Senior Researcher
Institute for Minority Rights
Main research interests:
Sergiu Constantin is a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Minority Rights of Eurac Research. He holds a law degree from the University of Bucharest (Romania) and a Master in European Studies from the University of Graz (Austria). His research projects deal with diversity governance, focusing mainly on language rights, political participation, and territorial/cultural autonomy arrangements in Europe and beyond. He has published several articles and book chapters on these topics. His most recent publications are available open access in the Journal of Global Security Studies (2025) and Nationalities Papers (2025). His most recent consultancy activities concern projects undertaken by the Council of Europe and the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities in Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2125-4432
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=P6LCGmEAAAAJ&hl=en
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Meine Cookie EinstellungenCarlà A, Constantin S
Ukraine’s decades-long struggle over language has evolved from a cultural debate into a core question of national identity and security, sharpened by Russia’s war of aggression. As the state embraces Ukrainization and public attitudes shift, language has become both a symbol of resistance and a defining marker of the country’s future.
DOI: 10.57708/BD39OTCIIQMCWZ0L8QQLXJQ
Constantin S, Carlà A
Projekt: ABI - Die Securitisierung von Migranten und ethnischen Minderheiten und der Anstieg der Fremdenfeindlichkeit in der EU , EDIS/ABI - Die Governance kultureller Vielfalt aus der Security-Perspektive
This article analyzes processes of securitization in India’s former State of Jammu and Kashmir (SJK), a disputed borderland characterized by a three-dimensional conflict: the international conflict over Jammu and Kashmir, the inter-governmental conflict between the autonomous SJK and the Indian government, and the inter-communal conflict within the SJK. Applying the concept of securitization beyond its traditional Eurocentric perspective, we explore the securitization of transborder kinship in a case study outside the Global North. We examine the perceived threats vis-à-vis the SJK and the Kashmiri Muslim in light of ontological insecurities rooted in the main Indian national narratives and show how dysfunctional diversity governance in a complex geopolitical context intersects with processes of securitization, affecting inter-communal, inter-governmental, and inter-state relations. The article shows that ontological insecurities, combined with fear of separatism and short-sighted political strategies, led Indian political elites to erode the autonomy of the SJK, and undermine its democratic political processes. This, in turn, led to an increasing dissatisfaction among various communities and, in time, to civil unrest, strong religious polarization, communal and state violence, human rights abuses, insurgency, and the rise of separatist Islamic militant groups. This vicious circle turned New Delhi’s fears into a self-fulfilling prophecy. We highlight the continuum of securitization processes and argue that the former SJK could escape the vicious circle of securitization only through a combination of self-governance, good governance, and international governance.
DOI: 10.1093/jogss/ogae034
Constantin S
Projekt: EDIS - CUREDI: Kulturelle und religiöse Vielfalt in der Europäischen Union
Ethical veganism is based on the ancient concept of Ahimsa (meaning “do no harm”), which is the central tenet of Jainism and an important ethical principle in Buddhism and Hinduism. The Vegan Society defines ethical veganism as “[a] philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude – as far as is possible and practicable – all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals.” (Casamitjana 2020). In 1993, the European Commission found that “the Vegan convictions with regard to animal products” fall within the scope of Article 9(1) of the ECHR (see W. v. the United Kingdom, App no 18187/91, 10 February 1993). In a British court case nearly 30 years later, a decision was made on whether ethical veganism, a belief in avoiding all forms of animal exploitation and cruelty, qualified as a philosophical belief and was therefore protected by British equality law.
DOI: 10.48509/CUREDI060UK002
Constantin S
Projekt: EDIS - CUREDI: Kulturelle und religiöse Vielfalt in der Europäischen Union
Metropolitan Church of Bessarabia and Others v. Moldova is one of the landmark cases of the European Court of Human Rights under Article 9 of the ECHR. Several arguments of the Court concerning limitations to the freedom of religion and religious pluralism deserve particular consideration. To assess the interference with the applicants’ freedom of religion, the Court used the three-part test set out in Article 9 (2) of the ECHR and examined whether these cumulative conditions are fulfilled: (i) the interference was prescribed by law; (ii) it had a legitimate aim; (iii) it was necessary in a democratic society. While the Court strongly emphasized in this judgement and its subsequent case law the importance of religious pluralism, generally it refrained from referring to concrete measures that States could take in this regard. The case of Magyar Keresztény Mennonita Egyház and Others v Hungary (App no. 70945/11 et al., 8 April 2014) provides a notable exception to this approach: The Court held that the State has a positive obligation to put in place a system of recognition which facilitates the acquisition of legal personality by religious communities. However, as Ferri (2019: 31) points out, “religious pluralism is a paradigmatic example of the European Court’s reluctance to identify positive obligations stemming from the freedom of religion and belief.”
