CYIL vol. 12 (2021)

CYIL 12 (2021) THE MECHANISM OF THE PROTECTION OF RACIAL, NATIONAL, AND RELIGIOUS… a party to the procedure, or at least they should have a right to provide additional information to the Committee of Three, the Committee should be expanded to include representatives of other member states of the Council, and, most importantly, the party should be officially informed of the result of the consideration of their petition. Until then, information had been spread informally through the staff of the Minorities Section of the Secretariat General. 68 The Hungarian Government required a more extensive publication of information on petitions and their disposal; they again proposed that the League of Nations should consider the establishment of a permanent Minorities Committee of the Council of the League of Nations. They also suggested that a more significant role in legal issues should be played by the Permanent Court of International Justice in the Hague. The Council debated the modification of procedure at several meetings chaired by A. Briand in May and June 1929; finally, a compromising resolution was adopted on 13 June 1929. The resolution contained changes in the current procedure summarized in six points. 69 If the Secretary General had refused a petition the applicant should be informed of the fact including concrete reasons for the refusal (in the sense of the Resolution of the Council from 5 September 1923). Newly, the President of the Council could appoint, in addition to the Committee of Three, a committee composed of five members. 70 The committees should meet more often in between the meetings of the Council. The Secretariat General started publishing annual lists of petitions submitted and the member states became informed thereof. The Secretary General was obliged to collect relevant documentation and transfer it for the disposal of the members of the Council. The first list was compiled to cover 1930 and contained no petition against Czechoslovakia which would have been dealt with by the Committee of Three. This happened a year later. 71 Every year basic statistical data relating to submitted, rejected, and considered petitions were published in the Official Journal of the League of Nations; there was also a report included for the members of the Council dealing with petitions which were considered and disposed of. 72 After the Council had modified the procedure of consideration of minorities petitions the issue of a legal status of minorities and their protection was dealt with, upon the proposal of the German delegation, at the meeting of the Sixth Committee, and subsequently by the Assembly of the League of Nations. On 30 September 1930, the outcomes of the debates were summarized in the report drawn by Swiss delegate M. Motta. Due to differences of opinions, no further changes in the minorities petition procedure were passable within the bodies of the League of Nations. 73 68 SCHEUERMANN, M.: Minderheitenschutz contra Konfliktverhütung? Die Minderheitenpolitik des Völkerbundes in den zwanziger Jahren, ibid., p. 36. 69 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. 10–107. 70 On the procedure between 1929 and 1932 see Archives of the League of Nations, Geneva, Secretariat of the Council of the League of Nations, S340/5/2, Comités des Minorités – Documents des Comités des Trois. 71 https://biblio-archive.unog.ch/Dateien/CouncilMSD/C-5-1931-I. En.pdf. 72 See also Preece, J.J.: National minorities and the European nation-states system, ibid., p. 82. 73 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 III., pp. 245–247.

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