Minority rights are one of the most important issues in today’s international society. Due to the neglect of some governments towards this issue, many problems have arisen in the past three decades, hindering the path towards achieving peace and international security. Without a doubt, one of the reasons for governments’ disregard for minority rights is the neglect of relevant legal studies in academic forums.

It is worth noting that in Iran, despite the diverse ethnic, linguistic, and religious minorities and the challenge of this issue being a constant reference in the reports and resolutions of the United Nations in recent years, there has not been much scientific work done on the rights of minorities compared to other human rights issues.

The book “Supporting Minorities in International Law” by Dr. Sattar Azizi is the most comprehensive book written to date on the subject of minority rights in Iranian legal literature. The greatest advantage of this book is that the author, with his academic expertise and specialized academic education in the field of international law, has approached the topic without any bias or non-scientific intentions, and has presented it in a simple and fluent language. This makes it useful not only for academic studies, but also for those who are not familiar with specialized legal texts.

The text of the book is organized logically and consists of two separate sections. The first section begins with a description of the history of minority rights and states that: initially, the concept of minority was limited to religious minorities and their identity and otherness were determined solely based on their religious affiliation. Because religions, in their early formation, sought to promote and spread their teachings among their followers, they emphasized the principles of equality and brotherhood regardless of race, skin color, language, or ethnicity. As a result, with the expansion and dominance of a particular religion, followers of other religions were considered as minorities. The existence of intolerance and persecution against religious minorities in Europe and the implementation of strict policies by the Popes, who did not recognize non-Catholics as saved and tortured them in various ways, led to the inclusion of provisions for the protection of religious minorities and ensuring their freedom of worship (among several European countries) in the Westphalian Peace Treaties in the 17th century.

The first important international treaty is the final document of the Congress of Vienna in 1815, and the last document within the framework of the United Nations is the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities in 1992. The significant developments that have taken place regarding the rights of minorities are mentioned in this book. Most international documents and judicial procedures for the protection of minorities, both within the international community and within its substitute institution, the United Nations, are included in the book. Regional systems have not been neglected, especially the European system, which has the most advanced rules and mechanisms for protecting minorities, and the European and American systems, which follow Europe but at a slower pace. Asia is not discussed in the book due to the lack of a general legal document and mechanisms for protecting human rights.

In the following chapters of the first section of the book, a detailed discussion on the definition of minorities and the nature of the minority rights system is presented. In this regard, the definitions of judicial authorities such as the decisions of the “International Court of Justice” and the “International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda” as well as legal doctrines such as the “Capotorti definition” have been criticized and examined.

In the second section, the writer delves into the content of minority rights and mentions many examples of these rights from existing international laws. The most important rights that minorities enjoy and are discussed in this book include the right to existence, cultural rights including linguistic and religious rights, and the right to self-determination. Each of these rights is addressed separately in different chapters.

As international law discussions are fluid topics and are subject to more changes than other global issues, on the other hand, the structure of the United Nations has recently undergone significant changes in the field of human rights, such as replacing the Human Rights Commission with the Human Rights Council in 2006 and establishing the Minorities Forum as a subsidiary body within that structure.

The current book, which was published in 1385, needs to be edited and reprinted in order to continue to be considered a comprehensive and up-to-date source on the topic of minority rights.

Book Title: Protection of Minorities in International Law

Author: Dr. Sattar Azizi

Publisher: Noor Elm

Print date: First 1385