Russian-speakers in Estonia: A Minority Without AgencyThis article explores the conditions of the Russian-speaking minority in Estonia and sees the development of these conditions as a product of an ...interaction between the nationalizing state, the Russian-speaking minority, the minority’s “kin state”, and the international community; a framework dubbed the “quadratic nexus” by David J. Smith, expanding upon the theories of Rogers Brubaker. This article provides an updated empirical analysis of the impact of the quadratic dynamic in Estonian minority relations, as the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine has shifted the balance of power between the agents in Smith’s nexus. The result of this shift is that the conditions of the Russian-speaking minority are now almost entirely decided by the nationalizing state, influenced by Russian aggression. The Russian Federation has made the protection of minority rights in Estonia increasingly difficult by pressuring the Estonian political elite to take an even more conservative stance on nationality policies as a response to the perceived threat from their neighbor in the east, in addition to reinforcing international indifference to minority rights in Estonia. This, combined with the preexisting socio-economic conditions of the Russian-speaking minority has led to the near total loss of the minority’s agency.
This paper deals with the concept of Dhimmi (non-Muslims living in an Islamic state) and the laws formulated for them in Islam, which lie at the centre of the intellectual discourses on the Islamic ...legal and political system vis-à-vis the issues of tolerance, democracy, and human rights. The teachings of Islam, as revealed to the Prophet Muhammad (×aÌrat Muhammad RasËlullah KhÉtam un NabiyyÊn Øallallahu ‘alaihi wa ‘alÉ Ólihi wa AÎÍÉbihi wa Øallam) provide complete guidance for attaining success and glory in this world and the hereafter. As a comprehensive way of life, Islam encompasses a unique socio-economic and political system. It deals with all private and public life aspects and local and international affairs. However, the status and treatment of minorities in Muslim societies (especially in the context of Islamic law) have been of special concern to Muslim and non-Muslim scholars alike. It has also been a much-debated subject among Orientalists, who have created many misinterpretations regarding it. In light of these problems, this paper has attempted to establish a discourse on a three-fold level: it has argued that laws about minorities in Islam are based on the concept of justice, how these laws are significant in the emancipation of humanity in general, and the minorities (non-Muslims living in an Islamic state) in particular has been highlighted; and the relevant Quranic verses, Prophetic traditions, and, the Muslim statesmen’s practices and juristic views regulating the principles of how Muslims are supposed to interact with non-Muslims have been examined as well. To achieve these objectives, descriptive, analytical, and exploratory methods have been followed throughout the paper.
Plebiscites, or referendums, are epitomes of direct democracy and the right of self-determination. While direct democracy has always been a key subject in the theory and practice of western liberal ...democracies, the issue of self-determination has been propelled to the fore by the hegemonistic moves of Russia. By providing a historical analysis of the post-World War One plebiscites, this book deals with enduring, painfully contemporary, and in in any case fundamental, concepts. The contributors to this edited volume approach the referendums comparatively. After grounding the analysis theoretically, the authors look at detailed aspects of individual cases, with the two plebiscites held in the Danish-German border region of Schleswig in the winter of 1920 as points of departure. They then extend the exploration through the inter-war period and address the effects of border delimitations on everyday life or gender roles in the context of ethnic mobilization. Finally, the book places the post-World War One plebiscites in a long-term perspective. The concluding essays assess, among others, the applicability of plebiscitary solutions to contemporary conflicts, taking into consideration issues of borders, religion, language, identity, and minority rights.
This article attempts to understand how perceptions of Indian Muslims are guided by myths which often masquerade as truths. It looks closely into the institutional discrimination which Muslims in ...India face both collectively and individually and makes an effort to study the process of the gradual marginalisation of Muslims in Indian public life. It tries to comprehend the crisis of secularism in India. It argues that secularism in India has been a façade to hide animosities, which never went away. Communities continued to distrust each other and Indians had a very limited interaction across communities. Towards the end, it tries to look at some possibilities for the future of India as a truly inclusive society.
