Notes Minorities and Human Rights

Abstract

We often tend to forget that every member of a majority community is a minority in some context or when somewhere else. For a segment of any society anywhere, a majority status is only true when confined within a fixed boundary or compartment. Germans living outside Germany are a minority as are the Chinese outside China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau and Russians outside Russia. A Sunni Muslim in Iran or a Shia in Pakistan. Even inside Pakistan a Sunni of the Deobandi sect may find he is in the midst of a great number of Brelvis in a certain area or vice versa. It is axiomatic that in almost all countries of the world there are ethnic, linguistic or religious minorities. And in many, their cultural freedom and human rights need protection. Some of the ancient empires built by the sword also perished by the sword. A Roman citizen in England and another in Italy took on different Nationalities when the Roman empire disintegrated. An Austrian and a Hungarian national became such only after the AustroHungarian empire of the Hapsburgs collapsed. Maria Theresa (1717-80) was the queen of Hungary and Bohemia and the Archduchess of Austria. She succeeded her father Charles VI as empress of Germany in 1740. Her right to the throne was contested and caused the war of the Austrian succession (1740-48). During her reign Frederick the great attacked and defeated Austria in the seven year war (1756-63). Her daughter Marie Antoinette became the queen of Louis XVI of France and was guillotined on 16 October 1793. To try and decipher the nationality and citizenship of the mother and daughter would require quite a bit of working at the jigsaw puzzle. People in Alsace and Lorraine as well as Shleswig Holstein were alternately French and German as well as German and Danish nationals even in the 20th century. The seat of the European parliament today, Strasbourg in Alsace, is back in France.