Protection of Cultural and Religious Minorities

This volume contains two sections: the first one collects the proceedings of the International Workshop on the “Protection of Cultural and Religious Minorities for International Peace and Security” held at the Italian Center for Higher Defence Studies on the 9th and 10th May 2019. The second section includes some studies which, though not presented in that occasion, have been deemed to well supplement the topics addressed during the Workshop. The aim of the present publication is to offer the readers a multi-perspective on cultural and religious minorities’ protection; the historical perspective, with special regard to religious diversities in the Middle East; the perspective of international law which focuses on the legal evolution of the protection of minorities’ rights and eventually the prosecution of atrocities targeting minority groups; and the perspective of comparative law which gets into the status, de facto and de jure, of minorities within some paradigmatic legal orders. At the same time, the fact that contributors are not only scholars from different disciplines but also practitioners daily engaged in the efforts toward a full equality between cultural and religious diversities should engage readers with the theoretical and practical complexity of the topic. Accepting religious diversity and different cultural models has its ethical and juridical foundation in the centuries-old principles of tolerance and equality put forward by the French Enlightenment, and that have been perfectly transposed in numerous national constitutions and universalized by the UN conventions on human rights. Unfortunately, fanaticism, intolerance, terrorism are still opposed to these principles as some recent situations of persecution have tragically evidenced. Within this scenario, the volume intends to give further attention on the goals achieved in protecting cultural and religious minorities as well as on the persistent uncertainties and limitations which need to be faced and overcame.