HOW RIGHT IS THE RIGHTS OF CHOICE? CONSTITUTIONAL AND OTHER LEGAL REMEDIES IN THE CASE OF THE GREEK MINORITY IN ALBANIA
The respect of minorities’ rights (and especially national minorities as part of them) has always been a challenge in both international and domestic legislation. One of the most important features of belonging to a national minority is the concept of self-declaration, which is associated with both objective and subjective criteria. Despite being sanctioned inter alia by the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities (FCPNM), both notions, but especially the subjective one, comprise within themselves not well-established social, political, and legal concepts and procedures. In the present article, we shall try to analyze what those criteria are and to what extent the State can interfere with them. We shall also try to see and evaluate the limits of both objectivism and subjectivism together with the advantages and disadvantages of the right of choice as a result thereof, with a special focus
on the Greek national minority in Albania and the respective legislation.
Keywords: national minorities, FCPNM, right of choice, objective and subjective criteria, Greek minority, Albania.
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