Minority Rights Research Articles

Nation-building, Minority Rights, and Denotified Communities: A Conceptual Understanding

The complicated connections between nation-building, minority rights, and denotified communities in India are examined in this article. It offers an epistemological knowledge of the historical, political and social influences that have moulded these populations’ experiences, which are frequently left out of discussions about fostering national identity and minority rights. The study makes the case that nation-building initiatives in India frequently rest on a homogenized notion of national identity that ignores the varied cultural, linguistic, and ethnic identities of marginalized communities. This has led to the systematic marginalization of groups that have been notified and the violation of minority rights. This article adopts the library research method. The utilization of library research is a significant resource for the researchers seeking to acquire a more profound comprehension of a specific topic or subject matter. The methodology offers a methodical and organized strategy for collecting and evaluating data, which can aid scholars in discovering novel avenues for their investigations or contribute to advancing fresh concepts or principles within their discipline. This study addresses the issue’s cultural, social, and political elements and considers more inclusive and equitable nation-building strategies while drawing on multidisciplinary scholarship. In the end, it makes the case that in order to be genuinely democratic, society must place a high priority on recognizing and defending the rights of all of its members, especially those who have historically been marginalized and excluded.

Conflict and Coalition: Securing LGBT Rights in the Face of Hostility

Under what conditions do states protect minority rights in a context of domestic resistance? Recent decades have seen rapid divergence on LGBT rights worldwide, with Africa presented as “norms antipreneur” in the face of international pressure. Yet, in 1996, South Africa was the first country in the world to provide constitutional protection on grounds of sexual orientation. This article develops an original theory on LGBT rights protection using a conflict-to-rights framework. Employing process tracing, elite interviews and archival sources, I show how a situation of insurgency allows LGBT activists to build networks and increase egalitarian attitudes to attain in-group status. Continued violence also works to block public participation in policy-making while dividing opposition forces, allowing a tiny group of activists to effectively lobby for change.

The politics of ‘multiculturalism’ in language education: an analysis of curriculum guidelines in Taiwan

ABSTRACT Internationally, particularly in Western societies, the concept of multiculturalism tends to be associated with ‘progressive’ and liberal social visions promoting cultural diversity and minority rights. However, multiculturalism may not necessarily be a ‘cure’ for social division, but a ‘veil’ that covers political fractures and imbalances within society. This study critically investigates the multiple interpretations of multiculturalism through language education in Taiwan. In recent years, the Taiwanese debate over multiculturalism has been deeply intertwined with political agendas related to cross-strait relations, reflecting a desire to signal Taiwan's alignment with international (mainly Western) discourse and practice on human rights. Focusing on the area of language education, this study examines how Taiwanese policy interprets multiculturalism and incorporates culturally diverse elements into the formal school curriculum. By shedding light on the politics behind multiculturalism, it discusses the identity politics behind the multicultural rhetoric and the political implications of curricular attempts to promote multilingualism.

Speaking Rights to Populism? Using Emotion as the Language of Values

Abstract Since 2016 a series of unexpected developments such as Brexit and the shock election of Donald Trump have drawn attention to the rise of populism as one of the most significant phenomena in today’s political world. This populist ‘explosion’ is widely regarded as a significant threat to democracy and human rights, particularly the rights of minorities. So how should the human rights movement best respond? Speaking to the special issue theme on the meaning of and challenges to human rights, this article advances an argument for human rights claims-makers to learn the ‘lessons from populism’ in terms of its emotional appeal. Part 1 reviews the scholarly literature on human rights and the phenomenon of radical right populism to date, including the co-option of rights language by the far right. Part 2 builds on this literature to identify weaknesses in the legalistic way that (political) rights claims are advanced and argues that constructivist perspectives on rights may help ‘speak rights to’ populism. The final part argues that further research into emotions as the ‘language of values’ may help put empirical and conceptual flesh on the bones of a more ‘constructivist’ view of human rights.

Disparities in food insecurity between sexual minority and heterosexual adults - a higher burden on bisexual individuals.

