State succession and minority rights – a case study of the dissolution of the Former Yugoslavia By Antal Berkes LL.M. LONG THESIS COURSE: Human Rights Professor: Tibor Várady, Dr. habil. Central European University 1051 Budapest, Nádor utca 9. Hungary CEU eTD Collection © Central European University 20 November, 2009 Executive summary Dissolution and separation of States especially threaten minorities, whose protection serves not only the interests of the successor State, but also that of the international community. As a minimum, successor States should continue the human rights treaties to which their predecessor was party. Furthermore, the international community imposed on the successor States of the Former Yugoslavia a series of additional obligations protecting minorities which largely exceeded the minority rights standards of the Cold War period. The international instruments imposed on the new States contributed to a crystallization of a higher minimum standard of minority protection which shall bind all new States tending to be legitimized. CEU eTD Collection ii Table of Contents Introduction – Definition of the scope of the research ............................................................ 1 Research question: a higher standard of minority protection in case of dissolution of States............................................................................................................................. 1 Notion of minority rights.................................................................................................... 3 Notions of State succession – restriction of the research to the separation of States............ 4 Methodology ..................................................................................................................... 6 I. Chapter One: Majority opinion about State succession in respect of human rights treaties. ...................................................................................................................................... 9 1.1. State succession in respect of human rights treaties: a controversial way towards an automatic State succession ......................................................................................... 9 1.1.1. The irreversibility of human rights treaties............................................................... 11 1.1.2. Human rights as acquired rights: are they directly granted to individuals?................ 12 1.1.3. Human rights represent universal values.................................................................. 12 1.1.4. In case of separation, Art. 34 codifies the automatic State succession in respect of treaties ............................................................................................................... 13 1.1.5. The practice of most UN bodies supports the automatic State succession in respect of human rights treaties............................................................................... 15 1.1.6. The practice under the ECHR supports the automaticity rule .................................. 18 1.1.7. The practice of States partly supports the automatic State succession in respect of human rights treaties........................................................................................... 20 1.1.8. Summarizing the arguments .................................................................................... 21 1.2. Synthesizing the doctrinal views: signs of a regional custom of continuity in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe.........................................................................................22 CEU eTD Collection 1.3. Conclusion ............................................................................................................27 II. Chapter Two : Minority rights at the time of separation of States ..................................29 2.1. The connection between separation and minorities: a situation of instability ...........29 2.1.1. The need of stability through minority protection in the States concerned by separation or dissolution ......................................................................................... 29 iii 2.1.2. The stabilizing interests of the international community........................................... 32 2.2. Minority rights obligations beyond treaty context...................................................33 2.2.1. Going beyond the principle of automatic State succession: the possibility of a higher standard of protection .................................................................................. 33 2.2.2. The claim to consider minority rights as customary law........................................... 34 2.2.3. The claim to consider minority rights as jus cogens................................................. 37 2.3. Conclusion ............................................................................................................40 III. Chapter Three: The higher standard of minority protection imposed on successor States of the SFRY by the international community..............................................................42 3.1. International minority protection obligations of the SFRY before 1991 ..................42 3.1.1. Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye (1919) ................................................................ 43 3.1.1.1. International obligations of Yugoslavia under the Minorities Treaty........44 3.1.1.2. A basis for further comparisons – the threshold of minority protection ensured by the Minorities Treaty ............................................................46 3.1.1.3. The alleged termination of the Minorities Treaties ..................................49 3.1.1.4. The (historical) effect of the Minorities Treaty........................................51 3.1.2. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights ......................................... 52 3.1.3. The Osimo Agreement............................................................................................ 59 3.1.3.1. The standard of the Osimo Treaty ..........................................................60 3.1.3.2. The succession to the Osimo Treaty.......................................................62 3.2. International standards of minority protection imposed on successor States of the SFRY after 1991 .......................................................................................................64 3.2.1. The first independence wave (1991-1992): the minority rights requirements of the EC 66 3.2.1.1. The EC Peace Conference on Yugoslavia...............................................67 3.2.1.2. The EC conditions of recognition of the post-Yugoslav States...............72 3.2.1.3. Opinions of the Badinter Commission on the fulfillment of the Guidelines CEU eTD Collection ..............................................................................................................74 3.2.2. Conflict settlement in Bosnia-Herzegovina: international standards of minority protection............................................................................................................... 78 3.2.2.1. The Vance-Owen Plan ...........................................................................78 3.2.2.2. The Dayton Agreement ..........................................................................80 iv 3.2.3. Reactions of the international community to the second wave of independence: the 2000s................................................................................................................ 84 3.2.3.1. The standards required as a reaction of the Kosovo crisis .......................84 3.2.3.2. The standards required with respect of the independence of Montenegro ...........................................................................................89 3.3. Conclusion ............................................................................................................90 Conclusions of the thesis.......................................................................................................93 Appendices...........................................................................................................................96 Bibliography.......................................................................................................................113 CEU eTD Collection v Introduction – Definition of the scope of the research Research question: a higher standard of minority protection in case of dissolution of States Given the lack of a consistent State practice, the relation between State succession and minority protection seems to be an uncertain area of public international law, as it has not yet worked out the rules governing the conduct of successor States “in respect of minority rights treaties“. There are no written rules on the questions whether the duties of minority protection – binding the predecessor State before – continue to be in force or they cease to exist, and the new State starts with a “clean slate” or whether the new States has any additional obligations vis-à-vis minorities. However, the dissolution wave after 1990 served as a decisive legal and doctrinal precedent. Among the independent States stemming from the dissolution wave of the 1990s, especially the dissolution of the Social Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) provided as an instructive example for the strong connection between dissolution and the protection of minorities. That is the reason why the present thesis has chosen the case of the dissolution of the SFRY