Scotland Decides - An International Law Perspective

Commentary on Scottish referendu

Ukraine's law on national minorities and ‘effective’ participation: Expanding or diluting standards?

This article provides a critique of Law No. 2827-ix ‘On National Minorities (Communities) of Ukraine’, adopted in December 2022, with a focus on minority participation. Following an overview of Ukraine’s international commitments and domestic legislation on minority protection, we consider some of the complexities of Ukraine’s minority rights regime, particularly those linked to the enduring challenge in striking a balance between the promotion of Ukrainian as the sole state language and the use of Russian and other languages. These dynamics have frequently resulted in the politicisation of language issues, with polarising effects. Meanwhile, participation of national minorities in these debates – and more generally in devising law and policy on matters affecting them – has been limited. The Law on National Minorities represents a welcome attempt to bring about inclusive decision-making, and for the Ukrainian state to meet the requirement of guaranteeing opportunities for effective minority participation. However, the Law’s provisions also reveal a clear preoccupation with national unity at a time of acute crisis, and over the instrumentalisation of national minorities by kin states for political ends. Hence the need for balancing out two equally legitimate concerns. Placing the Law on National Minorities in the context of international standards on minority rights, the article points to an increasing emphasis, at the international level, on the substantive – rather than procedural – aspect of minority participation, through a new focus on outcomes and joint ownership of decisions. In this sense, the Law on National Minorities, and subsequent legal reform, can lay the foundations for a system that devises, implements, and evaluates concrete measures for effective participation. The article concludes that inclusive debates, and igo s’ role in facilitating them, are more critical than ever in light of the severity of ongoing challenges

Minority Rights and the Role of Law: Reflections on Themes of Discourse in Kymlicka's Approach to Ethnocultural Identity

This paper discusses the international legal dimension of Kymlicka's theory of ethnocultural diversity and the prospects for achieving consensus on a stronger set of justice-based international norms on minority rights. Besides addressing specific human rights issues on their own terms, the author argues that the impact of Western experiences in addressing minority questions, while of considerable importance to locally-generated minority protection strtegies in the East, may prove more limited in generating a credible set of generally-binding regimes rooted in considerations of justice than is expected. Minority rights standards, it is contended, have so far been perceived - by both East and West - primarily as security tools. This raises not only the problem of how best to strengthen minority rights as part of human rights law, but also the need to clarify the ultimate vision of minority rights law itself