In all states relations among ethnic groups are different. As many
as several thousands languages are spoken in some 200 countries
worldwide, and this indicates of a number of different ethnic
communities in a territory of one state only. As there is no a
universal model, every country must find its own for the protection
of the rights of national minorities.National minorities can be
defined as culturally distinct groups with specific languages,
customs and cultures. Minority national councils in Serbia were
established in 2008 but minority rights as such are supported by
other laws.
Some questions and comments made by students:
1. A man from the Hungarian National Council was
knocking at people's doors forcing them to enroll themselves at
their list.
2. The position of Hungarians in Vojvodina is much
better than that of Serbs in Medvedja.
"Human Rights between Universalism and
Relativism; Individual and Collective Rights" (Lecturer: Prof.
Aleksandar Boškovic)
The fiercest anthropological disputes were those
between Herder and Voltaire. Herder was advocating the study of
German nation and tradition, as well as that every nation has a
spirit of its own, the spirit of the people (particularistic
thought). Unlike him, Voltaire advocated universality that defied a
nation's essence or spirit. Such disputes are still on.
It was only after the WWII that human rights were
placed at the international agenda. American anthropologists
protested, claiming that universality could not be imposed even on
the domain of human rights as that would lead to authoritarianism.
By developing the theory of ethnos anthropologists were involved in
the WWI. Walter Millmann developed the theory about the specificity
of the German nation, which should be researched and, hence, the
German nation separated from other nations, inferior ones.
Anthropologist Eugen Fischer was in charge of lawmaking in the Nazi
Germany.
Professor pursued with the case study of Ratko
Mladic. According to it, Mladic became a cult figure in Serbia only
after ICTY raised an indictment against him. And that was because
"ICTY is considered as an alien body interfering into our affairs."
Some questions and comments made by students:
1. Can the Srebrenica genocide be bigger than the
genocide of Indians? No one has ever tried Americans for this
genocide, the same as for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. What about
justice?
2. How would you comment Haradinai's acquittal?
3. What is your stance on Kosovo? (Professor
replied that the realities testify that Kosovo was no longer a part
of Serbia. The student retorted, "Are you aware you may end up in
jail for such a statement?")
4. And what about human rights in Kosovo?
5. If there is no legal frame, can Vojvodina
secede from Serbia couple of years from now?
6. We are discussing Kosovo but none of us has
been there. For people in Kosovo secession is not unconstitutional.
All they want to is to survive.
7. Albanians in Albania live in fear of the Kosovo
government. |
