Minority rights in world politics

Group or individual rights?

Abstract

Minority rights are a very sensitive issue for the international community in the context of the recognition and protection afforded to human rights. As the only internationally recognized rights-holders are the states, the recognition of minority groups as rights-holders would challenge the established principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and statehood. Consequently, minority rights are constructed through international and regional documents from an individualistic perspective in order to project a certain notion of citizenship, sovereignty, nationhood or autonomy. International and regional documents deal with the rights of persons belonging to minorities, rather than with minorities as such, a concept still in search of a clear-cut definition.