Advancing Economic and Social Rights, Including Education in the Context of European Minorities

This article reviews international developments which took place in 2019 with a focus on economic and social rights of members of European minorities, including the right to education. The developments are reviewed based on the practice of the UN, CoE, as well as EU organizations and their bodies whose activities relate to human rights issues. This review also covers the documents of the said bodies adopted in 2018 yet having remained non-promulgated until 2019.
In a nutshell, probably the most significant developments—in terms not only of the greater number of cases resolved but also of new rules proclaimed—occurred within the European Court of Human Rights (the ECtHR). In particular, the ECtHR used the notion of “institutional racism” in connection with police violence against Roma individuals in the case Lingurar v. Romania. The Court also articulated an extremely limited ratione materiae right of obtaining psychiatric treatment in a minority language in Rooman v Belgium. Advancements include developments at UNESCO which adopted the first-ever international treaty on higher education and continued efforts in approximating diversity in education by elaborating on multi-language education