<p>The aim of this essay is to study the decision making process and implementation of the principle of political participation and influence for Roma minority in Sweden. The results regarding the decision making process is structured through a discourse influenced policy analyses. Problem picture and recommended measures in the political documents representing the decision making process are analysed through theories of minority rights and equality. The implementation is seen through, by the author given minority discourse and the work in the roma council and analysed by the same theories already mentioned.</p><p>The results show that regarding the decision process the aim of art.15 in the framework convention is based on the idea of equality while the Swedish documents relates more to an idea of the right to speak for the group. Regarding recommended measures, the framework convention gives several recommendations on specific measures for political participation while the Swedish documents focuses on the general politics of the state. The results of the analyses of the implementation shows that those actors in the discourse, comparing the political participation for romas before and after the implementation of the minority policy creates a positive view of the principle, while those relating the principle to real influence in the political decision gives a more negative view of the implementation. The work in the Roma council shows that the majority of the issues are in information and discussion form and mostly information given by government staff. There has been critical voices from Roma representatives, while an another think time will give more space for Romas to have more influence. The Roma representatives still have a position outside the positions of real power influence in the consultative body.</p>

This thesis analyzes Bulgaria&amp / #8217 / s minority policy followed by various governments during the Principality, the Kingdom, Peoples Republic and post-Communist Bulgaria. General discussion and assessment of minority rights standards within major international organizations is followed by analysis of minorities&amp / #8217 / status and treatment in Bulgaria since 1878. The thesis seeks answers to what have been the main features of minority policies in modern Bulgarian history, what has constituted its continuity and change.

The aim of this thesis is to observe the implementation of the Copenhagen criteria in the context of &lsquo / respect for and protection of minority rights&rsquo / during the accession process of Slovakia. EU&rsquo / s membership conditionality enforces candidate countries to improve the situation of minority groups within their borders. The main motivation of the EU in this process is to eliminate the reasons which cause ethnic conflicts in the continent and to prevent the escalation of minority-related problems into the EU territory. Slovakia which experienced a difficult accession process depending on the fulfilment of political criterion, constitutes an important case for the evaluation of minority clause. This thesis examines minority issue in a historical framework and specifically investigates the implementation of the Copenhagen criteria&rsquo / s minority clause in the EU&rsquo / s enlargement process. EU&rsquo / s conditionality which is its main tool in the enlargement, lacks clear-cut norms and standards regarding minority rights. Furthermore, there is a duality between internal and external policies of the Union on the issue of minority rights. In addition to this duality, the approach of the Union towards minority issue acquires a different character in different accession processes. This thesis argues that the lack of well-defined norms and standards, the duality between EU&rsquo / s internal and external minority policies and changing approaches of the Union in different accession processes complicate the implementation and the monitoring of minority clause giving rise to allegations of double standards in the enlargement process.

This thesis examines the impact of the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania&rsquo / s European accession process on the Russian oriented citizenship policies and laws of these states from a comparative perspective. The thesis also explores the impact of communist heritage and the construction of the post-communist state order within the context of minority rights / in addition to the consistency of the citizenship laws in the Baltic states with the European Union norms, which require the respect for and protection of minorities. The main argument of this thesis is that notwithstanding the fact that the European accession process has promoted minority rights in the three Baltic states significantly, the ethnic Russians in the Baltic states have been partially accommodated during the Baltic states&rsquo / accession into the EU. The ethnic Russians have not been entirely accommodated due to Baltic states&rsquo / fear from potential influence of the Russian Federation over the ethnic Russians in these Baltic states.

ASSYRIAN TRANSNATIONAL POLITICS: ACTIVISM FROM EUROPE TOWARDS HOMELAND ARIKAN BUR&Ccedil / AK Department of International Relations Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sabine Strasser January 2011, 105 pages This thesis examines the transnational political practices Assyrian diaspora undertakes in Europe to generate a positive change in the minority rights of Assyrians in Turkey. Based on inductive reading of existing literature on transnational migration and transnational politics and my own research I conducted in the form of expert interviews in Germany, Sweden and in Turkey with transmigrants and the representatives of Assyrian organisations I discuss the reasons, the contexts and the actual transnational political practices Assyrians undertake in Europe. The thesis argues that Assyrian transnational political practices intensified 2000 onwards after Assyrian community have developed a self representation of their emigration experience and have been through an identity building process in Europe which is referred to as &ldquo / Europeanization&rdquo / in this study. The thesis considers Mor Gabriel Case, which started to be seen in 2008 in Turkey, awakening a milestone in the fresh history of transnational political activism of this community / since the solidarity and transnational political networking towards this case are unprecedented in the Assyrian diaspora&rsquo / s half century of history in Europe. By focusing on the activities carried out with regards to this case, the study lastly attempts to reveal the inner tensions vested within the transnational political network and argues for further critical examination of the complex relations among Assyrian diaspora, the place of origin and the receiving countries.

