The Right to Autonomy as emerging content of the Right to Political Participation of national minorities in Europe

Abstract

In spite of the fact that the right to autonomy of national minorities is not recognized at the moment in the international human rights law or the European minority law, during the last two decades in Europe the normative and political evolution reveals its gradual assumption as a part of the right to the political participation of the persons belonging to national minorities. This can be deduced from the analysis of a series of documents, opinions and legal practices. Among the key documents are, on the one hand, Organization for Security and Co-operation of Europe documents like the 1990 CSCE Document of the Copenhagen Meeting on the Human Dimension (“Copenhagen Document”), the 1999 Lund Recommendations on the Effective Participation of National Minorities in Public Life and the 2008 Bolzano/Bozen Recommendations on the National Minorities in Inter-State Relations; on the other hand, Council of Europe documents like the 1985 European Charter of Local Autonomy, the 1992 European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and the 1995 Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.