CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2013
| Author | Dakwar, Jalal George |
|---|---|
| Title | Effective Participation and the Palestinian Minority in Israel |
| Summary | Effective participation of national minorities in public life is an “essential component of a peaceful and democratic society.” The concept intends to promote participation among minorities in public life and to fulfill states’ obligation to protect minority rights as required by international human rights treaties and regional conventions. The same principle suggests that no nation or person possesses rights that are superior to those of another nation or person, and that it is essential to ensure the personal liberty and economic and social rights of every individual for freedom, equality and justice. Ensuring such rights demands protection from discrimination, persecution, protection and promotion of identity and, inter alia, contains positive obligations on state parties to afford effective participation in public life, in order to enable minorities to maintain their own identity and characteristics . The Palestinian minority in Israel must be able to participate effectively both in term of the opportunity to make substantive contributions to decision-making processes as well as in terms of the effect of those contributions. However, this work argues that excessive discriminatory laws and policies toward the Palestinian minority in Israel make effective participation irrelevant. Their transformation from an indigenous majority community into a minority living in its historic homeland with a hostile and all-encompassing Israeli-Palestinian conflict resulted in extreme structural discrimination policies and national oppression, with far-reaching implications. Through the lens of the experience of the Palestinian minority in Israel, this research defines and explains the principle of equality as a norm recognized in general international law and the concept of effective participation. In addition, the research will examine the dichotomy between minority rights and the concept of democracy when implementing laws and policies. Finally, this work proposes that mechanisms such as minority veto could generate the opportunities for consultation and participation so essential and so lacking for the Palestinian minority in Israel. |
| Supervisor | Macklem, Patrick |
| Department | Legal Studies LLM |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2013/dakwar_jalal.pdf |
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