Protection of Minority Rights

Abstract This article investigates how a viable minority rights protection mechanism can be established under the human rights regime. Minority rights and other group rights began to receive less attention in the post-World War ii era, due to primarily the individual rights-centric focus of human rights law. Provisions of human rights law dealing with minority rights and a few minority rights instruments adopted by the United Nations and other international organisations since the 1990s have also proved insufficient to protect minority rights. This article identifies these shortcomings of human rights mechanisms and recommends how human rights law can effectively respond to them in protecting minority rights. By analysing the strengths and weaknesses of the League of Nations’ minority protection system developed following World War i , it shows how the lessons learned from this past system can help develop a strong and coherent minority protection mechanism.