CYIL vol. 12 (2021)

jan kuklík CYIL 12 (2021) of Nations, particularly regarding the issue of respecting obligations aimed at the protection of minorities rights. The Assembly intended to strengthen the role of the Permanent Court of Justice in deciding contentious legal questions regarding minorities. The Resolution also stated that, in addition to the principle of protection of minorities members against violation of their rights, it should be emphasized that there was a duty of citizens of the respective states subject to minorities rights to be loyal state citizens and to cooperate with their state. The Secretariat General was supposed to control the observance of that aspect and to take it into consideration when preparing documents for decision-making relating to respective petitions. What was very important was the fourth point formulated by Professor Murray. That the Assembly of the League of Nations expressed its hope that states not bound by minorities obligations would also keep such high standard of tolerance and justice regarding the linguistic, religious, and racial minorities, as required by the Council and minorities treaties from those subject to such treaties. 31 On 5 September 1923, more precise rules for submitting petitions were defined in the Resolution of the Council. 32 This happened particularly upon experience gained in the course of the consideration of petitions filed against Poland and Czechoslovakia. Polish diplomats required that the practice should be modified as requested in their note submitted to the Council of the League of Nations on 16 January 1923. 33 Those requirements were joined by the Czechoslovak Government on 5 April 1923. Their note was undersigned by Beneš and addressed to the President of the Council of the League of Nations; in addition to the Polish requirements, the Czechoslovak note requested that reasons for potential rejection of petitions in the course of a preliminary consideration by the Secretariat should be provided. The Czechoslovak Government also intended to enforce their position that linguistic, racial, and religious minorities should not be treated as separate legal entities with minorities rights. 34 The Polish Government submitted complementary requirements in August 1923. That was the reason why Foreign Ministers Edvard Beneš and Konstanty Skirmunt were invited to attend the September meeting of the Council. Brazilian diplomat Viscount de Rio-Branco drew a respective observation for the Council; he particularly accommodated, to a significant extent, the proposal of Czechoslovakia to provide reasons for the rejection of a petition, and the Polish proposal to restrict the distribution of a petition before the state concerned issued its position. 35 The Polish Government requested even more significant modifications of the procedure, such as non-consideration of petitions submitted by international organizations, restricting the distribution of petitions to member states, strict and not extensive interpretation of minorities obligations, and a preference of looking for amicable resolution of issues raised in petitions over sanctions and international intervention; The Polish Government also referred to problems in Polish-German relations resulting primarily from minorities

31 Ibid, Part II, p. 173. 32 Ibid, Part I, pp. 9–10. 33 Polish Note, ibid, Part II, pp. 31–35.

34 Beneš’s Note to the League of Nations from 5 April 1923, https://biblio-archive.unog.ch/ C-407-1923-I_EN. 35 Proposal of Brazilian delegate Rio-Branco see https://biblio-archive.unog.ch /C-552(I)-1923-I_EN, and Protection of linguistic, racial or religious minorities by the League of Nations. Resolutions and Extracts from the Minutes of the Council, Resolutions and Reports adopted by the Assembly relating to the Procedure to be followed in Questions concerning the Protection of Minorities, ibid., Part II, pp. 24–31.

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