MINELRES: ECMI Newsletter No 27, June 2003

[MINELRES moderator]

Original sender: William McKinney <mckinney@ecmi.de>


ECMI Newsletter No. 27
June 2003

CONTENTS
------------------------------
1. Upcoming Activities and Events in July 2003
2. Highlights in June 2003
3. We introduce...the Complex Power-Sharing Project
4. News from ECMI Regional Offices
5. Final ECMI/EBLUL Report for European Commission on Minority Languages
in Europe-URL Update
6. New acquisitions of the ECMI Library
-------------------------------

------------------------------
1. Upcoming Activities and Events in July 2003
------------------------------

Framework convention Project. First Commentators' Meeting.
Kompanietor, 14 and 15 July.

ECMI Kosovo: Third Standing Technical Working Group Civic
Forum. Third week of July.

http://www.ecmi.de/doc/events.html

------------------------------
2. Highlights in June 2003
------------------------------

ECMI NGO Network in Macedonia. Activity Review by Coordinating Body, 31
May to 2 June

http://www.ecmingonet.org.mk/


Minority Ombudsman Project-First Meeting of the Team of Experts.
Kompanietor, 19 and 20 June.

The first meeting of the Team of Experts set up within the Minority
Ombudsman project was held on 19 and 20 June 2003 at the seat of ECMI in
Flensburg. The Team of Experts is composed of Mr. Bjarke W. Botcher
(Adviser, Commissioner of the Council of the Baltic Sea States on
Democratic Development), Mr. Robert D. Dunbar (Senior Lecturer in Law,
University of Glasgow), Dr. Kristin Henrard (Senior Lecturer, Department
of International and Constitutional Law, University of Gronningen), Dr.
Andrea Krizsan (Research Fellow, Center for Policy Studies, central
European University), Dr. Birgitte Kosof Olsen (Head of the National
Department, Danish Institute for Human Rights), and Mr. Alan Phillips
(Former Director of Minority Rights Group International, Member of the
FCNM Advisory Committee).

For further information about the project see:

http://www.ecmi.de/doc/projects_action_3.html

ECMI Kosovo "Schools of Politics"-First Workshop. Joint project of the
Council of Europe and ECMI. First week of June.

ECMI Kosovo Expert Committee for Integration and Return, 13th Meeting, 4
June.

http://ecmikos.org

-----------------------------------
3. We introduce...the Complex Power-Sharing Project
-----------------------------------

Resolving Self-Determination Disputes through Complex Power-Sharing

Aims

This project seeks to both present and analyse novel ways of overcoming
self-determination conflicts through complex power-sharing arrangements.
Situated at the interface between international law and politics, this
project considers recent cases of attempted settlements: Northern
Ireland, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Gagauzia/Moldova, South
Ossetia/Georgia, Bougainville/Papua New Guinea and
Mindanao/Phillippines. The overarching aim of the project is to gain an
understanding of how complex power-sharing operate and what their
success and failure depend upon. On the basis of these conclusions, the
project hopes to generate practical policy recommendations for future
negotiators of complex power-sharing arrangements. The project also aims
to advance existing power-sharing theory beyond the traditional
consociationalist-integrationist divide and highlight the multi-level
complexity of contemporary power-sharing practice.
 
Relevance

Over the past decade the number of self-determination disputes
throughout the world has grown rapidly, and various international actors
have been deployed to help resolve them. These have tended to attempt to
either bring about effective proportional representation of the
conflicting groups or seek their integration. More recently, attempts to
resolve such disputes have become more complex, seeking to construct
multi-layered regimes of power-sharing across a broad range of public
authority and in response to varying circumstances. There has until now
been little examination of these innovations. The project is an attempt
to plug that research gap and provide recommendations to guide future
policy.

Project Outputs

The project will yield two books. The first book covers the eight case
studies. Each individual case study analyses the genealogy of the
complex power-sharing agreement and its implementation across various
layers of public authority. The second volume will take a comparative
approach to key structrual issues which cut across all case studies and
include, inter alia, democratic practices, the administration of
justice, economic policies and the protection of human and minority
rights.

