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The proposition of this article is that it is time to re-think Aboriginal self-determination. A process should be allowed to develop that is perhaps less grandiose than the failed Voice, which was rejected in October 2023, but more practical and reflective of Aboriginal social, linguistic, and cultural organisation. A process of self-determination that starts at the bottom and then, if necessary, works its way to the state and federal levels. The post-Voice world of Australia is uncertain. The rejection by public referendum of the Aboriginal Voice has left a void that will take a long time to fill. It is contended in the article that life after the Voice is best to be found by empowerment of local Aboriginal communities; by encouraging hundreds of local voices; by enabling those voices to become a keystone for local community affairs; and for those local Aboriginal voices to cooperate as advocates at the state and federal levels. It is suggested that a bottom-up, rather than a top-down model, would be consistent with Aboriginal social and cultural organisation, and ultimately would endow greater credibility and legitimacy for Aboriginal self-determination initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (fpic) is crucial for the exercise of indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination, a binding human rights norm, as it provides them with the opportunity to determine how their lands and resources are developed. While numerous companies have committed to respecting fpic in their corporate policies, there continues to be a huge disconnect between public rhetoric and actions on the ground, and indigenous peoples generally struggle to have a meaningful voice in decision-making processes that concern them. Even if the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (ungp, 2011) have compelled companies to gain ground with regards to their responsibility to respect human rights, the ‘do-no-harm’ principle does not require them to take positive actions towards fulfilling human rights. This approach is inconsistent with the moral foundation of human rights, which implies duties, and does not account for the substantial economic and political power that increases companies’ potential as guarantors of human rights. Based on the normative and moral legitimacy sustaining the narrative on corporate human rights obligations and the political, moral and legal imperative behind fpic, this article asserts that companies have a normative obligation to observe fpic, which they ought to operationalise in the context of heightened requirements regarding their human rights due diligence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of sovereignty and the right to self-determination is deeply rooted in international law. This paper examines the historical background of the Ambazonia community’s quest for sovereignty based on the right to self-determination. The article examines Southern Cameroon’s historical trajectory and origins of the Ambazonia movement. This paper sheds light on the dynamics of the Anglophone (Ambazonia) crises, and the response from La République du Cameroun (Cameroon government). The paper underscores that although international law firmly opposes the right of secession, as it leads to dissecting the polity in existing states. It is however argued that the people of Ambazonia have a right to quest for self-determination due to oppression and human rights infringements by La République du Cameroun.The clamour of the Ambazonia movement for sovereignty is based on the entitlement to political independence, and grievance due to the lack of economic and social development of Southern Cameroon. This quest which has ushered violent acts by the state actors to suppress Ambazonia’s identity and cultural heritage. The finding of the study reveals that Southern Cameroon’s contest for sovereignty and right to self-determination is legal under international law and therefore needs the comity of states to intervene to deescalate the violent acts by La République du Cameroun. The article also examines the international community’s role in the conflict. Particularly, it focuses on the part Nigeria played in the crises and the construction of the friendly relationship between both countries. Further the article proffers recommendations peaceful solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The right to self-determination is an essential international law principle that holds an erga omnes character. Also, the right is often enshrined under domestic legislation, including constitutions. The 1995 Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Constitution (FDRE Constitution) is one such constitution and, uniquely, it explicitly recognizes the right to self-determination including the right of secession as an unconditional right of the nations, nationalities, and peoples in Ethiopia. This paper selects the FDRE Constitution and analyses whether such constitutional law frameworks better address some of the contentious matters concerning the right to self-determination under international law. In a comparative perspective (with international law), the article analyses, inter alia , how the FDRE Constitution approach the questions of who the subjects of the right to self-determination are, and the substantive guarantees for exercising internal and external aspects of the right to self-determination with particular emphasis on secession as a legal right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main objective of this article is to critically evaluate the compatibility of the 'right to political participation' of the Orang Asli by looking at international law standards. The present study utilises a qualitative socio-legal approach, which analyses the political participation of the Orang Asli under Malaysian law and determines