Minority Rights and the Role of Law: Reflections on Themes of Discourse in Kymlicka’s Approach to Ethnocultural Identity
Publisher: Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe Volume: 19 pages, pdf Description: This paper discusses the international legal dimension to 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 strategies 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.