1. THE INSTITUTIONAL AND LEGISLATIVE ACCOMMODATION OF NATIONAL MINORITIES IN FEDERAL AND UNITARY SYSTEMS: A COMPARISON BETWEEN ROMANIA AND CANADA
Sabrina Sotiriu
School of Political Studies
Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ottawa

2. WHY THIS THEME AND TOPIC
Inequality in the amount and quality of research available, favoring Canada;
Personal familiarity with both case studies, as well as linguistic advantages in dealing with primary sources;
Important to establish a concise, apolitical and historical evolution of the accommodation of rights of minorities in both case studies
A more general interest in national minorities in the developed world.

3. NATIONAL MINORITIES
lack of a single international definition of national minorities;
UN-related: group(s) of persons traditionally living in the state in a non-dominating position, members of which, being national of this state, have ethnic, religious, or language particularities different from the rest of the population and who have a will to preserve their culture, tradition, religion or language;
EU-related: indirectly defined as a group of people speaking a minority language, the linguistic variable referring only to traditional languages used within the territory of the state (different from the official language), and not dialects and languages of migrants.

4. ROMANIA part 1
Cohabitation between Romanians and Hungarians has existed for centuries to various degrees of accommodation;
Very limited accommodation at the beginning of communism with Hungarian schools and the Hungarian Bolyai University in Cluj- Napoca being opened and pressured by the USSR, the government established the Autonomous Hungarian Province in 1952 in eastern Transylvania, but assimmilationist policies took over by 1989.

5. ROMANIA part 2
1991 Constitution guarantees fundamental rights and freedoms for all citizens including specific rights of national minorities to preserve and nurture their identity;
Constitutional guarantee in place of seats in the national Parliament for all national minorities, which in the elections enabled eighteen different minorities to gain seats in the lower chamber of Parliament
Regionally, Romania is a signatory of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, the European Convention on Human Rights and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities;
Freedom of association and partisan pluralism enabled minorities to be represented in Romanian political at all levels

6. ROMANIA part 3
UDMR created right after 1989 to represent public interests of the Hungarian minority;
UDMR did not participate in governing coalitions until 1996 when it joined the Democratic Alliance and received two ministries; since then (in)directly supporting all governments in power;
There have been in recent years more members of ethnic minorities represented in the cabinet than there are female ministers (three ethnic Hungarians v. two women, out of fifteen cabinet ministers in 2011)

7. ROMANIA part 4 Department for the Protection of National Minorities
Council of National Minorities (advisory body)
Department for Interethnic Relations (dri.gov.ro)
National Council Against Discrimination
European Parliament representation (MEPs)
National Council of Hungarians
Ministry for National Minorities
Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities (ispmn.gov.ro)

8. ROMANIA part 5
Instruction in Hungarian allowed at all education levels, including technical and vocational training;
Partium Christian University (private, in Oradea, since 1999);
Babes Bolyai University (Cluj Napoca), with 17 out of 21 faculties offering bilingual programs (Romanian/Hungarian) and 11/21 in Romanian and German;
Right to use minority languages in public administration, bilingual public signs; economic development regions (fnancial support for municipalities etc).

9. CANADA part 1 The Quebecois are one of Canada’s founding nations;
From its creation, Canada has been a federation;
Quebec has retained the Catholic Church and its educational institutions, and a separate legal regime;
S. 91/92 of the 1982 Constitution (division of power between federal government and provinces

10. CANADA part 2
Fundamental rights guaranteed by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms;
French is one of the 2 official languages;
1974- Quebec adopts French as its sole official language;
Separate Civil Code, judicial system (mirrored after the French), immigration proces, interculturalism policy of accomodating new citizens, health system (including private care);
Continuous representation in Parliament of the separatist Bloc Quebecois; in power, also separatist provincial governments (Parti Quebecois).

11. CANADA part 3 1980 and 1995 nearly successful referenda on separation;
Quebec recognized as a „distinct nation in a united Canada”;
Quebec MPs always given cabinet posts (from the party in power), and always the Intergovernmental Affairs portfolio;
Constitutional guarantee of one third of seats in the House of Commons and Senate;
Provincial legislature: National Assembly.

12. 2 MAIN CONCLUSIONS
The different approaches of accommodating national minorities stem from the different models of national/ethnic identity in each of the case studies;
There is a collaborative accommodational model in Canada and a coalitional model of accommodation in Romania.
Thank you for your time and attention, Q&A?!