Prior to the
Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920), the term "minority" primarily referred to political parties in national legislatures, not ethnic, national, linguistic or religious groups. The Paris Conference has been attributed with coining the concept of minority rights and bringing prominence to it. Minority rights were codified in Austrian law in 1867. Russia was especially active in protecting Orthodox Christians and Slavic peoples under the control of the Ottoman Empire. However the Russian government tolerated vicious
pogroms against Jews in its villages. Russia was widely attacked for this policy. By contrast there was little or no international outrage regarding the treatment of other minorities, such as black people in the
southern United States before the 1950s when African colonies became independent. Before the
World War I, only three European countries declared ethnic minority rights, and enacted minority-protecting laws: the first was Hungary (1849 and 1868), the second was Austria (1867), and the third was Belgium (1898). In the pre-WW1 era, the legal systems of other European countries did not allow the use of European minority languages in primary schools, in
cultural institutions, in offices of public administration and at the legal courts.
Minority rights at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 At the
Versailles Peace Conference the Supreme Council established 'The Committee on New States and for The Protection of Minorities'. All the new successor states were compelled to sign minority rights treaties as a precondition of diplomatic recognition. It was agreed that although the new states had been recognized, they had not been 'created' before the signatures of the final peace treaties. The issue of German and Polish rights was a point of dispute as Polish rights in Germany remained unprotected, unlike the German minority in
Poland. Like other principles adopted by the League, the Minorities Treaties were a part of the Wilsonian idealist approach to international relations; like the League itself, the Minority Treaties were increasingly ignored by the respective governments, with the entire system mostly collapsing in the late 1930s. Despite the political failure, they remained the basis of international law. After
World War II, the legal principles were incorporated in the UN Charter and a host of international human rights treaties.
International law Minority rights, as applying to ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples, are an integral part of
international human rights law. Like
children's rights,
women's rights and refugee rights, minority rights are a legal framework designed to ensure that a specific group which is in a
vulnerable,
disadvantaged or
marginalized position in society, is able to achieve equality and is protected from persecution. The first postwar international treaty to protect minorities, designed to protect them from the greatest threat to their existence, was the
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Subsequent human rights standards that codify minority rights include the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 27), the United Nations
Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, two
Council of Europe treaties (the
Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the
European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages), and the
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)
Copenhagen Document of 1990. Minority rights cover protection of existence, protection from discrimination and persecution, protection and promotion of identity, and participation in political life. For the rights of
LGBT people, the
Yogyakarta Principles have been approved by the
United Nations Human Rights Council. For the rights of persons with
disabilities, the
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has been adopted by
United Nations General Assembly. To protect minority rights, many countries have specific laws and/or commissions or
ombudsman institutions (for example the Hungarian Parliamentary Commissioner for National and Ethnic Minorities Rights). While initially, the United Nations treated
indigenous peoples as a sub-category of minorities, there is an expanding body of international law specifically devoted to them, in particular
Convention 169 of the
International Labour Organization and the UN
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (adopted 14 September 2007). In 2008, a declaration on LGBT rights was presented in the UN General Assembly, and in 2011, an LGBT rights resolution was passed in the United Nations Human Rights Council (
See LGBT rights at the United Nations). There are many political bodies which also feature minority group rights, which might be seen in
affirmative action quotas or in guaranteed minority representation in a
consociational state. == National minorities in the law of the EC/EU ==