Minority Rights Protection and Human Rights Policies in ... - IFSH

Elena Kulipanova, M.P.S. candidate at the IFSH: Models of accommodation
Elena gave a presentation about “Internal dimension of self-determination, models of
accommodation”. Elena underlined the importance of the right of political participation in the
concept of internal self- determination, because she considers it as essential for the
preservation and promotion of the distinctive identity of a minority and the protection of their
group interest. Elena lectured about the different forms of internal self-determination, for
instance territorial rights like autonomy, decentralization, regionalisation, federalism and
consociationalism. She furthermore gave some information about historical and contemporary
aspects of internal self-determination and she stressed the “Report on Constructive National
Arrangements for Minorities“ by Special Rapporteur Asbjörn Eide of the Sub-Commission on
the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities in 1993, dealing with possible
ways and means of facilitating the peaceful and constructive solution of problems involving
minorities, as well as the emphasized need for arrangements enabling g minorities to enjoy
effective participation in the decision-making process of a state. Elena presented three
different models of accommodation that have been applied in Western Europe: centralization,
federalism and consociationalism. When speaking about the system of centralization, Elena
gave the example of the Scandinavian countries and the United Kingdom, where the system of
giving concessions to co-nations in various degrees (without changing their constitution as
unitary states) has quite a long tradition. Then Elena referred to Will Kymlicka, who
distinguishes between two models of federalism, the Canadian/ Swiss model and the model of
the United States. While in Canada an “asymmetric federalism” is applied, in Switzerland one
can find a system of “federal consociationalism”. The last system, “consociationalism”, is a
complex model of power-sharing referring to groups that are not territorial defined, Elena
quoted Arend Lijphart and his theories. The model of consociationalism was successfully
applied in the Netherlands between 1917 until 1967.
Polina Dolgikh, M.P.S. candidate at the IFSH: Russian minority in Estonia
Polina gave a presentation about “Social problems of the Russian minority in Estonia”. Polina
talked about the emergence of the problems and the development of the situation in Estonia,
as well as the outcome of the “Integration program” for the Russian speaking minority in
Estonia in 2000. She also talked about changes in the attitude of the titular nation and
controversial future perspectives. Polina pointed out that the roots of
the conflict in Estonia could be located in times before World War II,
among many Estonians the attitude, that Russians in Estonia nowadays
are sometime still regarded as “former occupants” is common, said
Polina. Russians in Estonia often have an alien passport and Polina
mentioned as a main future problem that there is a also a lack of will to
assimilate among some parts of the Russian speaking minority,
combined with some Estonian’s unwillingness and fear to treat the
Russians in Estonia as equal members of their society. As a mean of
integration, Polina mentioned the necessary reduction of the language
barriers between the Russian speaking minority and the titular nation,
and she pointed out, that integration could also maybe reached by
emphasizing the “EU-identity” of Estonia.
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