<p>The Serbs are a national group which has been disliked by the Croats for hundreds of years. Even before Croatia became a part of Yugoslavia, the country wanted its independence. However, before and after the break up of Yugoslavia, there was a strong nationalism in the country which led to hatred towards the Serbs and the Serb minorities in Croatia. Studies have shown that minorities often are disfavoured by the majority decisions. This leads to a disadvantageous position for the minorities in the relation to the majority. The problem is how a state should compensate these groups for their disadvantageous position to be able to ensure justice and equality for all citizens within the country.</p><p>The aim of this thesis is to compare Croatia’s formal national minority rights with the actual national minority rights of the Serbs and to see whether they coincide with each other. The research questions are:</p><p>• What formal minority rights do Croatian Serbs have in Croatia?</p><p>• What minority rights do Croatian Serbs have in reality?</p><p>The method used in this study is the qualitative text analysis.</p><p>The conclusion of this thesis is that Croatia has a positive attitude towards minority rights and the Serb minority, as Croatia has allocated group-differentiated rights to its national minorities. The Croatian view upon national minority rights coincides to a large extent with Will Kymlicka´s theory. Furthermore, the formal rights and the virtual rights regarding education, language, culture and proportional representation coincides to a great extent if not precisely.</p>

<p>Abstract: The purpose with this study is to analyse the political debate about freedom of speech in Sweden and Denmark, after the caricatures of the Islamic Prophet Mohammed that the Danish newspaper Jyllandsposten published in September 2005. For this debate four political parties have been chosen. These are: Socialdemokratiska Partiet and Moderata Samlingspartiet in Sweden and Socialdemokraterne and Venstre in Denmark.</p><p>An idea analysis has been chosen as method, and dimensions as an analysing tool. The overall result of the analysis is that right- and left political parties in Sweden and Denmark are more alike, than different in their political debate about free speech. They all wish for total freedom of speech, and see that as the foundation of the democratic society. The difference between the parties is that left parties put more weight on personal responsibility and minorities, than right parties that mostly debate about the meaning of democracy and why freedom of speech should not be restricted.</p>

The city of Palitana, India, has become the first region known to legally install de facto meat bans, essentially making Palitana a vegetarian city by law. These legal steps seem to be the direct result of social pressure put on local legislators in the form of a mass hunger strike performed by local Jain monks. This thesis is aimed at discussing the background of this case, its connections to a broader general discussion of moral and ethical vegetarianism, and arguments in favor of and against the legal installment of a meat ban in the Palitana case. It is concluded that although the meat ban is ideologically and theoretically speaking ethically justifiable and defensible it is in practice, at least in its current form, not ethically desirable.

Magistro darbo tikslas - išanalizuoti tautinių mažumų teisinę padėtį Lietuvos Respublikoje. Tautinės mažumos yra svarbi kiekvienos valstybės gyventojų dalis. Būdama kitoje kultūrinėje terpėje ir kitoje socialinėje erdvėje, mažuma stengiasi išsaugoti savo identitetą. Tautinių mažumų padėtis vienoje ar kitoje šalyje yra svarbus rodiklis, parodantis demokratijos, kultūros lygį. Tautinių mažumų teisių apsauga padeda palaikyti politinį stabilumą valstybėje, kurti pilietinę visuomenę, išvengti konfliktų, įtampos. Šiame magistro darbe aptariamos pagrindinės tautinių mažumų teisės, jas ginantys nacionaliniai bei tarptautiniai dokumentai, bei institucijos. Taip pat analizuojamos dažniausiai pasitaikančios nepakantumo formos tautinių mažumų atžvilgiu. Tyrimo rezultatai rodo, jog dauguma Klaipėdos rusų yra susidūrę su teisių pažeidimais, išskiriamos dažniausiai pažeidžiamos teisės. Aprašomas rusų požiūris į Lietuvos institucijas ginančias šias teises, bei galimybės ginti savo teises. / The aim of master’s final paper is to analyze the legal situation of national minorities in the Republic of Lithuania. National minorities is an important part of the population in each state. Being in another culture and other social enviroment, the minority is trying to preserve it’s identity. The status of ethnic minority is an important indicator of democracy, the cultural level in the country. The protection of ethnic minority rights helps to maintain political stability in the country, create civil society, avoid conflicts and tension. This master’s final paper describes and analyzes the fundamental rights of national minorities, the national and international documents, the position of Lithuanian institutions. There are also analyzed the most common forms of intolerance. The results of research present the most common case of the violated rights of Klaipeda Russian minority, an approach to the Lithuanian authorities, the possibility to protect their rights.

Severe poverty and ethnic-conflicts are the two most devastating problems of the contemporary world. Eighteen million persons die every year from causes related to poverty and a vast amount of developing countries suffer from tremendous processes of destabilization –frequently involving highly violent actions– associated to the relations between majority and minority groups. In both cases, the intervention of international powers and institutions has not been helpful enough to make a difference, and this present reality projects itself as a distressing scene for the future. Human rights and minority rights are the most powerful international tools in trying to change this sad global scenario. However, there is an extensive debate on the nature of these rights in a theory of international justice. This is often characterized as a debate between “minimalist” who seek to reduce the currently –recognized list of human rights to a bare minimum in order to accommodate non-liberal societies, and more expansive liberal approaches, which seek to expand the list of human rights to include the full set of civil and political rights characteristic of modern liberal-democracies. In this thesis, I will argue in favour of a third position. In line with some of the more minimalist approaches, I will argue that constraints of legitimacy rule out attempts to include full civil and political rights into our list of human rights. However, I will argue that these same constraints of legitimacy advocates for expanding the currently-recognized list of human rights in at least two key respects: the recognition of certain basic social and economic rights; and the recognition of certain minority rights. In short, we should be minimalist on some issues, while more expansive in others. In developing this argument, I will relay on the framework provided by The Law of Peoples of John Rawls. / Thesis (Master, Philosophy) -- Queen's University, 2007-09-05 10:41:44.771