CYIL vol. 9 (2018)

CYIL 9 ȍ2018Ȏ INTERNATIONAL LEGAL ASPECTS OF CZECHOSLOVAK MINORITIES place in July 1919 in Krakow were not successful, it was necessary to carry out a plebiscite. The plebiscite territory administered by an international commission had become a neutral territory for some time. The problem was to be solved at the Ambassadors’ conference. The Ambassadors’ conference took a stand on this point on 28 July 1920 in Spa (Agreement on some borders in Central Europe) and the dispute was also analysed by the Permanent Court of International Justice which adopted an Advisory Opinion (Question of Jaworzina) on 6 December 1923. 11 The treaty on the borders between Czechoslovakia and Poland was signed in Krakow on 6 May 1924. In this context legal writing claims inter alia that with respect to the final resolution of the Czechoslovak border problems: “Czechoslovakia was successful in realizing her cardinal contentions on boundary questions. Even if some of her minor and more extreme demands had been disallowed, she had been met with more than adequate recognition of her territorial needs. The western borders of Czechoslovakia were drawn in accordance with her historic rights. The principle of nationality was applied to determine her eastern frontiers. The province of Subcarpathian Ruthenia was entrusted to Czechoslovakia by the decision of the Great Powers. All this naturally produced a feeling of confidence in the system of international conferences and later in the League of Nations as the best safeguard of Czechoslovak interests.” 12 The international nature of the obligations concerning the minorities It is to be noted that the Polish Minorities Treaty (28 June 1919) served as the model for the drafting of the other minority treaties and declarations, and such, treaties more or less corresponded to the Polish Treaty. 13 As has been mentioned above, Czechoslovakia signed the Treaty between Principal Allied and Associated Power and Czechoslovakia (10 September 2019 – hereinafter as the “Minority Treaty” or “Treaty”) but in contrast to the Polish Treaty, it was reluctant to have any provisions with respect to the Jews’ status. The Treaty consisted of 14 articles and enshrined the obligation of Czechoslovakia to undergo the protection of minorities under international monitoring and control, the question of Czechoslovak citizenship, and the rights belonging to theminorities.The first issue was regulated in Article 14 of the Treaty, where Czechoslovakia inter alia recognised that its obligations concerning the members of minorities constituted obligations of international concern and would be placed under the guarantee of the League of Nations. Its modification was not possible without the assent of the majority of the Council of the League of Nations (hereinafter as the “Council”). Regarding the procedure of international control and monitoring, Czechoslovakia agreed 11 Advisory Opinion of the P.C.I.J., Series B, No. 8. In Doc.ST/LEG/SER/F/1/Add.4: “Summaries of Judgments, Advisory Opinions and Orders of the P.C.I.J.”, UN, NY, 2012, pp. 24-28. 12 WANDYCZ, P. S.: Czechoslovak-Polish Confederation and the Great Powers 1940-1943. Indiana University Publications, Slavic and East European Series, 1956,Vol. 3, Europe Series. 13 Some conceptual traits are common in all the Minorities Treaties, namely: rights of all citizens to life, liberty and free exercise of religion, right to citizenship, the rights of ethnic, religious and language minorities, the legal character of the obligations stemming from the Minorities Treaties, special provisions of the treaty may be deemed necessary by these Powers to protect the interests of inhabitants of that State who differ from the majority of the population in race, language or religion. and local circumstances. For more details see SÁNDOR, E. S.: International Law in the Service of the Protection of Minorities between the Two World Wars. Available at: http://epa.oszk.hu/00400/00463/00006/7.htm, p. 7. The Czechoslovak Minority Treaty

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