This book provides a critical evaluation of the ways in which EU law engages with minority rights protection: at its core is an analysis of EU law and minority rights. Unlike the UN or ECHR, the EU has no competence to set standards on minority protection and this has been a point of disappointment for minority rights advocates. Indeed, this book will demonstrate that, in EU law, binding standards really only exist in the sphere of non-discrimination and are at their strongest in the field of employment. As such, binding standards within EU law affect only a small proportion of the canon of minority rights. However, the EU does have competence to promote diversity and facilitate redistribution of power and resources across the EU. According to a broad understanding of minority rights protection, acts of promotion and facilitation -alongside those of standard-setting - constitute essential underpinnings for minority protection. The EU's existing competences do therefore play a key role in minority protection. In order to support these conclusions, the book undertakes a comprehensive examination of the impact of EU law on minority rights protection. The book examines a broad range of the EU's legal provisions and principles which may affect minority protection, before undertaking in-depth analyses of the examples of minority cultural rights and minority linguistic rights. In addition, the final substantive chapter of the book contextualises the impact of EU law within the perspective of the overall needs of a specific group - the Roma minority. The concluding chapter draws together the EU's contribution to minority rights. In short, the EU can be seen as a promoter, but not a protector, of minority rights. Although not ideal, especially from the perspective of minorities, it is worth at least exploring such a view. Such an exploration would enable the EU most easily to build upon its existing competences and regulatory capacities. This book will be of interest to lawyers and activists concerned with minority rights and Roma rights protection within the EU. It will also be of relevance to those interested in understanding the dynamics between the EU and the international law community in overlapping areas of rights protection, and exploring how this informs our perception of the capacity of the EU to be a central actor in the field of rights protection.

This edited collection brings together distinguished scholars across a range of academic disciplines to explore how the European Union engages with culture. The book examines the ways in which cultural issues have been framed at the EU level and the policies and instruments to which they have given vent.

Examines the development and the role of human rights in the European Union, arguing that human rights have become an important component of the foreign policy of the European Union. This book analyses the EU's policy on minorities, as a particular example of human rights.

This edited volume sets out to unravel various dimensions of a particular topical question pertaining to minorities and minority protection, which has not been explored yet, more particularly the socio-economic participation of minorities in relation to their right to (respect for) identity. This interrelation and interaction is studied from a multi-disciplinary perspective, spanning a broad range of disciplines, while drawing on a rich variety of case studies covering various corners of the world. This interrelation manifests itself in distinctive ways for religious minorities, ethnic minorities, and indigenous peoples. As it is impossible to provide a comprehensive coverage, this volume aims to offer a range of articles that reveal the breadth of the theme under review, while combining theoretical analysis with fascinating case studies.

This volume presents a systematic collection of the various international legal sources that define the rights of religious minorities. In a time of increasing tensions around religious minorities, this volume presents a systematic collection of international and European documents on the protection and promotion of religious minorities’ rights. The code includes documents from the United Nations, the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the European Union. An index system connects the various sources and norms, and emphasizes the strengths and the weaknesses in the legal frameworks of international and European institutions. While allowing for further research on the historical and conceptual development in the area, the code provides the reader with a new, easily accessible tool facilitating experts and actors who wish to improve the knowledge and protection of religious minorities. This book will be an invaluable resource for students, academics and researchers interested in law and religion, international law, public law and human rights law, the code is also a powerful tool for minorities themselves, and for advocates of their rights.

This book addresses the legal feasibility of ethnic data collection and positive action for equality and anti-discrimination purposes, and considers how they could be used to promote the Roma minority’s inclusion in Europe. The book’s central aim is to research how a societal problem can be improved upon from a legal perspective. The controversy surrounding ethnic data collection and positive action severely limits their use at the national level. Accordingly, legal and political concerns are analysed and addressed in order to demonstrate that it is possible to collect such data and to implement such measures while fully respecting international and European human rights norms, provided that certain conditions are met. Part I focuses on ethnic data collection and explores the key rules and principles that govern it, the ways in which this equality tool could be used, and how potential obstacles might be overcome. It also identifies and addresses the specific challenges that arise when collecting ethnic data on the Roma minority in Europe. In turn, Part II explores positive action and the broad range of measures covered by the concept, before analysing the applicable international and European framework. It reviews the benefits and challenges of implementing positive action for Roma, identifies best practices, and gives special consideration to inter-cultural mediation in the advancement of Roma inclusion. The book concludes with an overview of the main findings on both topics and by identifying three essential elements that must be in place, in addition to full respect for the applicable legal rules, in order to combat discrimination and achieve the inclusion of Roma in Europe by complementing existing anti-discrimination frameworks with the collection of ethnic data and the implementation of positive action schemes.

This title assesses EU law and policy using a novel and alternative framework based on the notion of humaneness.

Minorities have been part of European history and politics since the middle of the 16th Century, often seen as obstacles to state-building and later as a threat to nation-building. Traditional minorities have had to fight their own way to be able to remain in their homelands, while new arrivals have been met with rejection and were expected to return home. Minorities are still seen as a threat to peace and security and mostly as outsiders. In the early 21st Century of inter-connected societies, minorities are more than ever an issue often seen as a threat to social cohesion. This book provides the advanced student with a multi-disciplinary, informed perspective on minority history and politics as well as social and cultural issues related to minority identity and minority existence in Europe.

The intersections between culture and human rights have engaged some of the most heated and controversial debates across international law and theory. As understandings of culture have evolved in recent decades to encompass culture as ways of life, there has been a shift in emphasis from national cultures to cultural diversity within and across states. This has entailed a push to more fully articulate cultural rights within human rights law. This volume analyses a range of responses by international law, and particularly human rights law, to some of the thorniest, perennial, and sometimes violent confrontations fuelled by culture in relations between individuals, groups and the state in international society. Across the different issues tackled, the contributions are tied by one unifying thread - that culture is understood, protected and promoted not only for its physical manifestations. Rather, it is the relationship of culture to people, individually or in groups, and the diversity of these relationships which is being protected and promoted; hence, the fundamental overlap between culture and human rights.

The concept of vulnerability has not been unequivocally interpreted either in regional or in universal international legal instruments. This book analyses the work of the EU and the Council of Europe in ascertaining a clear framework or a set of criteria suitable to determine those who should be considered vulnerable and disadvantaged. It also explores the measures required to protect their human rights. Key questions can be answered by analysing the different methods used to determine the levels of protection offered by the two European systems. These questions include whether the Convention and the case law of the Strasbourg Court, the monitoring mechanisms of the Council of Europe, EU law and the case law of the European Court of Justice enhance the protection of vulnerable groups and expand the protection of their rights, or, alternatively, whether they are mainly used to fill in relatively minor gaps or occasional lapses in national rights guarantees. The analysis also shows the extent to which these two European systems provide analogous, or indeed divergent, standards and how any such divergence might be problematic in light of the EU accession to the European Convention on Human Rights.