On the afternoon of May 19, 2021, Professor Gudmundur Alfredsson gave a lecture on minority rights for teachers and students of the Institute for Human Rights. At the beginning of the lecture, the professor and the students exchanged the reasons and areas of interest in minority rights. In this lecture, Professor Gudmundur Alfredsson mainly introduced two issues, one is the reason why the rights of a minority should be protected, and the other is the elements that the definition of a minority needs to have.
First of all, the professor pointed out the following views for the reasons why the rights of minorities should be protected: First, there are discriminations in education, employment, and policies within the country, and these discriminations seriously damage the rights of minorities. Second, it is precisely because of the above-mentioned discrimination that racial and ethnic conflicts exist in many countries. Therefore, from the perspective of maintaining peace and social stability, these conflicts and violence against them should be stopped and the rights of minorities should be protected. Third, based on the requirements of cultural diversity, the culture and language of the minority should be protected and developed. Fourth, protecting the rights of minorities can produce economic benefits. Regarding the "economic benefits", the students also asked how to protect the rights of minorities to achieve economic benefits. Examples of professors: such as achieving equal pay for equal work, equal employment are conducive to improving the production and consumption capacity of a small number of people, promoting the economic cycle within the country, and achieving higher economic benefits.
Secondly, the professor also summed up the following points for the definition of a minority: First, the minority must be a minority of nationality, ethnicity, religion, or language. Therefore, the political minority and the sexual orientation are not the minority in international human rights law. Second, subjectively, a few people must have self-identification and free choice. Even if there is no ancestry of a minority, it may be a minority. Moreover, the government cannot force its citizens to abandon their minority status, because as long as they meet the international standards of a minority, they constitute a minority in international law, and it does not depend on the recognition of their country. Third, it is a minority in number, accounting for no more than 50% or only a small group, and the minority must be a disadvantaged group and not be in a dominant position. Fourth, in terms of time, a small number of people must have lived in the country for more than 2-3 generations (United Nations standards). For this element, the professor also introduced the most controversial issue, that is, millions of refugees in Germany. For this part, some students asked whether the unique culture is one of the criteria that define the minority. How to understand this culture? The professor believes that unique culture is one of the attributes of minority groups, and culture may include many factors, such as language, religion, lifestyle, etc., and this is in line with the elements defined by the minority.
Finally, the professor also introduced other definitions related to the definition of minorities, such as indigenous people. He emphasized that the main difference between the indigenous people and the minority is the time element among the above. Indigenous people are the descendants of people who have always lived in certain territories. They existed before colonists and founders. The professor also pointed out that there are about 15000-16000 minority groups in the world, and there are at least 55 ethnic minorities in China. And he also emphasized that according to UN standards, denial of citizenship does not mean denial of minority status.
The lecture ended successfully with the warm applause of the students!
Written by ZHAO Mingyang
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