The United Kingdom and Human Rights - College of Social ...

Collective Rights 133
federalisation of the EEC progresses. Such demands may
serve as a partial substitute for the results of exercising
yet another group right, the right to self-determination,
to which I will revert.
Minorities, Immigration and Refugees
Another collective right receiving greater public attention
is that of minorities. Internally, minority rights have long
been a concern, with enactment of the Race Relations
Acts, but their importance has been emphasised with
growth of ethnic religious communities, making it
increasingly necessary to address issues of schooling,
language, dress, holidays and religious obligations.
Persons from ethnic minorities now number 2.5 million
(4.5 per cent, of the population). 22 When minority issues
have arisen in a European context, Governments have
adopted a generally sensitive and humanitarian foreign
policy, encouraging the development of safeguarding
institutions within the framework of the Conference for
Security and Co-operation in Europe. Such concerns are
reflected in the Helsinki Final Act (1975) and in
subsequent Declarations and in 1990 the United Kingdom
made suggestions for creating a supporting institutional
framework. Policy within the CSCE was in part
designed to reduce inter-ethnic disorders in central and
eastern Europe, but has recently been influenced by an
incipient problem, that of economic refugees and asylum
seekers. In contrast to Foreign Office policy, successive
Governments' policies of international trade often assist
in the ill-treatment of particular ethnic groups, because