CYIL 2012

IVANA JELIĆ CYIL 3 ȍ2012Ȏ Achievements in respect of diversity, integration of minorities, prohibition of discrimination and assimilation, as well as the participation of all segments of the society in the process of making social decisions are indicators of democracy in every modern society. 3.2 Minority Identity Protection Protection of human rights and freedoms in the contemporary multicultural environment has a stumbling block – the issue of identity. Going back to international jurisprudence between the two world wars, we can find a root for minority identity protection. Namely, Permanent Court of International Justice, in giving an Advisory Opinion on Minority Schools in Albania in 1935, formulated the goal of protection of minorities as providing of possibilities for peaceful life with the rest of the population, while preserving its own minority characteristics. 24 In the same Opinion, it stated that there are two aspects of minority protection: physical survival of the group and preservation of minority identity. Also, in contemporary minority rights protection, there are two crucial aspects: 1. preservation of minority identity, and 2. ensuring their political participation, such as participation in decision making processes of importance for the whole society, at all levels of governance, from national to local ones. Both aspects are important for the protection of minority rights, and defining their obligations and interests in the future. Minority identity is protected by international law. 25 The Constitution of Montenegro 26 follows international standards concerned. However, the problem of full protection of minorities lies in the application of these legal guarantees, i.e. the enforcement of the rule of law principle in the everyday life of ordinary citizens.

24 Minority schools in Albania , Advisory Opinion of 6. April 1935. P.C.I.J. Serial A – B, br. 64, p. 17. 25 Article 27 of the ICCPR, Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, European

Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, Charter on art. 22 EU Charter. 26 ART 79 (individual minority rights) and art. 80 (prohibition of assimilation).

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