whether the Aboriginal Peoples Act 1954 (APA) can provide for the protection, well-being, and the advancement of the Orang Asli. Arguably, the existing provisions of the APA are not in conformity with the recognition in UNDRIP and in no way guarantee the Orang Asli's right to self-determination as recognised by international law. Thus, the current study recommends an amendment to the APA and introduces guidelines to empower political participation of the Orang Asli by incorporating the principles of UNDRIP. The amendment is necessary to ensure that the protection of the right to self-determination of the Orang Asli is compatible with international law standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Section 235 of the Constitution of South Africa contains a promise of potential self-determination of language and cultural communities. An essential question arising from this promise is how an individual's freedom of association interacts with the ability of a community to determine its membership. This article reflects on this question with reference to standards developed in international law and practices in the constitutional law of selected case studies. Whereas international law sets a universal standard of free association, states have developed practices whereby the individual's right to free association is recognised, but where there are also some measures allowed to ensure that an individual is indeed accepted by and part of the community. Any conflicts that arise are, generally speaking, subject to a form of judicial review. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been recent agitation for self-determination in the south-east of Nigeria for the state known as Biafra (a pro-secessionist group). The principle of self-determination is a well-debated discourse since it connects with the right to secede and create a sovereign state. Like a marriage at gunpoint, a reluctant partner will always want a way out of the marriage, and will take a hike at the first opportunity. Given this political inheritance, Nigeria has fallen prey to several attempts to undermine state sovereignty originating in ethnic and regional differences. The controversy has concerned both the principle’s status in international law and its charter. This principle has played a prominent part in the emergence of former colonies as independent states. The aim of this article is to explore the ongoing agitation for a Biafran Republic and to assess whether it is in conformity with the right to self-determination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Constitution of South Africa contains the promise in Section 235 that any community that shares a common language and cultural heritage may be granted self-determination. The Constitution does not give any guidance about who the communities are that qualify for this self-determination. Terms such as minority, nationality and peoples have been notoriously difficult to define. The term 'community' has now been added to this list. In this article, consideration is given to international law and state constitutional law to ascertain how the term 'community' can be applied in South Africa; whether the term 'culture' should be used to expand or restrict the composition of the language community; and whether the community should be organised at a national level or whether local and regional communities could also qualify for a form of self-determination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The international legal right of all 'peoples' to self-determination applies indeterminately to minority groups. The limited jurisprudence tends toward an 'internal' dimension of the right being available to minorities, to be exercised and negotiated domestically. However, where a state-minority negotiation process fails, the international law of self-determination is inadequate to resolve the ensuing deadlock. Accordingly, this article examines the suitability of minority protections under international human rights law ('minority rights') as a supplementary set of rules by which disputes concerning the self-determination of minorities might be resolved. It argues that owing to the strong conceptual and doctrinal overlap between the two areas, the enforcement of minority rights is a suitable strategy for advancing a self-determination claim. However, two bars within existing international human rights enforcement procedures – the non-justiciability of self-determination, and the requirement that complainants must be "victims of a violation" – substantially reduce the utility of this strategy at present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the debate around requirements for the free, prior, and informed consent of indigenous peoples has focused on enabling indigenous communities to participate in various forms of democratic decision-making alongside the state and other actors. Against this backdrop, this article sets out to defend three claims. The first two of these claims are conceptual in nature: (i) Giving (collective) consent and participating in the making of (collective) decisions are distinct activities; (ii) Despite some scepticism, there is a coherent conception of collective consent available to us, continuous with the notion of individual consent familiar from discussions in medical and sexual ethics. The third claim is normative: (iii) Participants in debates about free, prior, and informed consent must keep this distinction in view. That is because a group's ability to give or withhold consent, and not only participate in making decisions, will play an important role in realising that collectives' right to self-determination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-determination for Aboriginal people in Australia has been a long sought after yet difficult objective to reach. The recently concluded Noongar Settlement in the state of