Moreover, since 1986 the French have proposed a UN satellite for gathering information and monitoring developments, a more useful but more expensive proposition. The second thing we must do is to use the UN Charter better. Similarly, even if it were used more often, without Security Council support, Article 99 should still be used sparingly. The third objective of the international community should be to work out a redefinition of the obligations of the nation state so that minority rights receive greater attention. We need to struggle against the concept of the exclusivity of nationality.
Japan is another state that has similarly tough citizenship laws.
We must argue for the primacy of the civil state over the ethnic state. In this struggle, we should build on the innovations of the League of Nations in its treatment of minorities. The peace treaties of 1919 required states such as Czechoslovakia, Greece, Poland and Romania to assure full protection to all inhabitants regardless of nationality, language, race, or religion. Menawhile, the League worked out a procedure for the settlement of minority disputes. Although flawed, these treaties represented the first attempt in history to provide international legal protection to minority populations.