Minorities in national and international laws / edited by Satish Chandra

Generally, the minority is thought of as the opposite of the majority. In international law the term 'minority' is commonly used in a more restricted sense. It has come to refer chiefly to a particular kind of group which differs from the dominant group within the state.

From a scientific point of view, the term "minority" includes many elements which are changeable both in content and in degree of intensity. Safely, it may be observed that this term is most frequently used to aply to com munities with certain characteristics like ethnic, linguistic, cultural or religious etc.. and always in a organised community. The members of such community feel that they constitute a national group, or sub-group which is different from the majority group. Indeed it is true that, dispite the differences among various groups, all are held together by a sense of nationality which is larger, though thinner, in national conciousness, than that of either of the separate groups.

This outstanding book studies in detail the term 'minorities' and its concept in inter national law, the classification of minorities in international law, status of minorities under UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, collective human rights of peoples vis-a-vis minorities, the right of self-determination and protection of minorities, international instruments for the protection of minorities, the Helsinki Conference and nati onal minorities, the exhaustion of domestic remedies in the United Nations Sub-Comm ission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, Statutory safeguards available to the minorities in India, min orities in China, etc.