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Human Rights Quarterly, Volume 24, Number 3, August 2002, pp. 736-780 (Article)
This article will examine the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (Court), as it relates to, and possibly impinges on, minority groups. The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (European Convention) contains no minority rights provision akin to Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Therefore, there is no direct way for members of minority groups to claim minority rights at the Court, although the Court has held that member states are under an obligation to uphold international standards in the field of the protection of human and minority rights. In 1993, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, in Recommendation 1201, did propose a new protocol to the European Convention providing for minority rights. Recommendation 1201 was rejected by the Heads of State and Government meeting of the Council of Europe at its Vienna Summit in October 1993. The Council of Europe did pioneer the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities in 1995, but it contains no complaint mechanism for individuals or groups. Nevertheless, there is a burgeoning minority rights jurisprudence of the Court based on interpretation and application of the European Convention.
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The Burgeoning Minority Rights Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights Gilbert, Geoff. Human Rights Quarterly, Volume 24, Number 3, August 2002, pp. 736-780 (Article) Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press DOI: 10.1353/hrq.2002.0034
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HUMAN RIGHTS QUARTERLY
The Burgeoning Minority Rights Jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights Geoff Gilbert* I. INTRODUCTION This article will examine the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights (Court),1 as it relates to, and possibly impinges on, minority groups. The European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Funda-
* Geoff Gilbert, LL.B., LL.M., S.J.D., Head of Department, Department of Law, Human Rights Centre, University of Essex. Prof. Gilbert’s main areas of interest are human rights, minority rights, refugee law, and international criminal law. He has published widely in those fields and he is the editor of the International Journal of Refugee Law. He teaches on the LL.M. in International Human Rights of which he is currently the Director and is Director of the Human Rights Centre’s OSCE Project. He has lectured on human rights and minority rights in Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and North America. He served on the Editorial Board of the World Report on Freedom of Religion and Belief (Boyle & Sheen eds., Routledge 1997). He has worked for the Council of Europe and the United Nations in the Urals, Siberia, and the Kalmyk Republic in the Russian Federation, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, and Kosovo. This article results from research originally undertaken for the annual reports the author makes on the decisions from the European Court of Human Rights that pertain to minority groups for the United Nations Working Group on Minorities. See U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/ AC.5/2000/CRP.1 & U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/Sub.2/AC.5/2001/CRP.4. The report for the 2002 Working Group was prepared alongside the final version of this article. The law is updated as of 31 December 2001. The author is grateful to the British Academy for providing him with funding toward the cost of attending the Working Group in May 2001. 1. Protocol 11 to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, opened for signature 28 Apr.