ABSTRACT
Former UN Secretary-General Boutros Ghali, reporting in pursuance o f the statement adopted by the Summit Meeting o f the Security Council, said that the international community was entering an era compounded by one o f the greatest political upheavals which was “marked by uniquely contradictory trends” . He focused on the “new assertions o f nationalism and sovereignty”, and their resultant detrimental effects on the cohesion of the nation-States.1 Though minority groups’ claim for greater political power with shared-sovereignty in the form o f autonomy is not a new development, a sudden burst o f such claims by ‘re-energised and contesting ethnic groups’ in recent times has surprised many statesmen and jurists alike (Thomberry, 1998:97). “Often ethnic minorities”, states Henry J. Steiner (1991:1539-1559), “have understandably viewed those regimes as necessary not simply to assure their cultural survival, but principally to avoid oppression and violence” . Such claims are political in nature and more controversial than traditionally understood ‘minority rights’, some o f which, i.e., religious, linguistic and cultural rights, are now enunciated in article 27 o f the ICCPR. Nor is such a right enshrined in the UN Declaration on Minorities, 1992, (see generally Thomberry, 1993:11-71) though the Draft UN Declaration on the Rights o f Indigenous Peoples 2 (draft Declaration on indigenous peoples), recognises indigenous peoples’ right to autonomy.
