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The Problem of National Minorities Before and After the Paris Peace Treaties of 1947

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Edward Chaszar
Edward Chaszar*
Affiliation:
Indiana University of Pennsylvania
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Extract

The purpose of this paper is to compare briefly the situation of national minorities in Europe before and after the Paris Peace Treaties of 1947. More particularly, to contrast the League of Nations system of minority protection with the lack of a similar system within the United Nations framework, and recent attempts to remedy this shortcoming.

Type
Articles
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 9 , Issue 2 , Fall 1981 , pp. 195 - 206
Copyright
Copyright © 1981 by the Association for the Study of the Nationalities (USSR and East Europe) Inc. 

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References

Notes

1. For the wording of this undertaking in the original French see C. A. Macartney, National States and National Minorities, 2nd. ed. (New York: Russell, 1968), p. 160.Google Scholar

2. Inis L. Claude, Jr., National Minorities: An International Problem (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1955), p. 12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3. Alfred Cobban, The National State and National Self-Determination (London: Collins, 1969), p. 86.Google Scholar

4. The text of Clemenceau's letter is reproduced in Oscar I. Janowsky, Nationalities and National Minorities (New York: Macmillan, 1945), p. 179-84.Google Scholar

5. A collection of these instruments is found in League of Nations, Protection of Linguistic, Racial and Religious Minorities by the League of Nations, 1927 I.B.2.Google Scholar

6. Claude, p. 17, referring to The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson, I, 463, 543.Google Scholar

7. See Pablo de Azcarate y Florez, League of Nations and National Minorities (New York: Carnegie Endowment, 1945), p. 82.Google Scholar

8. Claude, p. 19.Google Scholar

9. André Mandelstam, La Protection des Minorités (Paris: Hachette, 1925), p. 53–70.Google Scholar

10. Adatci's Report is reproduced in full in the Appendix to Pablo de Azcarate y Florez, League of Nations and National Minorities (New York: Carnegie Endowment, 1945). Azcarate was head of the League's Minority Section.Google Scholar

11. Claude, p. 30; and see his Chapter 3, “The Failure of the League Minority System.” Detailed criticism is also offered by Macartney, Chapter 10, and by F. P. Walters, A History of the League of Nations (London: Oxford University Press, 1965), Chapter 34. The operating procedure is described in detail in the Adatci Report. A good legal analysis of the Minority Treaty obligations is found in André Mandelstam, La Protection des Minorités, (Paris: Hachette, 1925).Google Scholar

12. Macartney, p. 502.Google Scholar

13. Macartney, p. 505.Google Scholar

14. Quoted by Macartney, p. 506.Google Scholar

15. Macartney, pp. 506–507. This clause was not included in the Bulgarian Treaty because of Soviet opposition. Later, at the insistence of the U.S.A., Italy Yugoslavia, and Czechoslovakia had to assume similar obligations.Google Scholar

16. United Nations Document, E/259, p.5.Google Scholar

17. U.N. Document, E/447.Google Scholar

18. U.N. Document, E/AC25/3, p. 6.Google Scholar

19. See Articles I and II, in Walter Laqueur and Barry Rubin, The Human Rights Reader (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1979), p. 201–202.Google Scholar

20. Human Rights Reader, p. 198. For a more detailed analysis of the drafting, debating, and adopting of the Genocide Convention and the Declaration of Human Rights see Chapter 12 in Claude, National Minorities.Google Scholar

21. Human Rights Reader, p. 224, Article 26 guarantees to all persons “equal and effective protection against discrimination on any ground such as race, color, sex, language, religion,” … etc. Both Covenants also assert the right of self-determination. Neither of them contains provisions for effective enforcement in the event of its violation.Google Scholar

22. See Article 7 of the Peace Treaty signed by the Allied Powers and Austria on May 15, 1955, in Vienna.Google Scholar

23. New York Times, November 10 and 20, 1946.Google Scholar

24. See Claude, Chapter 13, “The United Nations and Specific Minority Problems.” According to him “The United Nations displayed a rare willingness in the Eritrean case to involve itself in minority problems.” p. 189.Google Scholar

25. Burns H. Weston, Richard A. Falk and Anthony A. D'Amato, International Law and World Order (St. Paul, Minn.: American Casebook Series, West Publishing Co., 1980), p. 541. Unfortunately subsections i, ii, and iii of Art. 5, par. 1, sect. c, contain some restrictions on the exercise of this right.Google Scholar

26. Robert G. Wirsing, Cultural Minorities: Is the World Ready to Protect Them?, (Chapel Hill N.C.: Paper delivered at the Annual Conference of the International Studies Association, October 27–28, 1978), p. 1.Google Scholar

27. Felix Ermacora and Theodor Veiter, Right of Nationalities and Protection of Minorities: Draft of an International Convention and of a European Protocol (Munich: International Institute for Nationality Rights and Regionalism, 1978), Published in English, French, and German. The Draft Convention is now being co-sponsored by the London-based Minority Rights Group.Google Scholar

28. Wirsing, p. 2.Google Scholar