ECMI is currently facilitating a clarification process on the concept of non-territorial autonomy (NTA). By pooling cases a research team has taken one more step towards concrete minority policy recommendations.
The ‘NTA research network’ was gathered in Budapest on 11-12 May. This time the network was convened jointly by the Tom Lantos Institute and ECMI, while the work was led by Tove Hansen Malloy and Alexander Osipov of ECMI.
“People are eager to find solutions to minorities’ claims,” explains Dr. Alexander Osipov, who is leading ECMI’s Justice & Governance cluster:
“In this case, our role is to identify models where autonomy is not based on territory.”
And this is why the research network was gathered: to identify models and paradigms of NTA which have been applied in Europe. More narrowly, the purpose was to extract policy recommendations for application in societies where ethnic and cultural minorities seek the right to decide and manage their own affairs.
“We are there to help with recommendations and to describe advantages and risks to the policy makers,” Osipov sums up.
Osipov foresees that exposing certain cases and recommendations could be interesting at a number of destinations throughout Europe, possibly including Hungary and Western Balkans.
Publications in the funnel
The Budapest participants submitted short papers describing one individual case each. More publications are expected as a result of the clarification process and the papers. Publications will deliver practice-oriented and rights-based analysis of cases with related recommendations for the relevant stakeholders.