Preliminary Findings

A key discovery of the project thus far is that all settlements examined
feature a mixture of consociational, integrative and autonomy-based
elements. Indeed, across all the case studies the project has detected a
subtle mix of structures of co-decision by ethnic groups (consociation),
areas of principal decision by ethnic groups (autonomy, territorial or
functional), mechanisms that are meant to encourage public decisions on
the basis of interests, rather than appurtenance to an ethnic group
(integrative), the application of safeguard mechanisms (human and
minority rights), the application of dispute settlement mechanisms in
cases of contested hierarchies of authority, and the involvement of the
international layer of decision-making. The international involvement
varies greatly in all eight case studies. However, certain aspects
feature prominently when evaluating the impact of international
involvement on a complex power-sharing situation. The lack of democratic
scrutiny of the international administration in the case of Bosnia and
Kosovo, for instance, seems to explain some of the obstacles for a
successful implementation of the respective complex power-sharing
arrangement. This leads to the question whether local ownership is at
risk when international involvement is too prominent and what long-term
effects this has. As the case studies under consideration cover a
diverse range of political situations from post-war transition,
protracted civil war, post-communism transition to nation-building, each
creates a widely differing set of pre-conditions for either an imposed
or a negotiated settlement.

Links with other Institutions

This project is a joint initiative of the Centre of International
Studies of the University of Cambridge, the Lauterpact Research Centre
for International Law, Cambridge, and the European Centre for Minority
Issues (ECMI). The project has created an active network of
internationally renowned scholars and practitioners in the field of
complex power-sharing. In all, the project involves more than 20
authors, 8 case-study consultants and five permanent consultants. While
many of these are based at the three institutions involved, a
significant number have been drawn from other institutions around the
globe.

Funding

Funding for the project has come from the Carnegie Corporation of
New York.

Follow-up project

In spring 2003, the Carnegie Corporation of New York announced that they
would be funding a follow-up project that aims to apply lessons of
recent power-sharing settlements to emerging unresolved
self-determination issues. This new project is envisaged to be one in
which the lessons of the first project are applied to new
self-determination disputes through the activities of small project
teams drawn from the active network of senior academics and
practitioners working on power-sharing issues.

Further information

For further information, see the project website at the following
internet address.

http://www.ecmi.de/cps/
 
------------------------------
4. News from ECMI Regional Offices
------------------------------

ECMI Network for the Improvement of Interethnic Relations in the
Republic of Macedonia

The Coordinating Body of the ECMI NGO Network met in Ohrid, Macedonia to
review the activities of the Network thus far and the implementation of
the action plan for the following six months. All six Regional Centres
reported on theikr activities, challenges and successes. The
sustainability of the Network was discussed at length. The review and
planning meeting took place from 31 May to 2 June.

Further news on the ECMI Network for the Improvement of Interethnic
Relations in the Republic of Macedonia can be found at the following
internet address.

http://www.ecmingonet.org.mk/


ECMI Kosovo/a Civil Society Project: the Standing Technical Working
Group and Expert Committees

The ECMI Expert Committee for Integration and Return held its 13th
meeting of the Standing Technical Working group on 4 June 2003 in
Prishtina, to discuss the Recommendations proposed by the Committee. The
meeting consisted of two sessions, on the International and Regional
Perspectives, each commencing with presentations of progress made,
present challenges and future plans in the area of Returns. After a
reading of the Recommendations, participants were given the opportunity
to make comments. There was wide media coverage of the event including
radio, TV and print media. A report in English, Serbian, and Albanian
will be distributed and made available on the ECMI Kosovo site
summarizing the day's debates as well as the final recommendations of
the expert committee.

Further news on the ECMI Kosovo/Kosova Civil Society Project can be
found at the following internet address.

http://ecmikos.org/
 
------------------------------
5. Final ECMI/EBLUL Report for European Commission on Minority
Languages in Europe-URL Update
------------------------------

Grin, Francois, ECMi and Tom Moring, EBLUL (2002).
Final Report Support for Minority Languages in Europe. 
Research Project Leaders: Francois Grin, ECMI & Tom Moring, EBLUL. 
Other principal researchers: Durk Gorter, Fryske Academy, Johan Haggman,
EBLUL, Donall O Riagain, EBLUL; Miquel Strubell, Universitat Oberta de
Catalunya. Brussels: European Commission, 242 pp.

http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/policies/lang/langmin/support.pdf


The purpose of this report is to provide the necessary instruments for
the orientation of European Union support to linguistic diversity. This
issue is addressed in a broader context, characterised by the existence
of other policies carried out at various levels (national, regional,
local) aimint to protect and promote regional and minority languages.


