The Historical Evolution of the International Protection of Religious Minorities. Although the norms specifically protecting religious minorities in modern international law are not into force anymore, this chapter shows that in contemporary international law some other norms can be interpreted as indirectly safeguarding religious minorities. After a preliminary attempt to define the notion of ‘minority’ according to international
law, in the first part of the paper a legal-historical approach is adopted. The conventional (and maybe customary) norms directly protecting religious minorities in the modern age are assessed. Attention is also paid to the ‘minority system’ instituted under the aegis of the League of Nations in the first half of the XX century. In its second part, the essay deals with international norms that nowadays indirectly safeguard religious minorities, underlining how many minority groups today are oppressed only or above all because of their religion (e.g., Rohingya in Myanmar). First and foremost, religious minorities can take advantage from the conventional norms concerning the general protection of persons belonging to a minority group of any sort. Moreover, religious minorities can benefit from the protection that the main human rights treaties usually grant to any human person through their provisions on the freedom of religion and on the prohibition of any form of discrimination. Eventually, some customary international norms (such as that prohibiting genocide) could also be intended as safeguarding religious minorities.
