17 April-28 May 2013 (E08513) | Closed
Instructor: Dr. Gerd Oberleitner
This certificate course is an introduction to the protection of minority rights under international law and allows participants to explore and critically assess the norms and institutions for the protection of minorities that have been created over the past half century. The course provides an introduction to the history of minority protection before 1945 and traces the conceptual, political and legal questions associated with and arising from the protection of minorities, as well as the struggle over the definition of minorities. It discusses how the rights of national, ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities are protected and promoted under international legal regimes – in the United Nations and in Europe, Africa and the Americas. Participants will debate the challenges of protecting “new” minorities (such as migrants) as opposed to “old” (autochthonous) minorities and explore different conceptual approaches – human rights, group rights, peoples’ rights, self-determination, autonomy and minority rights – as well as the link between non-discrimination and minority rights.
This e-learning course relies extensively on case studies from various regions of the world in order to explore selected topics (such as religious and linguistic rights, land rights of tribal communities, education and cultural rights, the effects of climate change, participation in public affairs, etc.). In doing so, the course analyses the contribution to the development of minority rights and the rights of indigenous peoples which have been made by a range of international organisations and bodies (the UN treaty bodies, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the European and Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the European Union, the OSCE and the International Labour Organization). The case studies will also allow course participants to develop skills in accessing and analysing “jurisprudence” on minority rights.