----------------------------------------
6. New acquisitions of the ECMI Library
-----------------------------------------

Bieber, Florian and Zidas Daskalovski. (2003). Understanding the War in
Kosovo. London: Frank Cass, 350 pp.

This book offers a comprehensive academic survey of developments in
Kosovo leading up to, during and after the war in 1999. It examines the
underlying causes of the war, the attempts by the international
community to intervent and the nature of the war itself. It critically
examines the international administration in Kosovo since June 1999 and
conceptualizes it within the relations of Kosovo to neighbours and as
part of the larger European strategy for southeastern Europe with the
stability pact. This book does not seek to promote a single
interpretation of the conflict and its aftermath, but brings together
intellecual arguments from all areas, including political science,
sociology, law, gender and media studies and economics. The contributors
are academics from Kosovo, Serbia, Europe, North America and beyond. The
book also includes a foreword by ECMI founding Director Stefan Troebst,
as well as contributions by Besnik Pula and Leon Malazogu, former ECMI
representatives in Kosovo.

Bieber, Florian (ed.) (2003). Montenegro in Transition: Problems of
Identity and Statehood. SEER Paperback 14. Baden-Baden: NOMOS, 198 pp.
ISBN 3-8329-0072-1

Now that the third Yugoslavia has ended and the new union of Serbia and
Montenegro emerged, it is apparent that one of the republics of this new
state remains largely unknown in Western Europe and North America. The
path of Montenegro has differed from the rest of former Yugoslavia
during the past decade. Montenegro, the smallest republic of former
Yugoslavia, emerged as the only republic not to be engulfed in armed
conflict. At the same time, it remained together with Serbia, part of
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and will continue to form a loose
union with Serbia for the coming three years. Montenegro is, however,
likely to continue its path towards being an independent player in the
politics of Southeastern Europe, a path it has pursued since 1998.

This book is closing an important gap in the literature on the former
Yugoslavia. As the first overview on political, historical and economic
developments in Montenegro during the past decade in English, it seeks
to offer a nuanced assessment of the difficulties encountered by
Montenegro during the violent disintegration of Yugoslavia. Researchers
from Montenegro and outside cover all major aspects for understanding
contemporary Montenegro; from its historical origins and the identity of
Montenegrin to political, economic studies and an overview of
minority-majority relations. In addition, the contributors survey the
recent dispute over Montenegrin independence and the consequence of the
Belgrade agreement from March 2002 on the future of the republic and its
partnership with Serbia. 

The book is not only of interest for those seeking to understand
contemporary Montenegro, but also for scholars and students interested
in the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the conflicts and post-war
transition the former Yugoslav space engages in.

Florian Bieber is a Senior Non-Resident Research Associate of the
European Centre for Minority Issues and an International Policy Fellow
with the Open Society Institute. He teaches at the Regional Masters
Program for Democracy and Human Rights at the University of Sarajevo and
at Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. He has worked
extensively on Montenegro as regional representative for the ECMI, based
in Belgrade. 

Contents: Preface  (Florian Bieber), Montenegrin politics since the
disintegration of Yugoslavia (Florian Bieber), The dispute over
Montenegrin independence (Beata Huszka), The Belgrade agreement: robust
mediation between Serbia and Montenegro (Wim van Meurs), Who are
Montenegrins? Statehood, identity and civic society (Srdja Pavlovic),
The economic development of Montenegro (Dragan Djuric), National
minorities in Montenegro after the break-up of Yugoslavia (Frantisek
Sistek and Bohdana Dimitrovova), Bibliography.

The book is available at any bookshop or by direct order to:

Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Waldseestr. 3-5, D-76530 Baden-Baden.
Fax: +49 7221 210 443 or nomos@nomos.de

http://ecmidb.aboutmedia.de/


We hope you enjoyed this twenty-seventh issue of the
ECMI Newsletter, and we hope you will remember to tell
interested colleagues about it.

If you have any comments or suggestions for improvement
of this newsletter, please contact William McKinney at:
mckinney@ecmi.de.