Out of the spotlight: The rights of foreigners and minorities are still a grey area not in line with the official policy on the matter, most notably the rights to freedom of expression and to freedom of association and assembly. Amnesty International believes that the existence of a minority is a question of fact to be determined on the basis of reasonable and objective criteria. Whilst there is no internationally accepted definition of a minority, arbitrary distinctions based around recognition or non-recognition are discriminatory, and so states should avoid listing the groups to whom minority rights apply, as these lists tend to be exclusive. Membership of a minority should be by choice, and the subjective element of membership should be retained in order to avoid the forcible assimilation of individuals into groups. In the absence of other criteria, the existence of a minority should be determined by selfidentification. 118 In this regard, the Human Rights Committee has stated, in its General Comment 23 that “the existence of an ethnic, religious or linguistic minority in a given State party does not depend upon a decision by the State party but requires to be established by objective criteria”.119 118 The CERD has stated, in its General Recommendation 24 that “a number of states parties recognize the presence on their territory of some national or ethnic groups or indigenous peoples, while disregarding others. Certain criteria should be uniformly applied to all groups, in particular the number of persons concerned, and their being of a race, colour, descent or national or ethnic origin different from the majority or from other groups within the population.” On this basis, it has declared under its General Recommendation 8 that “having considered reports from states parties concerning information about the ways in which individuals are identified as being members of a particular racial or ethnic group or groups, [CERD] is of the opinion that such identification shall, if no justification exists to the contrary, be based upon self-identification by the individual concerned.” 119 HRC, General Comment No. 23: The rights of minorities (Art. 27): 8 April 94. CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.5: § 5.2. Amnesty International 5 October 2005 60 This part of the report outlines recent developments in this area of human rights practice in Greece. During the last two years, Amnesty International has received information on these issues from locally-based as well as international NGOs, monitoring bodies and individuals belonging to nonofficially-recognized minority groups. During the visit of Amnesty International’s delegation to Greece in January 2005, delegates were also in contact with members and representatives of the “Muslim” minority group in Thrace. The organization has also been able to collect information about further violations of human rights, arising from the state’s failure to provide redress to victims of discrimination perpetrated as a result of legislation that has since been withdrawn. These findings are also included in this chapter of the report. 4.2 The minorities non-recognition of In 1998 the European Court of Human Rights found Greece to be in violation of the right to freedom of association in the case of Sideropoulos and others v. Greece 120 on the basis that Greek courts had refused the application of the complainants to register “the Home of Macedonian Culture” as an NGO.121 Contrary to the views of the domestic courts that the stated goals of the association threatened public order, the European Court of Human Rights had concluded that “the refusal to register the applicants’ association was disproportionate to the objectives pursued”. 120 European Court of Human Rights, Sideropoulos and others v. Greece (Case number 57/1997/841/1047), Judgment of 10 July 1998. 121 AI press releases, Greece: Amnesty International welcomes the acquittal of four members of ethnic Macedonian minority party, AI Index: EUR 25/045/1998, Greece: Charges against members of the “Rainbow” party should be dropped, AI Index: EUR 25/044/1998, and Greece: Amnesty International will adopt members of “Rainbow” party as prisoners of conscience in case of imprisonment, AI Index: EUR 25/010/1997. AI Index: EUR 25/016/2005