Law and politics for the protection of minorities

According to estimates, 350 minorities live in Europe, which corresponds to 100 million people. In the European Union, there are 190 minorities . The EU recognizes 24 official languages, whereas up to 40 million people speak more than 60 regional minority languages. National issues lead to conflicts in many places, from Spain to Great Britain, Bosnia and Ukraine. During this course, current european problems in the area of the protection of national, ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities will be discussed and analyzed on the basis of evaluations by the relevant monitoring bodies of the Council of Europe. The course is organized interactively, on the basis of case studies and from the perspective of the respective state representatives and international monitoring bodies. Overall, the seminar is dedicated to the interaction of law and politics using the example of the minorities protection. It aims at a deeper understanding of the complexity of ethnopolitical and intercultural (identity) conflicts and their resolution through instruments of national and international law