Sexual minorities-individuals who identify as gay/lesbian, bisexual, or other non-heterosexual individuals-experience higher rates of food insecurity (FI) compared to heterosexual individuals. During the COVID-19 pandemic, discrimination and structural racism, which are known risk factors for food insecurity, were perpetuated against sexual and racial/ethnic minorities. However, to our knowledge, a nationally representative analysis of the impact of the pandemic on food insecurity by sexual minority status and based on race/ethnicity is missing. We aimed to determine the degree of association between FI and sexual minority adults overall, before (2019) and during (2020-2021) the pandemic, and stratified by race/ethnicity. We used nationally representative data from the 2019-2021 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). We specified multivariable logistic regression models to determine the association between FI and identifying as a sexual minority adult (≥18 years old), including gay/lesbian, bisexual, and other non-heterosexual individuals. Overall, we only observed FI disparities between bisexuals and heterosexuals (aOR 1.61 [95% CI 1.31-1.99]). Stratified by year, this association was significant only during the pandemic. Stratified by race/ethnicity, non-Hispanic white and non-Hispanic black individuals identifying as bisexual also experienced a significantly higher FI rate than their heterosexual counterparts. Our results may be a manifestation of the disproportionate impact of discrimination on bisexual individuals' FI experiences. With the growing number of legislative bills targeting the rights of sexual minorities, we expect to see a higher burden of FI among bisexuals, particularly, bisexual people of color. Future intersectional research regarding FI among bisexual and racial/ethnic minority individuals would further elucidate how membership in multiple minority groups may contribute to a higher risk of FI.

Same-sex relationships and recriminalisation of homosexuality in Ghana

Most Ghanaians conveniently ignore or vehemently deny the existence of homosexual relationships in precolonial Ghanaian cultures. The denial of these relationships in precolonial Ghanaian cultures has gained attention due to section 104 of the Criminal Offences Act of Ghana which criminalises ‘unnatural carnal knowledge’ and the ‘promotion of proper human sexual rights and Ghanaian family values bill, 2021’ (anti-LGBTQI+ bill), currently being debated in Ghana’s Parliament. Historical evidence suggests, however, that Western European researchers who first visited Africa and Ghana suppressed evidence of homosexuality, while indigenous people unwittingly concealed homosexual relationships because of a ‘culture of silence’ surrounding sex and sexuality in precolonial Ghana. From a decolonial theoretical perspective, this article argues that the non-appreciation of precolonial Ghanaian (homo)sexual history partly accounts for the criminalisation of same-sex sexual relationships, homophobia, violence, and violations of the rights of sexual minorities in contemporary Ghana. The paper connects the presence of same-sex sexual intimacies in the Gold Coast (now Ghana), and the absence of criminal sanctions as a basis for rethinking current attempts in Parliament to recriminalise homosexual relationships, in order to chart a path of the equal legal protection of every person, regardless of their sexual orientation.

The Rights of Religious Minorities in International Legal Documents and Islamic Shariah

The right of religious minorities is one of the most important rights of human beings through which people can freely perform their religious practices and worship without any fear. According to international documents, no state party to international covenants and conventions is permitted to discriminate against religious minorities. In most countries, there are lots of religious minorities who live as citizens or as migrants. Both need the protection of the state, and should be treated equally in accordance with laws. Fortunately, Islam also supports the rights of religious minorities and protects the rights of all those non-Muslims who live in the Islamic territory by the name of "Dhimmis", who also have to respect the rules and regulations of Islam. The doctrinal research methodology and a descriptive, explanatory, and analytical research approaches are used in this work. It is worth mentioning that this research study is entirely based on library sources. Most of the sources are reputable and trustworthy textbooks, scholarly published and unpublished journal articles, law reports, and online websites related to the research area. Additionally, the position of Islamic jurisprudence has also been clarified regarding the rights of minorities.

Engaging First Nations People at Work: The Influence of Culture and Context

The paper seeks to understand organisational context and culture’s influence on engaging First Nations People in Canada in work. Organisations have many opportunities to attract and engage Indigenous people, who have distinct worldviews and unique cultural customs not necessarily reflected in a North American workplace. Indigenous people also grapple with the historical and ongoing disparate impacts of settler colonialism that intersect colonial systems in most every area of their lives. This study worked within Indigenous research principles to encourage the articulation of deeply felt experiences and points of view of how First Nations people viewed and interacted with their work. The findings reviewed the experiences of twelve First Nations individuals working in non-Indigenous organisations. Through anti-colonial and critical organisational theoretical lenses, the study reveals how the context and culture that defined this sample of First Nations people shaped their views of what is essential to engaging them in the workplace. The findings illustrate what First Nations people would like to see in a workplace culture, what they feel needs to be recognised as part of their unique Indigenous context, and the approaches and practises that are most important for engaging them. Understanding the effect of context and culture on positive work interactions provides new information for organisational leaders, managers, diversity officers, and Human Resource practitioners to better support First Nations engagement in the workplace. It may also offer an approach to better engaging other culturally diverse organisational groups. The results add value to the fields of critical theory, anti-colonial theory, critical management studies, and Indigenous wholistic theory. The results further the discussion on the processes of decolonization and the recognition of Indigenous and minority rights in the workplace.

