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The Recognition of New States and the Protection of Minority Rights in Yugoslavia

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Spheres of Global Justice

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Abstract

The recognition of new states in Yugoslavia, led by the European Community (EC), remains one of the most controversial episodes in the collapse of the South Slav federation. This chapter discusses the strategic logic behind the EC’s conditioning of recognition on the acceptance of various minority rights guarantees by the new state authorities in an effort to address one of the presumed causes of armed conflict in the region: ethnic insecurity. The chapter argues that the EC’s policy of conditional recognition made a contribution to the enhancement of minority rights throughout the region of the former Yugoslavia, notwithstanding some very serious derogations from the requirements for recognition on the part of the newly created states.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Other states extended recognition before the EC, notably Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Vatican, Iceland, and Ukraine, but EC recognition had a much greater impact.

  2. 2.

    The EPC Declaration of 6 October 1991 added, similarly, “The right to self-determination of all the peoples of Yugoslavia cannot be exercised in isolation from the interests and rights of ethnic minorities within the individual republics” (EPC 1991a).

  3. 3.

    Letter from Sizeland to the author, 3 November 1997.

  4. 4.

    Author interview with Wynaendts, 5 December 1997. See also “Background Briefing on 6 October by Ambassador Geert Ahrens,” in B. G. Ramcharan (1997: vol. II, 1604).

  5. 5.

    Both Wynaendts (1993: 124) and Libal (1997: 166) indicate that Alto Adige/South Tyrol was a model for the ‘special status’ arrangements.

  6. 6.

    Some 66% of the population of Bolzano, the province in Italy that corresponds roughly to South Tyrol, identified German as their native language in 1981. See “Austria-Italy (South Tyrol),” in J. B. Allcock et al. 1992: 21. The 2001 census essentially confirmed these data.

  7. 7.

    On 19 June 1992, the Italian and Austrian representatives to the United Nations jointly informed the secretary-general that bilateral differences over administration of the region had been resolved.

  8. 8.

    The “Autonomy Statute” of 1972 and associated legislation are contained in Il nuovo Statuto di Autonomia (2003). See also Wolff (2004: 64–72).

  9. 9.

    Although the EC did not yield to Milošević on this point, an important provision of the 23 October version of the draft Convention was eliminated from the 4 November version in an apparent effort to gain the Serbian leader’s cooperation. The earlier version stated that “the republics shall apply fully and in good faith the provisions existing prior to 1990 for autonomous provinces” (Art. 2.C.6)—an obvious reference to Kosovo and Vojvodina, the two provinces of Serbia whose autonomy Milošević had revoked in 1989.

  10. 10.

    Letter to the author, 3 November 1997.

  11. 11.

    Interviews with the author, 21 November 1996 and 3 June 1999.

  12. 12.

    See, in particular, Article 64 of the constitution, which establishes special rights for the Italian and Hungarian ethnic communities in Slovenia.

  13. 13.

    Constitution of the Republic of Macedonia, esp. Article 48 (rights of nationalities), Article 78 (Council for Inter-Ethnic Relations), and Articles 114–117 (local self-government).

  14. 14.

    For details, see Minority Rights Group International (2003) and International Crisis Group (2003).

  15. 15.

    For a discussion of normative shifts on the question of minority rights in Europe since the end of the Cold War, see J. Jackson Preece,“Minority Rights in Europe: From Westphalia to Helsinki,” Review of International Studies 23, no. 1 (1997: 88–92).

  16. 16.

    Former US ambassador to Yugoslavia, Warren Zimmermann, made this argument in W. Zimmermann 1996: 158.

  17. 17.

    See, for instance, the European Commission’s November 1998 report on Latvia and Romania, which notes progress in the protection of minority rights in both states as part of their efforts to gain accession to the EU (European Commission 1998).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Richard Caplan

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  1. Richard Caplan
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Correspondence to Richard Caplan .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Université de Lorraine, Nancy, France

    Jean-Christophe Merle (Professor, Honorary Professor) (Professor, Honorary Professor)

  2. Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken, (Germany)

    Jean-Christophe Merle (Professor, Honorary Professor) (Professor, Honorary Professor)

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Caplan, R. (2013). The Recognition of New States and the Protection of Minority Rights in Yugoslavia. In: Merle, JC. (eds) Spheres of Global Justice. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5998-5_21

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