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The rights of national minorities

Religious worship - a cultural right

An excerpt from the Declaration on Minority Rights which was prepared between July 1998 and May 2000 by a working group whose members were -

Professor Will Kymlicka
Professor of Political Philosophy, Queen's University, Kingston (Cananda)
Henrik Lax MP
President of the Swedish Assembly of Finland, Chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee of the Finnish Parliament
Professor Errol Mendes
Director the Human Rights Research and Education Centre, University of Ottawa (Canada)
Dr. Gerhart Raichle
Director of the Liberal Institute of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, Potsdam (Germany)
Benjamin Rhodd
Member of the Sioux indigenous people of South Dakota (USA)
Lord Russell-Johnston?
President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
Europe
Eleonora Sandor
Secretary of the Committee on Human Rights and National Minorities of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, Member of the Hungarian national minority in Slovakia
Professor Jeff Spinner
Professor of Political Science, University of Nebraska (USA)
Professor Abraham Viljoen
Member of the Afrikaner ethnocultural minority in South Africa.
It was discussed, amended and adopted by the Second Minorities' Conference of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, held at Berlin from September 13th to 16th, 2000.

In contrast to ethnocultural minorities, national cultural or religious minorities are historically settled communities; moreover, their inclusion in a country with a majority population different from themselves usually is the result of developments beyond their control.

While people who immigrate into a country can reasonably be expected to adapt, no such expectation is justified regarding people who simply continue to live where their ancestors lived, and who have often played a vital role in building a pluralist society. Their right to maintain what makes them different from the majority cannot reasonably be questioned and consequently any attempt on the part of the majority at imposing uniformity, or any pressure towards assimilation, is illegitimate.

The way the rights of national minorities can be organised and exercised depend to a large extent on the form of settlement they live in; in the case of compact settlement areas, with few or no members of the majority living there, territorial autonomy is the obvious answer; where minorities live dispersed among the majority, not forming a majority in any substantial area, other forms of institutionalising these rights are called for, which may include non-territorial, functional variants of autonomy.

From the importance the form of settlement carries for the exercise of the rights of minority, it follows that there must be safeguards against manipulations in this respect. While the right free movement and settlement within a country is so important for all citizens that it should not be restricted except in favour of indigenous peoples in their hereditary hands, its misuse by deliberate resettlement policies aimed at subverting the position of minorities in their own areas is unacceptable, as is the manipulation of administrative borders aiming at the same end.

Very often national minorities - particularly if their minority position in one country is the result of a redrawing of international borders - are connected by ethnic, linguistic and/or cultural or religious ties with the population of a neighbouring country. No government has a right to interfere in any way with the cross-border contacts and exchanges which are natural in such a situation (as, indeed, no government has the right to interfere with the normal international contacts of any of its citizens).

There are two categories of rights which constitute the absolute minimum of any fair deal for national minorities; cultural self-determination, and full participation in the decision making on central/national level. Where conditions permit, i.e. where minorities settle in geographically contiguous areas, further powers should be devolved to them: such as running their own adminstration, police, social institutions, etc.

Cultural self- determination

Every national minority has the right to sovereignly manage the most central factor of its identity; its culture. This includes matters of language, education, cultural traditions, and religion, which is often a critical factor in their identity.

In the first place, cultural self-determination means that everybody has the unrestricted right to his or her own native language. This includes unconditionally.

* the right to learn one's own native language

* the right to use one's own language in public.

* the right to use proper names in the minority language version and to have this version used in all official contexts

* total absence of restrictions on publishing or broadcasting printed or electronic media in the minority language

* unrestricted access to such media and publications; subject to being warranted by sufficient numbers, either country-wide or in specific regions, it further includes

* the right to be taught one's own native langauge and its being employed as the prevalent medium of instruction in schools. This right shall not prejudice the learning of the official language

* the use of minority languages in administrative authorities and public services, law courts, and parliaments

* the availability of laws and other important public legal texts in the minority language

* where publicly owned media exist, adequate space for broadcasts etc. in the minority language or, where applicable, regional stations broadcasting exclusively in the minority language

* public sign boards, place and street names etc. using the minority language at least additionally to the official language.