Tibet’s response to state nationalism: Utilising China’s fear of secession

AbstractTaking document analysis as its method, this paper examines the Tibetans’ response to the Chinese state nationalism. Due to the fear of political secession, the Chinese government has stayed silent about the Tibetans’ right to self‐determination and subjected regional ethnic autonomy to the centralised political system. The Chinese authorities continue to dismiss the Tibetans’ nationalist struggles as an imported foreign design and warn the international community not to sympathise with the Dalai Lama and his supporters. Amidst an adverse national and international political environment, the Tibetans have managed to sustain their nationalist wishes and obtain substantive international attention. Taking this background into account, this paper explores how the Tibetans have succeeded to resist China's state nationalism and position themselves as a champion of inclusion, justice, and minority rights. It argues that the Tibetans recognise the Chinese government’s fear of secession and utilise that fear to forward their nationalist aspirations. The Tibetans shift their demand from independence to autonomy and highlight their own desire for recognition as a distinct community within the Chinese state. This strategy has helped them to claim that they are against the violations of autonomy but not against the Chinese state’s territorial norms.

MIGRANT INTEGRATION IN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES

The European Union was created and is founded on values which are the joint heritage and patrimony of the overall development of Europe, namely the ideals of freedom, unity and equality, peace and security, democracy, human and minority rights and the rule of law. The reason why migrants come to Europe is because it is safe, there is more democracy, there is more freedom, more tolerance, but also more social benefits, than in their countries of origin. The EU ensures the social needs of migrants are met through tax revenues. It also specifies the frameworks within which member states adopt the laws constituting the institutional integration infrastructure. Integration is the two-way process of adaptation between migrants and the receiving society, and therefore, the same effort is expected from immigrants who, fleeing conflict and poverty, have found the opportunity to start a new life in the country of immigration. However, many, once settled, do not want to integrate, but rather continue to live in Europe as they did in the countries from where they came. Numerous domicile residents feel that major ethnic changes are changing European culture too quickly, and that this could have unintended consequences, among other things, in terms of the economy. The objective of this paper is to identify the challenges related to migration, increase awareness of the issue, analyze and compare the integration efforts made by EU countries, and highlight the challenges they faced and the outcomes of their initiatives. The study involved comparing data from secondary sources and conducting a meta-analysis of relevant literature. Such research is significant in enhancing the migration process as continuous awareness-raising about this matter is one of the key solutions for embracing the changes in migration that affect us all.

Problems of ratification of the European Charter of regional or minority languages in Ukraine

The article examines the problems of ratification of the European Charter of Regional or Minority Languages of 1992 and changes in the obligations of Ukraine to fulfill its provisions. The authors came to the conclusion that Ukraine's approach to the ratification of the European Charter was not balanced and did not have sufficient scientific justification. In particular, it has the following conceptual flaws. 1. The idea of the rights of national minorities in the sphere of using their languages is taken as abasis, and not the actual protection of regional and minority languages. This fundamental error distorts the essence of the European Charter. 2. The named national minorities were chosen arbitrarily, partly inadequately. The criteria for classify ingcertain languages as regional or minority are unclear. 3. The fundamental mistake wasthe refusal to distinguish the territories of the traditional distribution of the languages that are planned to be protected. Derived from this and obviously unjustified is the special protection of the most numerous group of speakers of the minority language –Russian – within the whole of Ukraine instead of the few historical communities of its speakers. 4. The temporary, and later the final refusal of special protection of non-territorial languages, which lays the grounds for discrimination of such languages as Yiddish and Romani, is unjustified and discriminatory. 5. The biggest drawback is the equal treatment of all regional or minority languages. In such a case, the main beneficiaries of state support become the most widespread languages, and the least number of speakers in relict languages (for example, Karaim) receive very little protection and cannot stop the process of their decline and disappearance. Key words: minority languages, regional languages, language of minority,national minorities, ethno-cultural policy of the state.

Constitution-making and statebuilding in Kosovo: we (you) the people

ABSTRACT How is ‘the people’ constituted in post-war, internationally administered Kosovo? As an internationalised territory and with an unresolved political status, the post-war interim constitution-making process was mainly shaped by a non-consensual idea of statehood regarding whether Kosovo was entitled to sovereign statehood. This article traces the antagonistic goals between Albanian and Serb ethnic groups within the country, on the one hand, and the international statebuilders, on the other hand, during the constitution-making process. Kosovo’s post-war constitution-making became the main instrument of an incremental international statebuilding. Although international statebuilders pursued neither a deliberative nor a consultative approach throughout the constitution-making process, they engineered a liberal constitutional content which imposed the highest standards of minority rights in post-war Kosovo.

