Freedom of association and minority diversity in democratic society — Aspects of the European Court of Human Rights’ case law

Resumen

The European Convention on Human Rights is argued to be inadequately equipped to deal with minority claims due to its lack of explicit minority rights. It does, however, enshrine several individual human rights of crucial significance for minority diversity. Central among these is Article 1 of the Convention on the right to freedom of association, which has become one of the main vehicles through which certain groups of individuals seek to affirm and manifest a minority consciousness, the recognition of minority status or, the preservation of their ethnic, cultural, linguistic, etc., identity. The European Court of Human Rights, for its part recognised the particular importance of freedom of association for persons belonging to minorities and for minorities as such and produced a comprehensive jurisprudence, which provides that in democratic societies distinguished by the principles and values of political and cultural pluralism and tolerance, such associations should freely pursue their aims unless they incite to violence and/or disrespect for democratic rules. This being the case, the Strasbourg Court strongly rejects state and national judicial approaches that seek to limit this field of freedom on the basis of security arguments or other reasons of public interest, promoting instead the idea of an open and inclusive society, where minority identities can be the subject of free public debate and their proponents can unhindered claim their recognition and protection.