April 6th was dedicated to a working dinner of the G8, which was organized by the UK. Since the G8 includes states with very different positions on the topic it was hard to reach the consensus regarding the legal status of minorities, since some states do not even recognize national minorities as such in their national legislation. On the other hand G8 agreed that there is a need to promote principles of equality and non-discrimination. They committed "to take practical and effective actions to prevent intolerance, discrimination, and all forms of extremism".
To make a clearer picture on the G8 view on the inter-ethnic issues involving minorities, we invited the representatives of US, UK and Italy to join us at the interview.
Human rights are the cornerstone of the protection of the individuals in modern states. Enjoying human rights enables us personal development as well as access to financial resources which each of us need in order to survive. The modern state must first ensure the realization of the rights for its populous, so that individuals can share and enjoy the same freedoms, responsibilities and protection. Therefore no basis for discrimination among ethnic groups should be enabled. What I firstly asked the states was, how would they evaluate the protection of minorities in modern states?
Diverging opinions were give as answers. In the fist place the UK stated that "the protection of minorities varies from state to state, region to region, but unfortunately in many places minority communities and groups are denied access to education and health, as well as more vulnerable to poverty. " A more optimistic opinion was given by Italy whose delegate said that "Italy believes in international law on rights of minorities and their protection is slowly developing. Although we are witnessing a lack of definition of minority, we believe minorities are slowly becoming more and more protected. States are becoming aware of importance of protection for their internal peace and stability, and also for peace and stability in international community."
In relation to the situation in the previous question, we asked the guests what can be done in order to reduce issues which are caused by the difficult position of minorities.
Italy stated that to ensure the protection of minorities in the first place means that we must provide these communities with the basic human rights. Fighting discrimination and tackling racial inequalities is what the UK believes that states must commit themselves to in the first place. More precisely the delegate of UK explained that "This means implementing measures that tackle the disadvantages that minorities face, but also providing support to ethnic, religious, linguistic or racial minorities, so they can enjoy their cultures and traditions without fear of persecution. This can foster healthy relationships within communities." States agreed that a very important area in which efforts need to be made is the area of education. Italy said that this needs to be ensured by the "education of members of minorities and education of others about minorities, non-discrimination, solidarity, tolerance cohesion, equality and human rights." UK added that anti-discrimination legislation needs to be adopted also in "social services, public administration, and justice. Equal opportunities are the key. It also requires international cooperation, exchange of information between members states on issues relating to the protection of national minorities." Moreover Italy stated that "states have to assure understanding, tolerance, and respect for minorities, foster equality, reduction of extremism and reduction of hate crime, both at national and international level." What US added is that they are committed to advancement of human rights in relation to persons that belong to minorities and that they believe it is very important to include a broad range of civil society organizations, NGO's, also minorities in a prices of promotion of human rights.
As a way of preventing inter-ethnic conflicts is to provide a minority with certain degree of political representation, self-government or even autonomy. What would be your approach in order to prevent endemic violence in inter-ethnic conflicts involving minorities?
"United States of America are certain that it is important to include minority groups in all possible activities and policies."Together with equal access to all opportunities the US was also of the opinion that political participation was essential, saying that "states should do everything in their power to grant them equal access to all active and passive voting rights and ability to convey their messages and ideas." Moreover the UK stressed that they fully respect the right to self-determination. "Within the UK we also have a system of devolution of legislating powers from the Parliament of the United Kingdom to the Scottish Parliament, National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly and executive powers to the Scottish Government, Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive. These bodies can make make and implement laws on all matters which are not reserved, such as education, health, agriculture, local government, environment, tourism, justice and the police." What she also mentioned is the Scottish independence referendum which will be held on the 18th September 2014. Italy concluded that "minorities have to be included in the society as a whole".
Interethnic conflict could be solved either on bilateral or multilateral level- through international organizations and their mechanisms for conflict solving. To which of those you would give a priority?
The opinion of states on certain aspects is varied.. The US, for example, put their trust in the multilateral level, as it enables development of joint ventures and sharing best practices. Furthermore, US pointed out "as our priority is the promotion of already established human rights of persons belonging to minorities, this is a mechanism with a very broad scope of issue and, more importantly, solutions." However, the representative of the US does not claim that state level is to be left out: " the state level is also important as each conflict and each minority group faces different circumstances and external environment"/.../"What is especially important on a state-level, is engaging with civil society organizations, general society and minorities. We must cooperate with everyone that advocates and represents this specific group of human rights." The representative of UK started "The UK plays a major role in the international arena, in the EU, Council of Europe and the United Nations in order to encourage all states to adopt good practices at national level."/.../"UK is is strongly committed to working closely with Member States to tackle discrimination". On the other side they believe that "the approach should be different from state to state as for those states that have ethnic minorities, which have an ethnically related States it makes perfect sense to manage those relations bilaterally". Similar opinion has Italy, which thinks that both levels are important: "multilateral level is especially important for providing some general norms, values and directions and can also serve as a forum for multilateral negotiations on the topic of minorities. On the other hand, national and bilateral level is important for solving concrete conflicts with concrete states and concrete minorities."
Aleksandra Đurđević
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