Further Characteristics and Challenges of Minority Rights

Minority rights exhibit more characteristics that are not necessarily to be seen in opposition to human rights. Yet, they are important to the nature of minority rights. 

Minority protection has often been seen as a tool of conflict prevention. Thus, it can be argued that even though a threat does not exist, minority protection is necessary in order to avoid any possible conflicts. In my opinion, this is too easy, as many groups would qualify for minority protection under theses premises. Most states have shown themselves to be rather restrictive in their recognition of minorities in international treaties. A threat cannot be the only factor for determining the existence of a minority in the legal sense of a minority protected under the existing international treaties. 

The question is, whether they in this case consider themselves members of a minority. If this is denied, they are per definition no members of the minority, as only free will can secure membership in a minority. 

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