Language, culture, religion and race are emotionally charged and politically fraught issues. This is particularly so in South Africa since the apartheid government employed Afrikaans to entrench and ...perpetuate racial discrimination. The Constitution – particularly sections 6, 9, 15, 29(2), 30 and 31 of the Bill of Rights – commands linguistic, cultural, religious and racial equality. But how does the Constitutional Court interpret and weigh these rights, in the context of the imperative of reconciliation and transformation? Justice Froneman penned three powerful judgments that spoke poignantly to this issue: City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality v AfriForum; AfriForum v University of the Free State; and Gelyke Kanse v Chairperson of the Senate of the University of Stellenbosch. These dealt with difficult questions relating to the ties of history, the authenticity of cultural heritage, and whether South Africa truly belongs, as the Preamble to the Constitution has it, ‘to all who live in it, united in our diversity’. Over time, a shift appears to have taken place within the Court. The majority appears to have moved from seeing the Afrikaans language as a ‘cultural treasure’ to an ‘instrument of oppression’. It is in this context that Froneman J, with humility and care, wrote his judgments (sometimes alone and sometimes in Afrikaans). In them, he reckoned with the past from a deeply personal perspective. He sought to vindicate Afrikaner cultural heritage, to consider whether it is possible to demarcate cultural traditions from racism, and to unpack the consequences of a constitution that flowed from a ‘negotiated revolution based on historical compromise’. He reflected that ‘without your own language, culture is lost, a sense of self is lost. And once that happens, diversity is lost.’ While the judgments were being drafted, discourse between the judges became emotionally and racially charged. This may have resulted, at times, in legal doctrine and court process being subordinated to other imperatives. This article is a critical reflection on Justice Froneman’s jurisprudence regarding cultural and linguistic rights. It also pays homage to his attempts to advance the rule of law – with the conflicted pen of a white, male, Afrikaans-speaking Justice, deeply committed to equality, and to equal concern, for all marginalised and oppressed groups.
The analysis of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the cultural rights of national minorities in the countries of Central Eastern, Baltic and Balkan Europe (CEBBE) cannot ignore the fact ...that since the end of the 1980s, the forms of State of these countries – “inspired”, albeit in different measures, by the Socialist one – have been affected by a number of changes, which in turn influenced their models of minority protection. The article therefore pays particular attention to the relationship between the evolution of the forms of States in CEBBE countries and the shaping of new models of protection of cultural rights of minority groups. This analysis is functional not only to identify in a comparative perspective similarities and differences between the models of protection of minority cultural rights, but above all to verify the effective guarantee of the same in the context of the democratic backsliding experienced by some CEBBE countries, further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In How Informal Institutions Matter, Zeki Sarigil examines the role of informal institutions in sociopolitical life and addresses the following questions: Why and how do informal institutions emerge? ...To ask this differently, why do agents still create or resort to informal institutions despite the presence of formal institutional rules and regulations? How do informal institutions matter? What roles do they play in sociopolitical life? How can we classify informal institutions? What novel types of informal institutions can we identify and explain? How do informal institutions interact with formal institutions? How do they shape formal institutional rules, mechanisms, and outcomes? Finally, how do existing informal institutions change? What factors might trigger informal institutional change? In order to answer these questions, Sarigil examines several empirical cases of informal institution as derived from various issue areas in the Turkish sociopolitical context (i.e., civil law, conflict resolution, minority rights, and local governance) and from multiple levels (i.e., national and local).
The Position of National Minorities in Serbia – Their Legal Protection and Conflicts National minorities constitute almost fourteen percent of the population of the Republic of Serbia. The main aim ...of the article is to present the mechanism for the protection of minority rights in the country. The author also compares them with the corresponding European standards. Moreover, she discusses in detail some of the major political, cultural, educational, linguistic, and social problems of the minorities living in this territory. The article thus deals with the following minorities: Albanians who live in southern Serbia, Muslims from Sanjak, Hungarians from Vojvodina (the second biggest minority in Serbia), as well as the Vlachs, Romanians and Roma people, who are scattered all over the country. All of these ethnic minorities are indeed strongly demanding legal protection from the state. The issues of their distribution and status in the light of their ethnicity versus the global society are also tackled in the article.
The negative stigma against applying Islamic law or sharia has not disappeared. This stigma persists since it is accompanied by propaganda that Islamic sharia is contrary to human rights and is ...barbaric. Specifically, the Special Region of Aceh Province, with its special label and special autonomy based on Law No. 44 of 1999 concerning the Implementation of the Privileges of Aceh, strengthened by Law No. 18 of 2001 concerning Special Autonomy, Law No. 11 of 2006 concerning the Government of Aceh, and part of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of Helsinki bargaining, is permitted to apply Islamic law, including the issue of jinayat. This research’s object was the implementation of Qanun Jinayat in Langsa City to find out how it is implemented and how it protects the rights of minorities. Included in the field research category, this study used qualitative methods with data collection techniques through in-depth interviews and field observations. The result revealed that the enforcement of the Qanun Jinayat in Langsa City is concerned about human rights norms, does not interfere with the rights of minorities, and they even feel happy since the Qanun’s norm is also regulated in their holy book.
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