Dec 18 minorities rights day

Minority rights:
         Minority rightsare the normalindividual rightsas applied to members of racial,ethnic,class,religious,linguisticorsexual minorities; and also thecollective rightsaccorded to minority groups. .Minority rights may also apply simply toindividual rightsof anyone who is not part of amajority decision.Civil rights movementsoften seek to ensure that individual rightsare not denied on the basis of membership in a minority group, such as globalwomen's rightsand globalLGBT rightsmovements, or the various racial minority rights movements around the world (such as theAfrican-American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968)).

History:
         The issue of minority rights was first raised in 1814, at theCongress of Vienna, which discussed the fate of German Jews and especially of the Poles who were once again partitioned up. The Congress expressed hope that Prussia, Russia, and Austria would grant tolerance and protection to their minorities, which ultimately they disregarded, engaging in organized discrimination. The Congress of Paris in 1856 paid special attention to the status of Jews and Christians in the Ottoman Empire. In BritainWilliam E Gladstonemade outrage regarding the massacres of Bulgarians by the Ottoman Empire a major campaign issue and demanded international attention. TheCongress of Berlinin 1878 dealt with the status of Jews in Romania, especially, and also Serbia, and Bulgaria. On the whole these 19th century congresses failed to impose significant reforms. Russia was especially active in protecting Orthodox Christians, and Slavic peoples under the control of the Ottoman Empire. Persecution or discrimination against specific minorities was increasingly the subject of media attention, and the Jews began to organize to protest the pogroms in Russia. However, there was little international outrage regarding other minorities, such as the blacks in the southern United States. No one paid much attention to the attacks on Armenians until it became large-scale genocide in 1915, and even then nothing was done.The first minority rights were proclaimed and enacted by the revolutionary Parliament of Hungary in July 1849.Minority rights were codified in Austrian law in 1867.