CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2009
| Author | Küss, Adrienn |
|---|---|
| Title | Mediation in Minority Rights: Exploring Possibilities in Hungary |
| Summary | This thesis aims to explain how minority rights related conflicts in Hungary could be most effectively resolved through mediation. Mediation is a form of conflict resolution that offers an alternative to litigation. In relation to minority rights related conflicts, this conflict resolution instrument has the potential to reduce strategic and institutionalized discrimination, thereby aiding the process of minorities’ reintegration into society. In more general terms, mediation contributes to the development and more effective implementation of human rights standards. The Roma population, the largest minority group of Hungary, experiences serious institutionalized discrimination, which contributes to the intensification of social tensions and to the widening gap between Roma and non-Roma populations. Based on the potential benefits this method of conflict resolution offers, I argue that mediation should be added to the applicable tools of the Hungarian Parliamentary Commissioner for National and Ethnic Minority Rights with the mandate to mediate certain minority rights related conflicts between state actors and individuals. I also maintain that within this Office, a Task Force on Minority Conflict Mediation should be established with the ability to mediate minority rights related conflicts between individuals. The office of the OSCE’s High Commissioner on National Minorities should serve as a model for how this specific activity of the Ombudsman is to be carried out in practice. After demonstrating that mediation is an adequate tool for resolving the most pressing Roma-related conflicts due to its potential to create social change by transforming public perception and eliminating the existing prejudices towards Roma communities, I analyze the activities of the Office of the OSCE’s HCNM, which I believe may serve as a model for mediation activities in Hungary. In the last chapter, I explain how mediation could be carried out in practice in Hungary in order to resolve minority rights related conflicts in a more effective way. |
| Supervisor | Marie-Pierre Granger |
| Department | Legal Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2009/kuss_adrienn.pdf |
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