论“少数人”概念的界定

On the Definition of Minority

要研究少数人的权利及其国际保护问题,首先需要对"少数人"这一概念进行界定,以明确应当受到国际保护的少数人权利的受益者即主体之具体所指。几个世纪以来,国际社会十分关注和重视少数人权利的保护问题,对于少数人概念的界定也作过不懈的努力,但由于少数人定义问题非常复杂,一直没有形成一个准确、明晰、被普遍认可的少数人的定义。如果能够综合考虑世界各地各类少数人的特点及少数人定义的各种主客观要素,并吸收既有的各种定义的长处,还是有可能提出一个比较适当的少数人的定义的。

Defining the term minority is essential in studying the minority＇s rights and international protection because a clear definition decides who are the subjects or beneficiaries of these rights. In recent centuries, the international world has attached great importance to the protection of minority＇s rights and persistently attempted a clear definition of the term. Nevertheless, no exact, clear or universally accepted idea has been reached because of the complexity of the word minority. If the characteristics of varieties of minorities throughout the world and various subjective and objective factors in defining the term can be synthetically taken into account with the good points of the existing definitions, it is possible to bring forth an appropriate definition.