 The book ”International obligations and National Debates. Minorities around the Baltic Sea”, published by the Åland Islands Peace Institute and edited by Sia Spiliopoulou Åkermark has recently been reviewed in two scholarly journals.The essays in the book offer an analysis of minority policies in the ten countries around the Baltic Sea. The authors represent law, political science, linguistics, history, sociology and other disciplines. In "Nordisk tidskrift for menneskerettigheter", Caroline Taube concludes that different definitions of the term ”minority” can be political hot stuff, and therefore also contributes to the important debate about minority questions. Caroline Taube highlights the presentation about Finland, which gives a very good overview of minority issues in the country. She states that the book includes a lot of highly interesting reading, and she praises the interdisciplinary approach. Read the whole review here [pdf 48K]. Anders Fogelklou reviews the book in "Review of Central and East European Law". He finds the contributions about the situation in the post-communist countries of special interest, and describes the texts about Estonia, Latvia and Russia as excellent. Anders Fogelklou states that the volume gives an excellent insight in minority problems and minority legislation around the Baltic Sea. “The book should be read by all interested in minority problems and their legislative solutions”, he concludes. Read the whole review here [pdf 200K]. |
The Åland Islands Peace Institute conducts projects and research into peace and conflict issues in a broadly defined sense from the vantage-point of Åland and the special status that Åland enjoys under international law. The institute focuses on security, autonomy and minorities.