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Should the Council of the League of Nations Establish a Permanent Minorities Commission?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2013
Extract
The guarantee clause of the Polish Minorities Treaty, which is the model for the treaties signed by eight other states, is as follows: “Poland agrees that the stipulations in the foregoing articles, so far as they affect persons belonging to racial, religious, or linguistic minorities, constitute obligations of international concern and shall be placed under the guarantee of the League of Nations. They shall not be modified without the assent of a majority of the Council of the League of Nations. The United States, British Empire, France, Italy, and Japan agree not to withhold their assent from any modification in these articles which is in due form assented to by a majority of the Council of the League of Nations. Poland agrees that any member of the Council of the League of Nations shall have the right to bring to the attention of the Council any infraction, or danger of infraction, of any of these obligations, and the Council may thereupon take such action and give such direction as it may deem proper and effective in the circumstances. Poland further agrees that any difference of opinion as to questions of law or fact arising out of these articles between the Polish government and any one of the principal Allied and Associated Powers or any other Power, a member of the Council of the League of Nations, shall be held to be a dispute of an international character under Article 14 of the Covenant of the League of Nations. The Polish government hereby consents that any such dispute shall, if the other party thereto demands, be referred to the Permanent Court of International Justice. The decisions of the Permanent Court shall be final, and shall have the same force and effect as an award under Article 13 of the Covenant.”
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- Copyright © American Political Science Association 1933
References
1 The texts of all the treaties and of the declarations which obligate six other states in a similar manner may be found in Publications of the League of Nations, C. L. 110. 1927. I Annexe. For an analysis of the treaties and a description of the system of protection of minorities which has developed since the war, see Encyclopædia Britannica, 14th ed., article on “Minorities,” by the present director of the Minorities Section of the League of Nations Secretariat; Problems of Peace, 3rd series, Raymond N. Kershaw on “Protection of Minorities”; “The Protection of Minorities,” Geneva Special Studies, Sept., 1931.
2 For a fuller description of the procedure, see the works cited above, note 1, and L. of N. C. 8. M. 5. 1931. I.
3 The report of the London committee, the comments of various governments, and the minutes of the Council meeting in Madrid may be found in O.J., 1929, Special Supplement 73.
4 The proposal rests on the basis of dissatisfaction with the execution by a political body of treaty provisions which, it is believed, are capable of judicial enforcement.
5 The best example is the proposal of the German government which is discussed above. For others, see Report of the 34th Conference of the International Law Association, pp. 311-349; 36th Conference, p. 289.
6 Professor Murray's resolution providing for a permanent commission, presented to the second Assembly, was withdrawn when he learned of the Council's action in creating the committees to examine petitions. Assembly Records (1921), Plenary Session, p. 838. In 1925, the Council's rapporteur on minorities, who had examined the question of the desirability of establishing a permanent commission, advised against it, and the Council did not discuss the matter. O.J., 1925, pp. 142–145.
7 O.J., 1929, Special Supplement 73, p. 11.
8 O.J., 1930, Special Supplement 90.
9 The Minorities Section keeps itself informed by means of a press information service in the Section, a member preparing weekly bulletins based on newspapers received from the minorities states; it keeps itself informed also by trips to the various countries, by visits which it receives from representatives of the various governments, from petitioners, and from other persons interested in the minorities question. See O.J., 1929, Special Supplement 73, p. 54.
10 It is also due to the prevailing opinion among those engaged in executing the guarantee that more can be gained by coöperation with the governments of the obligated states than by independent action on the part of League organs, and to the cautious attitude which characterizes the League organs which execute international agreements against individual states.
11 Report of the 34th Conference, pp. 311–349, especially pp. 342–348.
12 O.J., 1929, April, p. 586; also p. 536.
13 O.J., 1929, Special Supplement 73, pp. 13, 63.
14 Ibid., pp. 63, 84–85. The London committee objected to the suggestion of the Netherlands government, which would obviate one of the possibly bad features of M. Dandurand's proposal, to permit representatives of states particularly interested in minorities to participate in the Council committee's examination of minorities questions in an advisory capacity only.
15 For discussion of the desirability of taking the guarantee out of political hands, see especially Les Minorités Nationales, a periodical published by the International Union of League of Nations Associations, Brussels. See also the statement by ProfessorMurray, Gilbert, Problems of Peace, 5th series, pp. 178–182Google Scholar; Levy, Rudolf, “Minorities and International Law,” in Minorities and Boundaries, edited by Lessing, Otto E. (The Hague, 1931), p. 153Google Scholar.
16 See note 9 above.
17 For the proposal made by Count Apponyi and the statement of the rapporteur, O.J., 1926, p. 141, p. 226 ff. See also the letter of the Hungarian government to the London committee, O.J., 1929, Special Supplement 73, p. 80; the statement of the London committee, ibid., p. 62, and the Monthly Summary, September, 1931, p. 245Google Scholar.
18 O.J., 1929, Special Supplement 73, p. 62.
19 O.J., 1929, Special Supplement 73, p. 36.
20 O.J., 1926, July, pp. 986–988.
21 A similar proposal was made by Joseph L. Kunz in an address before the 34th Conference of the International Law Association, Proceedings, 1926, p. 342.
22 The opposing views are set forth in the letter of the German government, O.J., 1929, Special Supplement 73, p. 75, and in the letter sent by the minorities states jointly, ibid., p. 70. See also the minutes of the discussion of the Eleventh Assembly, Sixth Committee, O.J., 1930, Special Supplement 90.
23 Documents cited in above footnote and O.J., 1930 (July), Letter of Czechoslovak Government. Also O.J., April, 1929, p. 512.
24 See page 259.
24 Statistics on Minorities Petitions
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