ABSTRACT
Since 1990, over 20 new states have been admitted to the United Nations. In order to measure up to the ethnic challenge, classical minorities politics must be reformed and be made a subject of international law and international relations. A substantial increase in the number of sovereign, internationally recognized states, and their admission to multilateral institutions—as the Baltic states were admitted to the United Nations and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE)—is apparently unstoppable. To single out the size of new states—that is to say, their population and territorial extent—as a central criterion of their viability, seems inappropriate. In most intra-state conflicts violations of human rights and international law form part of the agenda and force people to seek refuge. The indigenous peoples' right to self-determination, and own juridical powers is not respected by any Central American state. Collective rights are a centuries-old tradition in the political struggles of indigenous peoples, especially the Indians of Latin America.
