During the past three decades just within the Europe, by considering its general geographical dimension, at least three international conflicts including Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenia and Azerbaijan, Balkan war and even the recent conflict in Eastern Europe between secessionist rebellions and the Ukraine partially connected to the protection of specific ethnic or linguistic groups. In this sense, all of these bloody conflicts are related to minority and minority protection issues. This illustrates the importance of concepts like identity culture and ethnicity even in the era of mass intercultural communication through internet.
Despite the importance of minority issues, in its contemporary historical patterns as a reason for conflicts, it has not achieved the equal progress in compare to the other rights even after the World War Two within the process of prompt internationalization of human rights .Three indications of this claims are the facts that: first in the UN declaration of human rights there is no explicit reference to minority protection although in subsequent International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Article 2 minority protection was addressed second still after more than half a century of this internationalization there is no internationally, at global level, binding treaty related to minorities and the third point is that there is no generally accepted definition of minority in international law.
All the above mentioned points does not mean that this part of human rights or rights has not have any progress in International and regional human rights or domestic systems. In international level soft law and the other rights or principles like non-discrimination and equality principles were served for this purpose. In regional level in Europe, which is the main focus of this paper, incredible development is acquired both at Council of Europe with two binding minority related treaties and in EU level specifically after the Lisbon treaty by considering minority protection as one of its values. Furthermore in national level it is a fact today that in many constitutions at least in so called democratic states there is a reference to the necessity of protection of minorities.
The topics that are the main focus of this paper will be on comparing some features of the notion of minority that is connected to identity itself and the characteristics of the protection system in public international law and EU law. For more clarification the purpose of this paper will be on issues like individuality or collectivity of concept, legal or political nature of protection of system and its reliance on the other principles like non-discrimination.
