The Right to Participation and Self-Determination

Participation and self-determination are seemingly two opposites. The word self in self-determination aims at complete control while participation has the notion of sharing which means that there is no complete control but most probably a compromise. Once one looks only at the meaning of internal self-determination, this concept of complete control does not hold anymore. 

Post-colonial self-determination has been argued to be about balance of interests. This is exactly what the right to participation is about. Through this right— if it is as effective as is called for in international documents—the minority receives the opportunity to make its interests heard. 

Participation is also a matter of level. For example, if minorities receive freedom to determine the use of their own cultural funds, one could argue they have cultural self-determination. Seen in the larger context, minorities may have participated in the process of allocating these funds to the minority but it is not the minority alone that allocates funds to itself. Thus, what seems like self-determination at a lower level can be a product of a participatory process at a higher level. 

The right to participation does not equal political self-determination in the sense of determining a political status. Participation is a part of political self-determination when considering the internal aspect of self-determination. Internal self-determination is characterized by democratic and possibly legitimate processes. The right to participation for minorities contributes to the understanding of internal self-determination. 

The following graphic representations take a look at the four dimensions of self-determination. At the centre, we find keywords of the definition or content of the specific dimension of self-determination. In the outer circles we find specific minority rights from the four minority instruments namely the CSCE Copenhagen Document of 1990, the Language Charter of 1992, the UN Minority Declaration also firom 1992 and the Eramework Convention of 1995. The specific origin of the minority rights mentioned below can be found in the annex. 

---