Autonomy Arrangements in the World

The 2023 webinar of our Annual Webinar Series "Discussing World Autonomies" focuses on "Autonomous Island Regions, Indigenous Peoples, and Self-Determination: Insights from Greenland and New Caledonia". Maria Ackrén (Associate Professor in Political Science at the University of Greenland) and Elisabeth Alber (Senior Researcher at the Institute for Comparative Federalism, Eurac Research) discussed with Sergiu Constantin (Senior Researcher at the Institute for Minority Rights, Eurac Research) the particularities and similarities of the two case studies. You can watch here the recording of the webinar.

The 11th episode features ECMI's Senior Researcher Dr. Felix Schulte talking to Dr. Dawn Walsh about territorial autonomy as a solution to violent ethnic conflicts. Specifically, they look into the role of guarantee mechanisms and independent commissions in such arrangements. Dr. Dawn Walsh is an Assistant Professor in the School of Politics and International Relations, and Director of the Institute for British-Irish Studies at University College Dublin. She is also currently the holder of an Irish Research Council Laureate Award for her project 'Power-sharing and independent commissions in post-conflict societies'. You can watch here the recording of this episode.

The aim of this open-access textbook is to introduce, for the first time, the students to a comprehensive reading offering the opportunity to learn more on different aspects and issues around the multifaceted and evolving concept of non-territorial autonomy (NTA), which is a group rights model to deal with national diversity within states. The textbook comprises thematic topics and a selection of multi-and interdisciplinary as well as comparative overviews of an emerging research field. It also demonstrates from different angles—theoretical considerations, historical background, and practical implementation—the possibilities of NTA in addressing cultural, ethnic, religious, and linguistic differences. It thereby provides non-territorial solutions to one of the key societal challenges in contemporary societies. Read more...

This open access volume assesses Non-Territorial Autonomy (NTA) in terms of its practical capacity to support the linguistic, cultural, and educational rights of national minority groups across Europe. Its numerous detailed empirical studies, one of which uses the Framework Convention on National Minorities reporting as a benchmark, give a picture of the extent (or otherwise) to which international minority rights standards are actually being realized through various NTA arrangements. In keeping with the principles laid out in these foundational documents, the contributions to this volume acknowledge that when it comes to the effective delivery of linguistic, cultural and educational rights, NTA is best regarded not as an alternative but as a complement to territorially based arrangements. Read more...