The numerical requirements to warrant these rights must be fixed by law. They should be defined in both percentage and absolute figures, and meeting either requirement should be sufficient. The central principle in determining the numerical requirements should be the avoidance of pressure to assimilate.

The second essential field of cultural self-determination is education. Members of national minorities have a right to be educated in their own culture. This implies:

* Primary education (including pre-school education where it is obligatory) in their mother tongue must be available to all children.

* National minorities have the right to run primary and secondary schools of their own, which are entitled to at least the same public subsidies (per pupil) as the schools of the majority as long as they comply with the appropriate minimal standards. This does not prejudice the right to run any other type of private schools.

* Where numbers warrant it, the same applies to institutions of tertiary education (universities); otherwise adequate provision for teaching and research in minority cultures must be made at least one of the existing universities.

* Where small numbers and/or dispersed settlement of a national minority renders boarding schools or other specialised schools (e.g., after-hour schools) the only feasible form of minority schools, subsidies to help covering the additional costs are warranted. The same applies to regular schools in minority areas which are viable but more expensive per pupil because of their inevitable smallness.

The other two areas which are essential to cultural self-determination are cultural traditions and religion. The fundamental duty owned in these areas in non-discrimination; national minorities must enjoy the full and unrestricted rights that go with citizenship. Normally this only requires non-intervention on the part of government. To the extent, however, that cultural and religious institutions and activities of the majority are actively supported, non-discrimination is the obvious additional requirement.

Participationin decision-making

Being full citizens of their country, members of national minorities have every right to participate fully in the politics of their country - politics which, after all, affects their lives as much as those of the majority.

If they want to do so, they obviously also have the right to practice such participation as a minority, i.e. as a group with distinct common interests vis-a-vis the majority, by, e.g., maintaining and voting for special minority parties. Factors specific to the minority situation, such as small numbers or disadvantageously dispersed settlement, but also such factors as regional and constituency boundaries or unfavourable electoral systems, frequently tend to adversely affect their chances of participating on an equal footing with the majority. It is therefore the duty of the politics and legislation on the national level to remove, or mitigate the effect, of such obstacles.

The measures and provisions required to secure effective participation of national minorities include the following:

* The easiest way to secure minority representation at central government level is the electoral system of Proportional Representation (PR). Where such systems are combined with the requirement of a certain minimum electoral support ('threshold clauses'), minorities should be exempt from such clauses.

Where other electoral systems than PR are chosen majority representation must be secured by other devices, some of which follow.

* The drawing of constituency boundaries must avoid the inclusion of large numbers of the majority population within constituencies in minority areas ("Gerrymandering").

Where the minority population is so dispersed around the country they cannot reasonably be expected to win any geographically defined single member constituency, one alternative to proportional representation could be an adequate number of special, additional designated constituencies reserved for the minority electorate.

Adequate provision must be made in this case that voters who do not wish to vote on ethnic or religious lines can do so.

* Wherever regional autonomy operates in areas of contiguous settlement, especially if this is part of a general system of devolution also including majority areas (e.g., federalism), the representation of regional political institutions at the central/federal level must be organised in a way that rules out any discrimination against minority regions.

* Positions in the central administration (particularly army, police, judiciary, and intelligence services) of countries comprising national minorities must be accessible to members of the minority without any discrimination, selection being based on grounds of job-appropriate qualification. Attention should be paid to the recruitment of national minorities into these positions and eliminating systemic barriers against their employment.

Further autonomy rights

Many of the rights of national minorities enumerated in the previous sections of this declaration, especially those in the cultural field, imply a limited autonomy that is not necessarily defined in terms of a certain territory, but operates for a certain group of men and women irrespective of their place of settlement within a given country.

While some autonomy rights are not dependent on any particular pattern of settlement, in cases where minorities do settle in contiguous areas, minorities should have the option of territorial self-government. In some cases, this can be achieved through a scheme of general devolution or regional self-government. In other cases, it will require a special regime of territorial autonomy.

In order to be an efficient and effective instrument of safeguarding minority rights, autonomy dispensations should meet the following requirements. Along with historical, topographic and economic criteria, ethnicity should be accepted as a legitimate criterion when borders are drawn, so that minority populations can be the majority in the areas in which they settle.