Western Australia opens new opportunities and could potentially set a new benchmark for non-territorial autonomy and self-government for an Aboriginal community. The Noongar Settlement exceeds the more traditional settlements of a native title claim since it provides elaborate institutions for self-government albeit by way of private bodies corporate. The bodies corporate for the Noongar people would enable them to make and administer decisions; offer services; undertake management of public conservation areas; and advocate for the best interests of their community. This privatised form of self-government may not only provide new impetus to other land claim processes in Australia, it may also address the often-heard demands from Aboriginal people for a treaty to be entered into between themselves and the government of Australia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Aboriginal People of Australia are arguably the oldest uninterrupted community of indigenous peoples in the world, but they have not yet been heard in the corridors of power. Recently, a proposal arose from Aboriginal People to give them a 'voice' that would be elected to give advice to the federal government and promote their rights and interests. Several attempts have been made in the past to create an advisory body for Aboriginal People, but they have all failed. The question considered in this article is what lessons can be learnt from previous failed attempts, and what can be done to ensure the success of the proposed Voice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen increases in demands for secession via referenda. Catalonia, Kurdistan, Quebec, Scotland, South Sudan and other polities have seen this process as a means of resolving sovereignty disputes. There is however, considerable academic, political and legal argument against secession and this study will explore these objections and shall ask if secession is an automatic right. It shall also investigate such referenda, comparing how they are convoked and ratified, and the legal and political aftermath once they have been held – if indeed they have been permitted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasingly, territorial autonomy features centrally in constitutions that seek to accommodate minority groups. What is not clear, however, is the place of territorial autonomy under international law. While often lauded as a means to manage ethnicity and increasingly recognised as an institutional solution by the constitutions of many countries, the question remains as to whether territorial autonomy has a basis under international law. The quest for the basis of territorial autonomy under international law begins with Article 27 of the ICCPR, followed by a discussion on Article 25 of the ICCPR, common Article 1 of the ICCPR and ICESCR and finally customary international law. The article argues that international law does not provide the basis for minority groups to claim territorial autonomy. It does not, however, exclude the state from providing territorial autonomy as one positive measure it can take to ensure the protection of the rights of the minority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If home is where the heart is, then home for the Chagossian people is the Chagos archipelago. The story of the Chagos people is not very well known, but it is a story of injustice and of a legal and political battle to bring an end to this injustice. Evicted from their homes following a decision by the British and American Governments to construct an Anglo-American military base on one of the archipelago's islands, Diego Garcia, the Chagossians have fought in political and legal arenas for the right to return home for nearly 50 years. The basis for their demand to return home is well-founded under national and international legal principles. However, despite political and legal gains made throughout the years, the right to return home, remains elusive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Territorial autonomies are increasingly implemented as tools for regulating ethnic conflicts. Since there are successful as well as failed cases, the ongoing debate about a general conflict-solving potential is not a very fruitful one. The article turns towards the analysis of various factors affecting the success of conflict regulating autonomies. It is argued that successful conflict regulation highly depends on the scope of self-rule transferred to a rebelling group. It offers two approaches to measure the scope and success of autonomies and introduces the Autonomy Scope Index (asi). The relevance of the degree of autonomy is tested on the basis of a global data set on all conflict regulating autonomies since 1945 by using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (qca). The study shows that a substantial degree of self-rule is indeed a crucial condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Characterising the crises of Ethiopian state-society relations in the 20th century as resulting from ethnic/national oppression, proponents of the ‘question of nationalities’ who have been in control of state power since 1991, have devised an ethnic-based federal system that bestows the right to secession on every ethno-national group in the country. This article argues that the diagnosis of the problems of 20th century Ethiopia as only resulting from national oppression is counterfactual. The problems that drove the Ethiopian state close to the brink of collapse during the final decade of the last century resulted from a host of factors, to which the controversial fact of ‘ethnic oppression’ contributed only a small and instrumental part. The article seeks to show that bad governance and the unbearable economic and social misery of the Ethiopian people as a whole were the most important reasons for the state crises that were