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Vol. 41 (2021)
Jubilee article

Minority Protection in German-Polish Relations – Historical Influence and Current Relevance

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  • Andreas Kulick
Andreas Kulick
Eberhard Karls University Tübingen

Published 2023-01-31

Keywords

  • minorities,
  • inter-war period,
  • 1991 Polish-German Treat,
  • Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities

Copyright (c) 2022 Polish Yearbook of International

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Minority Protection in German-Polish Relations – Historical Influence and Current Relevance. (2023). Polish Yearbook of International Law, 41, 63-71. https://doi.org/10.24425/PYIL.2022.142339

Abstract

The anniversaries of the 1970 Warsaw and the 1990 2+4 Treaties give occasion to revisit the matter of minority protection in German-Polish relations. The
interwar system established a problematic unevenness that tainted its acceptance, particularly from the Polish perspective. After 1990 the minority issues achieved an increased, albeit moderate, relevance in German-Polish relations. To some extent the 1991 Polish-German Treaty on Good Neighbourly Relations and Friendly Co-operation retains the unevenness of the inter-war period, as Art. 20(1) recognizes a German minority in Poland, but refuses to acknowledge a Polish minority in Germany. However, currently the thorniest issues concern various situations related to the “Silesians” in Poland, which the Polish government does not recognize as a protected minority under the European Council Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.

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