Settler Colonialism, Illiberal Memory, and German-Canadian Hate Networks in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries

AbstractThis article is part of the collaborative research project Populist Publics. Housed at Carleton University (www.carleton.ca/populistpublics), it applies a data-driven analysis of online hate networks to trace how false framings of the historical past, what we call historical misinformation, circulates across platforms, shaping the politics of the center alongside the fringes. We cull large datasets from social media platforms and run them through a variety of different programs to help visualize how harmful speech and civilizational rhetoric about race, ethnicity, immigration, multiculturalism, gender equality, and LGBTQ+ rights are circulated by far-right groups across borders, noting specifically when and how they are taken up in the mainstream as legitimate discourse. Our interest is in how the distortion of the historical record is used to build alternative collective memories of the past so as to undermine minority rights and cultures in the present. We began with a basic question: To what extent is this actually new? As much as the atomized publics of our current day create ideal conditions for radical ideas to fester and circulate, it was obvious to us that we needed to look for linkages across time, drawing on interdisciplinary methods from the fields of history, media and communication, and data science to identify the tactics, strategies, and repertoires among such groups and individuals. By analyzing German-Canadian relations in particular, what follows is a first attempt to piece together some of these connections, with a focus on far-right hate groups—homegrown and imported—in the settler colonial project that is today's Canada.

State ethnonational policy as a factor in guaranteeing the right of citizens to security

The article focuses on the function of the authorities which is supposed to comprehensively promote the normative regulation of the ethno-national development of the state, develop and implement optimal models of interethnic understanding, prevent and eliminate conflict situations caused by interethnic frictions, and at the same time ensure the right of every citizen to security in the context of self-realisation and manifestation of identity (including national identity). In particular, this study demonstrates the dependence of the security environment of society on the ethno-national policy of the state, which, in turn, determines the means of guaranteeing the right of citizens to personal security.The authors summaries that the ethno-national policy of the state should provide for the coherence of a number of concepts and theories, including ethnic and cultural heterogeneity, multicultural state, acculturation, «ethnicist position» and others. At the same time, one of the main criteria for assessing the quality of such a policy should be the level of guarantee of the right to personal security for citizens, combined with the possibility of free development of ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious identity, i.e. self-realisation and self-identification. And in the context of the rapid development of globalization of the modern world, this aspect must necessarily be accompanied by the formation of an international system for the protection of the rights of ethnic and religious minorities, taking into account legal, socio-economic, socio-political and humanitarian factors.

The emergence of an independent Polish state and the problem of national minorities

The main approaches to the regulation of the status of national minorities in the Polish state restored after the First World War were investigated. They were reflected in the relevant provisions of the first Constitution of independent Poland (March 1921), which was a kind of compromise between the views of the Polish right-wing led by Roman Dmowski, who advocated the absolute dominance of ethnic Poles' interests, and the leaders of Polish socialist parties (T. Goluwko, L. Wasilewski), who wanted to support the national and cultural inspirations of minorities in exchange for their loyalty to the Polish state.
 The legal acts used to regulate the situation of national minorities were analysed. Their compliance with the international legal mechanisms for the protection of national minority rights, which began to operate in Europe within the framework of the Versailles-Washington system of international relations, in particular, the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles Minor, was determined. In case of compliance with the proclaimed legal norms, the Polish state had every chance to avoid an open confrontation with representatives of the non-title nation. However, the situation in Poland with regard to national minorities became a classic example of the discrepancy between law-making theory and law enforcement practice.
 It has been proved that due to the lack of mechanisms for monitoring compliance with international norms which were supposed to guarantee the rights of national minorities and imperfections in domestic legislation, the Polish authorities at various levels have repeatedly violated the democratic principles of the March 1921 Constitution and other legal acts designed to ensure equal rights for representatives of national minorities, which, in turn, created constant tension within the Second Polish Republic, destabilising the internal situation in the country.
 This situation was caused by a number of factors: the difficult economic situation, which provoked permanent tensions in society and the Poles' disrespect for members of national minorities. Artificially created borders after the First World War also provoked interethnic conflicts. Finally, it should be considered that the vast majority of Poles were supporters of the concept of the nation-state promoted by the National Democrats, which envisaged the assimilation of national minorities.

