UN Declaration on the Rights of Minorities
In 1948, at the time of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN General Assembly declared its intention to deal specifically with the rights of minorities. In 1992 the UN General Assembly adopted (in its legally non-binding resolution 47/135) the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, which was the first attempt by the international community to provide a detailed definition of the rights of minorities at the universal level. The declaration links the protection of minority rights with the protection of human rights and stresses the importance of minority protection for the political and social stability of states. The text uses an individualist language and proposes the recognition of the right of persons belonging to minorities to participate in cultural, social, religious, economic and public life, to maintain cross-border contacts, to set up their own organisations and to use their own languages, and the obligation of states to respect these rights.