Legal Resources
Legal and Minority Resources
Legal Resources
1. FCNM Reports submitted by state parties and NGOs - MINELRES
This MINELRES page is especially recommended for those searching for FCNM NGO Parallel Reports, as they are presented here together with FCNM State Reports in a convenient, user-friendly format.
http://www.minelres.lv/coe/statereports.htm
2. Jurisprudence on Minority Rights
ECMI – Council of Europe Handbook Series
Practice-oriented guides to the institutions, mechanisms and legal
structures that apply to minority-majority relations in Europe.
http://www.ecmi.de/rubrik/51/ecmi+handbooks
Minority rights jurisprudence digest
http://www.ecmi.de/rubrik/77/vol.+3/
ECMI has in cooperation with the Council of Europe published the Minority rights jurisprudence digest by Alcidia Mouchebouef. This is a comprehensive yet analytical classification on international and regional jurisprudence on minority rights and, at present, it is the only digest of judicial practice in the area of minority rights.
Status of National Minorities Legal Digest: A Thematic Look at Five National Laws
http://www.ecmi.de/download/2005.01.05_Status_Law_Digest.pdf
A legal digest compiled by D. Christopher Decker focusing on the laws affording rights to minorities of Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Serbia-Montenegro and Ukraine can be found here.
3. Minority Ombudspersons
The aim here is to expand the availability and effectiveness of ombudspersons institutions addressing minority issues in the wider Europe.
http://www.ecmi.de/doc/ombudsman
Ombudsman Institutions and Minority Issues - A Guide to Good Practice
http://www.ecmi.de/doc/ombudsman/download/guide_uk.pdf
4. Further ECMI outputs on this topic:
Estébanez, Maria Amor Martín and Kinga Gál. ECMI International Conference 'Implementing the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities,' Flensburg, 12 to 14 June 1998. ECMI Report #3. Flensburg: European Centre for Minority Issues, 1999.
Pentassuglia, Gaetano. Minorities in international law. ECMI-Council of Europe Handbook Series, Vol. 1. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publications, 2002.
http://www.ecmi.de/rubrik/52/vol.+1/
Spiliopoulou Ĺkermark, Sia. The Limits of Pluralism - Recent Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights with Regard to Minorities: Does the Prohibition of Discrimination of Discrimination Add Anything? Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe (JEMIE) Vol. 3, No. 3 (2002).
http://www.ecmi.de/jemie/download/Focus3-2002_Akermark.pdf
Weller, Marc and Alexander H.E. Morawa (eds.) Mechanisms for the implementation of minority rights. ECMI-Council of Europe Handbook Series, Vol. 2. Strasbourg: Council of Europe Publications, 2004.
http://www.ecmi.de/rubrik/53/vol.+2/
5. Recommended links for further research
Council of Europe - Minorities page
http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/minorities/default_en.asp
The text of the Convention, as well as State Reports and other reports of FCNM monitoring bodies and more can be found on this highly useful page.
Council of Europe - Committee of Experts on issues relating to the protection of national minorities (DH-MIN) - Working Documents
http://tinyurl.com/ydeuxam
DH-MIN Reports, decisions and analysis on many aspects of minority rights can be found here.
Minority Rights Information System MIRIS
http://www.eurac.edu/miris
Important legal texts relating to legislation and case law on minority rights can be found here.
SIM Documentation Site, Netherlands Institute of Human Rights - Utrecht School of Law
http://sim.law.uu.nl/SIM/Dochome.nsf?Open
The Case Law Database provides access to CCPR, CAT, CERD, ECHRICTR, General Comments and UNCOM. A bibliographic database is also available here.
The European Human Rights System and the European Court of Human Rights Research Guide
http://www.law.columbia.edu/library/Research_Guides/internat_law/eur_hr
This is a highly useful reference guide to the subject.
Legal Research on International Law Issues Using the Internet
http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/~llou/forintlaw.html
This is a quite extensive list of links to sources on this topic. It includes, but is not limited to, links to government agencies, publishing databases, library catalogues and major electronic discussion groups.
Minority Resources
1. Ethnopolitical Map of Europe
http://www.ecmi.de/emap/
The Ethnopolitical Map of Europe guides users to official documents which reflect international involvement in the reduction of ethnopolitical tension and resolution of interethnic conflicts in selected countries and regions of Europe.
2. Projects
Action-oriented projects
http://www.ecmi.de/rubrik/32/action-oriented+projects/
Research projects
http://www.ecmi.de/rubrik/33/research+projects/
3. ECMI Recommendations
http://www.ecmi.de/rubrik/34/ecmi+recommendations/
4. Further ECMI outputs on this topic:
Overview of ECMI Publications
http://www.ecmi.de/rubrik/63/overview+of+ecmi+publications/
ECMI Publications page
http://www.ecmi.de/rubrik/50/publications/
External and joint publications
http://www.ecmi.de/rubrik/72/external+publications/
5. Recommended links for further research
Enriched Links Database
http://www.ecmi.de/elinks
Carefully selected and monitored resources to a wide variety of minority issues can be found here.
United Nations Guide for Minorities
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/minorities/guide.htm
Many States have minorities within their borders. Although no firm statistics exist, estimates suggest that 10 to 20 per cent of the world's population belong to minorities. This means that between 600 million and 1.2 billion people are in need of special measures for the protection of their rights, given that minorities are often among the most disadvantaged groups in society, their members often subject to discrimination and injustice and excluded from meaningful participation in public and political life.