experienced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the current era of land grabbing and extractivism, political participation of indigenous peoples in their national and local affairs appears to be the crucial right to guarantee the exercise of their other rights. In the last decades, un bodies have increasingly stressed the need to improve indigenous participation in their domestic political arenas. How indigenous political participation may be recognised, operationalised, and exercised as a right, and be effective, however, remains to be discussed. Against this background, this article elaborates a proposal for a holistic approach to the right to political participation of indigenous peoples and demonstrates how it is rooted in international law, international human rights law, and international indigenous law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 20th century can be qualified as the century of self-determination. Both politically as legally, the concept of self-determination formed the most important justification for quests for territorial changes. In the present contribution, the many meanings of self-determination and its relationship with the concept of autonomy and with minority rights shall be examined. It shall be shown that although no right to secession outside the colonial context can be discerned the claims for secession to be heard in several parts of Europe are nonetheless of considerable relevance for international law. And contrary to what is mostly held to allow such claims to be expressed may eventually even strengthen state sovereignty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The legitimacy of secessionist movements has emerged as an important debate, while the protection of minorities within a democracy has become merely of peripheral interest to international law. My project suggests that the advent of universalized (minority) rights re-conceptualized the majority-minority relationship and its balance, reducing the possibilities of political processes to balance the relationship. What was construed as a redress for dichotomous relationships between the oppressor and the oppressed through (the right to) self-determination, became a discourse between minority (identity) rights and a democratic entitlement, post-colonially. These norms universalized a demand to rethink minority protection, no longer from the perspective of advantaged and disadvantaged; rather, to introduce perspectives of individuals polarized around a personal characteristic in their identity thus establishing/reinforcing the inferiority of their identity within the hierarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Basque and Catalan demands for legitimising political accommodation, solely on the basis of the democratic will of their residents, poses a significant challenge to the Spanish constitutional system. The core of the debate in this kind of conflict revolves around the so-called "right to decide" which commonly finds its expression in the capacity to hold a referendum over sovereignty matters. The path opened by Quebec, Scotland and other minority nations are considered by some to constitute evidence of the democratic need to include this right as a new accommodation formula. Incorporating a "sovereigntist proceeding" into the legal system(s) may pave the way to a new framework aimed at solving the significant constitutional problems that exist in Spain and other countries. I suggest that such a procedure could be incorporated and regulated in the existing legal systems and provide some guidelines that could be adopted when drafting the aforementioned regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The right to self-determination of peoples has become interconnected with the rights of ethnic groups, including the right to determine the group's own affairs and to participate in the decision-making process of the state. This article argues that a "people-centred" understanding of the right to self-determination is evolving in international law in response to emerging claims of non-traditional non-state actors such as ethnic groups. The case study of the establishment and continuing negotiations over the boundaries of the canton of Jura in Switzerland serves as an illustration of such a "people-centred" approach to self-determination. Findings suggest that the approach taken by the Bernese and Jurassians can serve as a role model for other ethnic groups in constitutional democracies with territorial claims. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last two decades have witnessed a growing global acknowledgement of indigenous rights, for instance manifested in the 2007 UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Nordic countries have all responded to the rights claims of the indigenous Sami people by establishing popularly elected Samediggis (Sami Parliaments) to serve as their representative bodies. Internationally, the Samediggis are often referred to as 'models' for indigenous self-governance and participation. Using in-depth interviews with politicians and civil servants, this article provides the first empirical study of the daily work of the Swedish Sámediggi, with a specific focus on its institutional design as a government agency with dual roles: as an administrative authority under the Swedish government and as a popularly elected representative body of the Sami people. We examine how these dual roles affect the work of the Sámediggi and if the Swedish Sámediggi safeguards the Sami right to self-determination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the end of the Cold War, autonomy arrangements have been increasingly perceived and used as tools for resolving ethno-political conflicts as well as part of the affirmation of indigenous claims and self-determination struggles. One important reason for this is that the all-or-nothing dichotomy of statehood and