* Where members of the (national) majority population are living in an area of regional self-government or territorial autonomy, this "minority within the minority" is entitled to precisely the same rights as the "minority of the first order" is within the country as a whole.

* Self-government should be exercised in accordance with human rights norms, including gender equality.

* Areas of responsibility that next to cultural affairs particularly lend themselves to being exercised by autonomous institutions are policing, administrative organisation, infrastructure, and a considerable part of social security provisions.

* No regional self-government or territorial autonomy is complete without a considerable degree of financial autonomy. The power of taxation must, therefore, be an integral and indispensable part of any autonomy dispensation that deserves its name.

In no case should a central government have the right to abolish or substantially infringe an existing autonomy status of a national minority.

Those who argue that autonomy for national minorities constitutes either " a new form of apartheid", or the first step towards secession, or both, are wrong. As long as "non-ethnic" nation-wide parties can compete on an equal basis in the minority areas (which should be a matter of course), and as long as the rights of minorities within the minority are secured, autonomy in minority areas simply constitutes an option of practising self' determination on the basis of voluntary association, which is the exact opposite to apartheid (which was based on compulsory association).

Likewise, having a larger say in their own affairs will facilitate the accommodation of minorities in the countries they are part of, and thus, while it will not necessarily preclude secession, will considerably reduce its probability.

Autonomy is not only consistent with, but also conducive to, the construction of a cohesive country in which all members, majority and minority alike, can participate as equal partners. Clearly, nobody owes allegiance to a country that denies him or her the most fundamental rights, and communities whose members are denied these rights within a certain country cannot reasonably be blamed for seeking them outside that country. Therefore, while we hope and believe that if the minority rights specified in this Declaration are respected, the threat of secession will recede, we deem it necessary that the international community formulate clear rules on the subject.

Peace publications : The roots of ethnic turmoil

Ethnic Futures - The State and Identity Politics in Asia
Publishers: Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd.
Reviewed by Afreeha Jawad

A retrospective analysis on this country's ethno/political past makes Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake explore in this book what really went wrong down the line - where and how we meandered from the path that took this 'Paradise Isle' into a blood-filled entity in later years.

She cleverly picks out the main constitutional 'injuries' which aborted minority accommodation. She makes out a strong case in her revelation - that playing up to 'popular will' - certainly has done more harm and no good at all - so explicit and apparent in what followed to soil Sri Lanka's future pages of history.

As Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka and Rajasingham believe, the Asian cosmopolitanism is submerged in the face of globalisation. South Asia's hidden history of cultural co-existence and hybridity - when inter community, inter continental exchanges took place, is buried under the colonial experience portrayed for long of caste in the region.

Elaborating on this, both Darini and Joanna assert that this cosmopolitanism did not conform to the 'enlightenment view' of humankind nor did it cater to the needs of a contemporary concept of global political economy. While Sri Lanka goes through the trauma of politicization of ethnicity - in Nepal it's the other way round - the ethnicization of politics where only high caste Hindus uphold the status quo. High rates of ethnocentric feelings in Nepal are compelling other social groups for a recognition of their cultures and religions.

A unique feature this reviewer perceived in the course of studying the conflict situation in Nepal and Sri Lanka is the absence in Nepal of public debate on secularism, modernity and nationalism. No, Nepali intellectuals do not take a risk of going public as regards such. The local intellectuals - more open to point out mistakes in relation to political short term gain vis-a-vis the ethnic conflict, are emulation worthy by their Nepalese counterparts. A significant deduction that could be arrived at by studying the social arenas of both these countries is the diversity of caste and unwavering competition in Sri Lanka's legislative and public life unlike in Nepal, proving the point of greater and wider societal evolution in Sri Lanka where even the lowest caste could 'make it' to any social placement given the opportunity of resource accessibility and 'right' contact.

Nepal's static growth rate has created Hindu high caste enclaves in Nepal's upper echelons. If every one thought of secularism to be a saviour for present social ills, Ashis Nandy's presentation proves otherwise for she believes many forms of religious fundamentalism to be the progeny of the modern secular world and have a better chance of appealing to sections of their citizens who suffer from doubts about their own cultural and religious roots.

