CYIL vol. 9 (2018)

CYIL 9 ȍ2018Ȏ INTERNATIONAL LEGAL ASPECTS OF CZECHOSLOVAK MINORITIES minority questions degenerated into a political struggle between, on the one hand, minorities and kin states with revisionist aims towards the international boundaries set by treaties of 1919 and, on the other, those treaty bound states that wished to preserve the territorial status quo, as it was to their advantage, e.g. Germany vs. Poland, Germany vs. Czechoslovakia, Poland vs. Lithuania, Hungary vs. Romania, Austria vs. Yugoslavia, Bulgaria vs. Greece, Greece vs. Turkey, and Greece vs. Albania. Ironically as a consequence, the League of Nations System of minority guarantees, with few exceptions, ultimately became an instrument for fomenting international rivalry and discontent. At the same time, German and Hungarian minority grievances (both real and contrived) were deliberately exploited by revisionist Germany andHungary throughout the 1920s and 1930s. 25 The United Nations and the Fate of the League of Nations Minorities System After the Second World War the fate of existing minority treaties became uncertain and questionable from the legal point of view. Just prior to the Second World War, the League of Nations system effectively ceased to function on 13 September 1934 when Poland denounced its minority obligations, the legal validity of minority treaties remained doubtful. After the dissolution of the League of Nations in 1946 and the creation of the United Nations, the Economic and Social council of the latter in its resolution 116 C (VI) therefore requested the Secretary General to study the question of whether and to what extent the treaties and declarations undertaken to combat discrimination and protect minorities (contained in the League of Nations doc. C.L.110.1927) should be regarded as being still in force. The result of the work was the “Study on the legal validity of the undertaking concerning minorities”. 26 Without going into a deeper analysis of the detailed and comprehensive analysis of all aspects of this problems, it is sufficient to quote some of its final observations according to which the whole League of Nations system was overthrown by the Second World War. All the international decisions reached since 1944 have been inspired by a different philosophy. The idea of a general and universal protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms is emerging. (…) This new conception is clearly apparent in the San Francisco Charter, the Potsdam decisions, and the treaties of peace already concluded. (…) Reviewing the situation as a whole, therefore, one is led to conclude that between 1939 and 1947 circumstances as a whole changed to such an extent that generally speaking, the system should be considered as having ceased to exist”. 27 It is to be noted that the UN Commission on Human Rights in its fifth session dealt with the item “Continuing Validity of Minorities Treaties and Declarations” and later decided to postpone consideration of Item 9: “Report of the Secretary General on the questions of the Validity of the Minorities Treaties and Declarations” as the report was not ready for the fifth session of the Commission. The representative of the USSR express 25 PREECE, J. J. : Minority Rights in Europe: FromWestphalia to Helsinki. Review of International Studies , 1997, Vol. 23, No. 1, p. 83. 26 Doc. E/CN.4/367 on 7 April 1950. 27 Doc. E/CN.4/367 on 7 April 1950. p. 70-71.

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