external self-determination seems to have sustained conflict at least as much as having resolved conflict. However, the theoretical underpinnings of territorial autonomy have not yet been elaborated in international law. While the Canadian Supreme Court started formulating some requirements of what it takes to have a "meaningful access to government" in the Reference re Secession of Quebec case, the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice seems to pull international law back into the perennial discussion of secession, this time dubbed "remedial". Territorial autonomy as an institution is about more than the division of competences between centre and periphery; it is about creating comprehensive structural solutions and processes of representation, accountability and decision-making. International law needs thus to engage seriously with the conditions influencing the quality, stability and adaptability of territorial autonomy arrangements. Among those are issues of timing; responses to the traumas of conflict; the quality of democratic involvement and institutional design; as well as the influence of external actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Sámi self-determination discourse has always been state-centric in its tendency to invoke the central role of the Nordic states in shaping national policies and legislation on Sámi rights. This article examines the meaning of Sámi self-determination from the perspective of Sámi women: how do Sámi women understand the concept, how do they evaluate the current efforts to implement self-determination by Sámi political institutions and what kind of forms their socio-political participation takes in contemporary Sámi society? It argues that Sámi self-determination is often understood in relational terms as discussed by Iris Marion Young. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper defends the legitimacy-positive impact of a “contextual-participation approach” to indigenous peoples' participation in international law-making. It argues that indigenous peoples' participation should be substantial where the issue being negotiated at the international level is of considerable interest to indigenous peoples and indigenous peoples have not consented to state representation. The “contextual-participation approach” to indigenous peoples' participation realises the justice in indigenous peoples' claims to remedial efforts to recognise their, mostly lost and historical, sovereignty, and to contemporary and evolving legal, and largely democratic, understandings of self-determination, as expressed, for example, in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. At the same time, it balances indigenous peoples' self-determination entitlements to full participation in international law making, as unjustifiably excluded sovereigns, with contemporary political realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This book review essay will employ David Lea's interesting ideas over how indigenous and traditional societies should relate themselves to economic globalisation for self-reflection regarding how we international legal scholars in general approach indigenous issues. Moreover, because Lea also outlines his views on how indigenous and traditional societies should improve their situation, it gives a good basis to think of an alternative model from the international legal viewpoint on how indigenous governance could be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese regional national autonomy (RNA) is stated as an institutional arrangement for safeguarding the specific rights of certain minority nationalities living concentrated in their inhabited areas. The combination of 'regional autonomy' and 'national autonomy', which is claimed to be the significant feature of this institution, has not yet been discussed in terms of the institutional design and legal techniques used. Taking a group rights perspective on the institutional arrangement of RNA, the paper explores the legal difficulties inherent in the combination of the two kinds of autonomy as suggested by the terms 'regional' 'national' 'autonomy'. This research exposes the conditions and limits of the existing legal mechanism under RNA and shows that the alleged right combination of two kinds of autonomy is difficult to logically expound from a group rights perspective. It discloses the problems of institutional design in addition to the faulty implementation of the Law on the Regional National Autonomy as the reason for the malfunction of RNA to achieve its stated purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article will explore the new developments regarding the Saami peoples of Northern Europe. In particular it will be focused on new legislation promulgated in Norway and the Draft Saami Convention and their right to self-determination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indigenous peoples experience some of the highest levels of poverty and marginalisation in the world. Land dispossession, forcible relocation and assimilationist programmes contributed to the destruction of indigenous peoples' social and political structures, resulting in physical and spiritual dislocation. Indigenous peoples' contemporary situation is understood by examining their historico-political and legal location, for example, colonial conquests underpinned by dubious legal doctrines, such as terra nullius and uti possidetis which crystallised European borders at decolonisation. Initially facilitating the expropriation of indigenous peoples' lands, international law has evolved to a point where accommodation of restitution is possible. Considering land as central to indigenous peoples' cultures, the article traces the process of acknowledging indigenous peoples' land rights, from the original state-centric position of denial and non-recognition, to one of gradual acceptance, catalysed