The Contribution of the European Court of Human Rights to the Promotion of the Effective Participation of National Minorities: Groping in the Dark for Something that Might Not Be There

<jats:p>This article addresses how far the effective participation of national minorities is expressly articulated by the European Court of Human Rights in its reasoning and, more fully, how far the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights can protect effective participation by national minorities. To that end, it adopts a broad understanding of the protection and implementation of effective participation and examines case law dealing with several different rights that impact upon the participation of national minorities. Finally, the more general issue of whether a judicial process can adequately achieve effective participation on its own and which non-judicial mechanisms are better placed is also discussed.</jats:p>