recedes
  • 25. Open Discourse over Cultural Difference • an open public discourse over issues associated with cultural difference is needed in order to manage cultural conflict consensually. • we cannot simply equate the absence of conflict with a positive outcome if the possibilities for expressing grievances are at the same time limited. • Some degree of conflict over issues associated with cultural difference is a natural part of any multiethnic society • problems will only persist when a public discourse over issues of cultural pluralism is choked off.
  • 26. Respect for the Cultural Rights of Individuals the cultural rights of the individual must be respected minimizing discrimination against individuals on the basis of cultural difference providing opportunities for them to practice their culture and religion freely, to form and associate within cultural communities, to learn the language of their chosen community, and to select their identities freely
  • 27. Opportunities for Minority Voice Within Institutions of Power • political processes need to give voice to minorities • the policies that are produced take into consideration the interests of all sides to the conflict. • the effective multiethnic state does not force minorities into exit, but instead, by allowing voice, breeds minority loyalty. • when political processes contain incentives for politicians to take into consideration the needs of minorities, win-win outcomes are more likely to occur.
  • 28. Equality and Social Justice for Minorities The effective multiethnic state attempts to address the sources of inequality between groups and aspirations for social justice among minorities. deep-seated grievances need to be addressed proactively, not to become the cause of violent conflict.