by progressions in international and human rights law. The author questions whether this new era of 'partnership' and 'mutual respect' can alleviate the extreme conditions experienced by indigenous peoples worldwide, and, moreover, whether these emerging standards will adequately protect indigenous peoples' autonomy and control over their traditional lands in a time of impinging material and economic interests of states and other non-state entities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arguably, other forms of autonomy also exist than territorial autonomy with law-making powers, such as personal autonomy, cultural autonomy and functional autonomy as well as autonomies with administrative or regulatory powers. The existence of such diff erent forms of autonomy should be kept in mind when the term ‘autonomy’ is used and the context of the usage of the term should be made clear. In addition, the interface between territorial autonomy with law-making powers on the one hand, and federal organization on the other is explored, the point being that a more coherent theoretical approach to territorial autonomy on the one hand and federalism on the other should be developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article will examine three international processes wherein the right to self-determination of indigenous peoples has been taken up: the process whereby the United Nations (UN) General Assembly adopted the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN Declaration), the intention to negotiate a Nordic Saami Convention (Draft Convention) and the practice of the Human Rights Committee (HRC) in monitoring the observance of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Covenant). All of these processes have enunciated indigenous peoples' right to self-determination, but any claim to such a right has met with resistance from the states, with the reasons for such resistance examined here. The aim is to study why it is so difficult to insert indigenous peoples into international law as category and, in particular, to have states accept their right to self-determination. In the conclusions, it is useful to ask whether the problems experienced in promoting the right to self-determination of indigenous peoples are mere setbacks or whether they contain elements that might inform the international movement of indigenous peoples more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Versailles Treaty sought to protect minorities by giving them their own state. This practice, labelled 'self-determination' has changed guise considerably post World War II. Paramount to the emancipation of colonies, it came to be the concept that legitimated the 'rule of the people' over that of their colonial masters. However post-colonial 'self-determined' states are often manufactured entities forced into the strait-jacket of Westphalian statehood; and unlike the states that emanated from the Westphalian Treaty, were given no time to evolve by themselves. As a result these states often house disparate sets of minorities that go unrepresented within the Statist discourse. Further, these states have attempted to suppress their minorities through the various policies associated with nation-building. Today, with secession an increasingly attainable form of self-determination, the question arises as to whether these minorities have a right to form a separate state. The international law of self-determination suggests that this is a right of all peoples. It however leaves the parameters of this peoplehood undefined. This paper seeks to examine the discourse of minority rights within that of the international right to self determination. It seeks to trace the history of minority rights protection, and to examine the way in which minority rights are protected within current international law. In addition, it examines the parameters of 'peoplehood' and concludes by looking at two cases where disaffected minorities in a post-colonial state sought to form their own state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article revisits the collapse of Yugoslavia and the impact which the recognition policy of the European Community at the time may have had upon the international law of self-determination. It begins with an overview of the principle of self-determination and of its internal and external dimensions. It reviews briefly the history of the principle in particular its 'colonial' model. The article then chronicles the collapse of Yugoslavia and analyses the importance of human rights and the principle of democratic government in the recognition policy applied by the EC. It concludes that the application of new recognition criteria by the Community may have helped reshape the meaning of self-determination as an international legal right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the nature of religious minorities and the rights and guarantees accorded to them by public international law generally and, more specifically, international human rights law, particularly since 1945. It is not, though, simply a review of rights pertaining to the group's religious identity, for a difference in religion may reflect the group's sense of national identity. To that end, the rights of religio-nationalist minorities generally are examined: it includes case studies of the ICCPR, the OSCE, the ECHR, the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, 1995, and the Anglo-Irish Frameworks for the Future. The conclusion, moreover, moves on to consider how international law might best treat religious minorities in order to meet the varied needs of all the parties, that is, the group, the State, the individual members of the minority and majority populations and the international community. It also considers how far law alone can satisfy those varied needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]