Minority rights

Minority rights are a normal individual rights as applied to members of racial, ethnic, class, religious, linguistic or gender and sexual minorities, in addition to also the collective rights accorded to any minority group.

women's-rights and global LGBT-rights movements, and various racial-minority rights movements around the world such as the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.

Issues of minority rights may intersect with debates over historical redress or over positive discrimination.

National minorities in the law of the EC/EU

The direct role of the European Union and also the law of the EU/EC in the area of protection of national minorities is still very limited likewise the general security degree of human rights. The EU has relied on general international law and a European regional system of international law based on the Council of Europe, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, etc. and in a case of necessity accepted their norms. But the "de-economisation of European integration", which started in the 1990s, is changing this situation. The political relevance of national minorities' protection is very high.

Now 2009, although protection of the national minorities has not become a loosely accepted legally binding principle of the EU, in several legal acts issues of national minorities are mentioned. In external relations protection of national minorities became one of the leading criteria for cooperation with the EU or accession.