Некоторые аспекты совершенствования налогообложения имущества и доходов несовершеннолетних

The article is devoted to the study of the legal structure of guarantees of the rights of minors as a guarantee of property owners, which allows to identify a minor in tax relations as a taxpayer. It is established that the Russian legislation on taxes and fees does not put the fact of recognition of an individual as a tax payer depending on his age, property status and other criteria, but only on the presence of a minor object of taxation. On the basis of examples of judicial practice, the author identified gaps in the legislative regulation of relations in the field of taxes with the participation of minors.

RELIGIOUSLY MOTIVATED POLITICS IN DEMOCRATIC INDIA UNDER THE BJP GOVERNMENT

The prevalence of democracy is contingent upon sustainable peace and good governance, wherein individuals are granted freedom to practice their cultural and religious beliefs. In South Asia, the politicisation of religion has been a vexing issue, with dominant religious groups, both protected and non-protected, threatening democratic ideals. This paper argues that India, which is among the world's largest secular democratic states, has witnessed the emergence of fascist and authoritarian policies and manifestations under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, allowing extremist Hindutva groups and BJP to promote Hindu nationalism at the expense of other marginalised groups. The paper also highlights that the BJP government has employed religion to manipulate and mobilise individuals against minorities, jeopardising democratic values and undermining state institutions. It concludes that if the Indian government persists in practising fascistic tenets, it will have grave repercussions for regional stability and the democratic rights of minorities at home. Bibliography Entry Qurban, Zara. 2023. "Religiously Motivated Politics in Democratic India Under the BJP Government." Margalla Papers 27 (1): 176-185.

Finding the ultimate pipe: Israel's covert activity to protect the rights of the Jewish community in Turkey (1960–1961)

How can a state advocate on behalf of a diaspora community whose minority rights are threatened in a foreign country without appearing as intervening in this country's domestic affairs, thereby jeopardizing their bilateral relations? This is precisely the dilemma that Israel faced in 1960 when the Turkish government decided to close the national Jewish institutions in Turkey at a time when Israeli-Turkish relations were becoming increasingly amicable. On the one hand, Israel wanted to act, but on the other, it did not want to jeopardize its relations with Turkey, a country very sensitive to issues of national sovereignty and minorities. Wanting to intervene but fearing an adverse reaction from Ankara, Israeli diplomats decided to secretly mobilize B'nai B'rith, a Jewish-American organization. Based on primary sources from Israeli and B'nai B'rith archives, we analyze the Israeli decision to intervene, its mode of implementation, and the challenges faced by Israeli officials concerning their interactions with the Jewish actors in Turkey and the United States. We present a form of multilateral diaspora engagement taking place in multiple geographies in which one Jewish diaspora—the Jewish-American organization B'nai B'rith—was mobilized by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) to perform unofficial diplomacy in the aid of another Jewish diaspora—the Jewish community in Turkey—for the purpose of reopening the latter's communal institutions. Looking at the motivations for engagement and the balances of power shaping it, we offer a new look on the dynamics of claiming and agency between states and diasporas.

The Impact of Global Human Rights Advocacy on State Practices: A Multi-Country Study

This study investigates the influence of international human rights advocacy on state practices in Indonesia and Malaysia. The research uses a mixed methods approach, combining quantitative analysis of human rights indicators and qualitative analysis of case studies and interviews. The findings show successes and challenges in the relationship between advocacy efforts and state behavior in both countries. The quantitative analysis shows improvements in certain areas, such as gender equality in Indonesia and legislative reform in Malaysia, while challenges remain in terms of freedom of expression, religious freedom, and minority rights. The qualitative analysis provides deeper insights, highlighting the important role of advocacy in raising awareness, promoting accountability, and pressuring governments to address human rights violations. However, barriers to effective implementation exist due to political resistance and societal divisions. A comparative analysis between Indonesia and Malaysia shows similarities and differences, with Indonesia showing a greater response to reform and Malaysia showing resistance that limits freedoms. This research contributes to the field by emphasizing the need for context-specific analysis and tailored approaches to address human rights challenges.

Conceptualizing Universal Human Rights in Islam: Implications in the Modern Period

This study delves into the conceptualization of Universal Human Rights in Islam and its implications in the modern period. The research explores foundational principles within Islam that align with universal human rights values, such as the recognition of inherent human dignity, equality, and freedom of conscience. Additionally, it investigates Islamic perspectives on social justice, the protection of minority rights, and the provision of basic needs, which resonate with the principles of universal human rights. However, the study also addresses challenges in the areas of gender equality and women's rights, as interpretations of Islamic teachings may differ from international human rights standards. The research also highlights the complexities of reconciling freedom of expression with religious sensitivities within the Islamic context. The implications of the findings are far-reaching, with the potential to foster interfaith dialogue, enhance human rights education within Islamic communities, and advance efforts towards gender equality and minority protection.