Als ich mir neulich den Bericht des UN-Sonderberichterstatters betreffend Minderheiten über seinen Spanienbesuch von der Homepage der Vereinten Nationen geladen habe, bin ich auch auf die dort hinterlegte Definition einer Minderheit gestoßen:

Concept of a minority: mandate definition

An ethnic, religious or linguistic minority is any group of persons which constitutes less than half of the population in the entire territory of a State whose members share common characteristics of culture, religion or language, or a combination of any of these. A person can freely belong to an ethnic, religious or linguistic minority without any requirement of citizenship, residence, official recognition or any other status.

Clarifications on who is a member of a minority

Following mainly the Human Rights Committee jurisprudence, additional elements as to who is a member of a minority can be summarized as follows:

(a) Indigenous peoples may constitute linguistic, religious or ethnic minorities in the States in which they find themselves. Both are not mutually exclusive, nor undermine any applicable rights as a minority or indigenous people.

(b) The “territory” to consider in determining whether or not a group is a linguistic, religious or ethnic minority is the entire territory of a State, and not one of its political or territorial subunits;

(c) One of the main objective criteria for determining whether a group is a minority in a State is a numerical one. A minority in the territory of a State means it is not the majority. Objectively, that means that an ethnic, religious or linguistic group makes up less than half the population of a country.

und

The absence of consistency in understanding who is a minority is a recurring stumbling block to the full and effective realization of the human rights of minorities. Different United Nations entities may contradict one another because they consider different groups of persons as constituting a minority – and exclude certain persons as ‘not being members of a real minority’ for different, sometimes ad hoc, reasons. States Members of the United Nations may at times hesitate to engage on matters relating to minorities because of uncertainties as to who is a minority and what that entails. In some countries, there may be even the assumption that the absence of a “definition” means it is left to each State to determine freely who is or is not a minority. In most of these situations, the uncertainty leads to restrictive approaches: in many situations, persons are deemed to be “undeserving” because they are not “traditional” minorities, not citizens or not sufficiently “dominated”. The end result is that some minorities are excluded because they are not the “right kind” of minority according to different parties.

Sowohl die Mandatsdefinition selbst, als auch Punkt (b) der darauffolgenden Klärung lassen keinen Zweifel aufkommen, dass das Gebiet, das zur Definition einer Minderheit heranzuziehen ist, stets jenes des Gesamtstaates und nicht jenes einer seiner Glieder (Regionen, Länder, Gemeinden etc.) ist. Etwas anderes wäre auch abwegig, weil zwar unbestritten ist, dass die italienische Sprachgruppe etwa in Urtijëi in der Minderzahl ist, aber ebenso klar sein muss, dass dies nicht dazu führen darf, dass die staatliche Mehrheitsgemeinschaft in jener Gemeinde als schutzbedürftig eingestuft wird. Andernfalls würde man den Minderheitenschutz ad absurdum führen.

Obschon dies evident sein und keiner gesonderten Betrachtung bedürfen sollte, ist die Auffassung, dass die nationale Mehrheit in Südtirol und in den meisten seiner Gemeinden »die eigentliche Minderheit« ist, immer wieder zu vernehmen — auch von Menschen, die es  besser wissen sollten. Ihnen sei die obige Definition ans Herz gelegt.

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