International Research Journal of Social Sciences_____________________________________ ISSN 2319–3565 Vol. 2(7), 53-58, July (2013) Int. Res. J. Social Sci. International Science Congress Association 53 Development of Minorities’ Rights and Critical Analysis of Contemporary Comparative International Human Rights Law for their Protection Rehman Hidayat and Muhammad Zubair Department of Law at Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, PAKISTAN Available online at: www.isca.in Received 2 nd June 2013, revised 28 th June 2013, accepted 9 th July 2013 Abstract Minorities have been a controversial issue throughout human’s history; their legal protection has been even more problematic. It took hundreds of years to define the term ‘minority’ but even the definition is problematic. The paper traces the development of minorities’ protection in international law, its definition and the contemporary comparative regional and international human rights law on the issue. Keywords: Minority, definition, development, protection, convention, standards, international, regional. Introduction Protection of minorities has been one of the oldest concerns of international law 1 , yet the word “minority” is tricky enough to be defined as the problem of defining “the minorities (is not) as susceptible of solution as those of physics and mathematics” 2 . Some attempts have been made to define the term. First of all the problem of defining them and their definition will be discussed so that we could know whose rights we are discussing about. The paper also traces the development of minority rights. We shall see that European history furnishes examples of minority protection through international law instruments (i.e. treaties) from the time as early as 1615 AD. In the medieval age the focus has been mainly on the protection of religious minorities. However, “the new era in Europe developed treaty protection in more secular style” (Thornberry P., International Law and the Rights of Minorities). In twentieth century, one of the major developments which the post World War One era witnessed was that the peace treaties signed then included a number of provisions for the protection of minorities. With failure of League of Nations, the system of minority protection, after the Second World War was also replaced by the United Nation’s Charter and Universal Declaration of Human Rights 3 . But neither the Charter nor the UDHR has any direct reference to ‘Minority’ 4 . Later on instruments specifically dedicated to minorities protection, both at UN and Regional level, were enacted. Later part of the study covers the development of minority rights from World War Two till present, the critical analysis of the existing instruments containing minorities’ rights and the implementation mechanisms. This part, out of necessity, is divided into two parts: International and Regional standards. In conclusion, we shall see that whether rights of minorities are adequately protected? What needs to be done, if they are not? And if they are, how can they be further protected? What constitutes minority? “Who is minority? Who defines minority? Who are the beneficiaries of minority rights?” 5 International law found it difficult to answer these questions. Hence there is no legally binding and generally accepted definition of minority up to date. It seems paradoxical to discuss the right of ‘people’ who could not be identified yet. As for example, the Romanian government in 19th century constantly attempted to exclude Jews from constitutional rights offered to all Romanians by defining them as foreigners. D. Schutter says that one obstacle to the protection of minorities rights, both at international and regional level, may reside in the absence of a generally agreed upon definition of minorities 6 . There are a number of factors behind the difficulty to define the minority: Some people, who can be called as minority, may live in one geographical area separated from the rest of the population, while other may live scattered in different parts of the State. Some minorities may have, more or less, autonomy while others may not have it at all. Some minorities may have a strong ‘sense of solidarity directed toward preserving their distinct identity’ while in other minorities this sense of solidarity may be weaker. Some minorities may live in one State, while other may have existence trans-border, in more than one States. Despite the difficulties many a definitions of “minorities or national minorities” have been proposed within the international organizations 7 . Special Rapporteur Francesco Capotorti, while drafting a study in 1977 for the UN Sub-Commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, also formulated a definition. According to him, ‘minority’ is: “A group numerically inferior to the rest of the population of a State, in a non-dominant position, whose members-being