The Mechanism of the protection of racial, national, and religious minorities within the League of Nations from the perspective of Czechoslovakia
Abstrakt
The study deals with the protection of racial, national, and religious minorities within the League of Nations in interwar period from the perspective of Czechoslovak diplomacy. Paris Peace Conference concluded series of agreements and created a new system of international legal and political arrangements in Europe, including the system of protection of national, racial and religious minorities in newly established states, like Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia or Romania.
The significant context of international debates in Paris comprised worries that minorities, such as German or Hungarian, might become a pretext for armed conflicts. The Minorities obligations for Czechoslovakia were based upon the so called Minority protection treaty with Poland (June 1919) and related to the completion of a Peace Treaty with Austria.
It set the obligations especially for national (language) minorities and dealt with the question of state citizenship, language rights, education and civic rights. Special provisions covered also the autonomy for Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia.
The study deals with the gradual development of the system of individual petitions within the Secretariat General, Minority Committee of Three and Council of the League of Nations using mainly the archive materials of the League of Nations and Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affaires.