That the western idea of secularism destroys old communities and builds anew in the form of nationalities and ethnicities is Nandy's clever finding. Sooner or later ethnic irritations are quashed through the state's defence mechanism of law, national security diplomacy, police, military etc. In Iran the Shah's secularism exploded to the extent of allegiance to western powers, making one believe secularism to be another western manipulated vested interest thinking. The system's failure to deliver the goods is noteworthy. While man struggles within the system's enclaves in an 'embryo' of eternal struggle and relentless search for solutions, one could conclude how difficult his emancipation is in escaping such imposed structures - all an outcome of his own doing or rather misdoings.

Drama competition welcomes 'Dawn of Peace'

by Vehelle Piyatilleke - Maharagama Special Correspondent

The special decorations at the entrance to the drama festival.

The final round of the "All Island Short Drama Competition on Peace" organised by Caritas - Sri Lanka (SEDEC) was held recently at the National Youth Centre, Maharagama under the patronage of Rt. Rev. Dr. Vianney Fernando and the Ambassador of France in Sri Lanka Ms Maric France Pagnier.

'Dawn of Peace' was the theme of the drama competition. This is an all island inter-school short drama competition in which 24 schools from North, South, East, and West participated. Of the plays, 11 were selected for the final round.

Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim and Burgher students from North, South, East and West met on one stage at the drama festival and the thirst for peace was shown and the voice of peace was heard from all ethnic groups from the same stage. 'Peace', 'peace', 'peace' was heard everywhere.

'Seema Ima' of St. Mary's College Chilaw won first place and second was won by 'No War', presented by Rambakulama Maha Vidyalaya, Vavuniya. Third place was secured by St. Loyala College, Colombo. Jehan Srikanth of St. Mary's College, Chilaw and Ms M. C. Cooper of St. Anthony's Convent, Kandy were adjudged best actor and best actress of the competition.

Jaffna displaced protest, demand resettlement

A large number of displaced families from Valikamam north Wednesday picketed in front of the Divisional Secretariat at Tellipalai from dawn to dusk, demanding that they be allowed to resettle in their own lands. The Valikamam north Rehabilitation Society, with the Federation of Farmers Associations and students organizations, organised the picket and protest march.

Around noon, a large number of picketers commenced their protest march to the Jaffna Secretariat, about fourteen km off Tellipalai, in two wheel tractors and bicycles, carrying placards and shouting slogans through KKS road.

The protesters reached the Jaffna Secretariat around one in the afternoon and handed over a memorandum that included twelve demands. The main demand is to allow them to resettle in their own lands in Valigamam north. The Additional Government Agent. T. Vaithilingam, accepted the memorandum from the President of the Coalition of Humanitarian Agencies, K. Paramanathan. The displaced people of Valigamam north held a similar picketing campaign on May 5 in front of the Tellipalai Divisional Secretariat.

A copy of the memorandum handed over to the Jaffna Additional Government Agent was also given to the Sri Lanka Monitoring Mission in Jaffna district. - TamilNet

Madhu feast after 19 years

by Frances Bulathsinghala

Archbishop of Colombo Rt. Rev. Dr. Nicholas Marcus Fernando said yesterday that in anticipation of a large number of Catholic pilgrims to the Madhu shrine for the Madhu feast of 2 July, arrangements would be made to send additional priests from Colombo for assistance in the religious services.

Over twenty priests are to be sent from Colombo parishes to the Madhu region, the Archbishop said in an interview with the 'Daily News'. It was noted by the Archbishop that it was the first Madhu feast after nineteen years of war, that required additional priests to be sent, as was the practice for both the July and August feasts of Madhu before the area became taboo owing to the war.

Meanwhile the District Secretary of Mannar V. Vishwalingham, along with the District Secretary of Vavuniya, K. Ganesh who had attended a meeting last Saturday with the military hierarchy at the Army Headquarters in Vavuniya to discuss issues pertaining to the opening of the Madhu road for the feast said that everything would be done to enable the convenience of the pilgrims.

It is reported that the LTTE representatives in the region have been briefed by the clergy in the area about the co-operation needed from them in getting the Madhu route opened. "It is a momentous occasion that we are celebrating this feast of Our Lady of Madhu while the whole country is at peace. We are assured of the fullest support of both the military as well as the LTTE", the Archbishop said.

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