CYIL vol. 9 (2018)

CYIL 9 ȍ2018Ȏ INTERNATIONAL LEGAL ASPECTS OF CZECHOSLOVAK MINORITIES may be recognized as forming part of Czechoslovakia, their parents having a closer tie to such territory in the form of habitual residency or Heimatsrecht. And finally, Article 6 stipulates that all persons born in Czecho-Slovak Territory, who were not born nationals of another State, would ipso facto become Czechoslovak nationals. The purpose of this Article was to prevent the situation of apatridity of children in the Czechoslovak territory when a child born in Czechoslovakia does not acquire any nationality. In such a case they would ipso facto become a Czechoslovak national. According to Article 2 of the Treaty, Czechoslovakia undertook to assure full and complete protection of life and liberty and guaranteed the free exercise (whether public or private) of any creed, religion, or belief to all inhabitants of Czechoslovakia without distinction of birth, nationality, language, race, or religion. This provision ensured the protection of the fundamental human rights based on the criterion of all inhabitants under international law. A special provision of Chapter II of the Minority Treaty bound Czechoslovakia “to constitute the Ruthene territory south of the Carpathians within frontiers delimited by the Principal Allied and Associated Powers as an autonomous unit within the Czechoslovak State, and to accord to it the fullest degree of self-government compatible with the unity of Czechoslovak State”. (Article 10). Legal positions and rights of the persons belonging to the minorities within the Minority Treaty Beyond the provisions concerning the legal status of Czechoslovak citizens (including members of a minority group) specific rights of minorities were contained in Articles 7-9 of the Treaty. The first of these, guaranteed to all Czechoslovak citizens, without regard to race, language, and religion, full equality under the law, full civil and political rights, free use of any language in private, commercial, religious, and public life, and the right to use their own language before the courts (Article 7). Article 8 guaranteed that Czechoslovak nationals who belong to racial, religious, and linguistic minorities, shall have an equal right to establish, manage, and control, charitable, religious, and social institutions, schools had the right to use their own language and to exercise their religion freely therein. Finally, Article 9 binds Czechoslovakia to provide within the public educational system in towns and districts (in which a considerable proportion of Czechoslovak nationals resided whose primary language was not Czechoslovak) adequate facilities for ensuring that the instruction to the children of such Czechoslovak nationals would be in their own language. The Treaty did not limit the obligation of Czechoslovakia to elementary schools but extended it to all public education in general, which included higher educational institutions as well. The obligations arising from the Treaty for Czechoslovakia was transposed into its domestic legal order at the highest constitutional level. On 29 February 1920, the National Assembly adopted the Czechoslovak Constitution and also, on the same day, a set of relevant constitutional laws. The Constitution within its Chapter 6 (Art. 128-134) confirmed all obligations imposed on Czechoslovakia under the Minority Treaty and declared the full equality of the citizens concerning language, religion, and race. The Language Act, considered a part of the Constitution 18 (and on the grounds of § 129 of the Constitutional Charter), set the principles of the language regulations. In its § 1 it ruled that the Czechoslovak language is deemed the state, or official language of the republic. In districts containing racial minorities of at least 20 per cent, the authorities 18 Published under Act No. 122/1920 Collection of Laws.

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