DOI: 10.48509/CUREDI060MD001
Constantin S
DOI: 10.5771/9783748933113-341
Constantin S
Simplistic narrations of Ukraine’s East-West ethno-linguistic divide fail to capture the country’s cultural diversity and the complex interplay between ethnicity and language.
DOI: 10.57708/B118477088
Tomaselli A, Mitterhofer J, Engl A, Zeba M, Constantin S, Rautz G, Abram M, Ricciardi T,
Alice Engl, Sergiu Constantin, Alexandra Tomaselli, Günther Rautz, Mattia Zeba, Johanna Mitterhofer
Questo report multidisciplinare raccoglie i risultati del progetto “Le Comunità di Italiani nell’Europa sudorientale: status culturale ed economico, ruolo delle donne e sviluppo sostenibile” che ha visto la fruttuosa collaborazione del nostro Istituto sui Diritti delle Minoranze di Eurac Research con tre enti che non solo fungono da punto di riferimento per la questioni riguardanti le comunità degli italiani nell’Europa sudorientale ma che hanno anche, e soprattutto, contribuito in modo fondamentale alla realizzazione dell’intera ricerca, ossia l’Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa/Centro per la Cooperazione Internazionale (OBCT-CCI), l’Associazione Bellunesi nel Mondo e l’Associazione Trentini nel Mondo.
Pubblicato con il sostegno dell’Unita di Analisi, Programmazione, Statistica e Documentazione Storica del Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionali, ai sensi dell’art. 23-bis del DPR 18/1967.
Le opinioni contenute nella presente pubblicazione sono espressione degli autori, e non rappresentano necessariamente le posizioni del Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale.
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6900293
Constantin S
In March 2022, President Zelensky awarded the title of “Hero of Ukraine” posthumously to Major Ștepan Choban, a Suhoi-27 pilot killed in action during the first week of Russia’s war against Ukraine. His gallantry in combat and sacrifice became international news as printed and electronic media in the neighbouring countries of Romania and Moldova published tributes, highlighting the fact that he was a member of Ukraine’s Romanian or Moldovan minority respectively. Major Stepan Choban (Ștefan Ciobanu in Romanian) was born in Dolynske (Anadol in Romanian), a village in the Odesa oblast located at the intersection of the Ukrainian, Romanian, and Moldovan borders. Most of its inhabitants self-identified as Moldovans when Ukraine held its last census more than 20 years ago. However, dry statistics do not convey the whole picture, the much more complex realities of the Ukrainian-Romanian-Moldovan borderlands, and their shifting map of spaces and identities resulting from the crosscutting of political borders and conceptual boundaries based on ethnicity, language, and shared history.
DOI: 10.53779/KJKJ1212
Palermo F, Constantin S
DOI: 10.1163/9789004461666_008
de Villiers B, Marko J, Palermo F, Constantin S
Projekt: ABI - Kulturelle und territoriale Autonomie
ISBN: 978-90-04-46165-9
Wolf S, Balázs V, Constantin S, Prina F, Riekkinen M, Salat L, Smith D, Tomaselli A
Projekt: Europäisches Jahrbuch zu Minderheitenfragen
ISBN: 978-90-04-28420-3
The European Yearbook of Minority Issues provides a critical and timely review of contemporary developments in minority-majority relations in Europe. It combines analysis, commentary and documentation in relation to conflict management, international legal developments and domestic legislation affecting minorities in Europe.
Part I contains scholarly articles and, in the 2018 volume, this section contains two articles: one discussing the issue of rising nationalism in politics across Europe and its effect on the understanding of democracy, while the second article engages with the Minority SafePack Initiative and its development from the beginning of the campaign until early 2019.
Part II contains reports on national and international developments.
Part III features book reviews introducing and critiquing new, relevant literature within the disciplines of the social sciences, humanities and law.
Carlà A, Constantin S
Projekt: EDIS/ABI - Die Governance kultureller Vielfalt aus der Security-Perspektive , ABI - Kulturelle und territoriale Autonomie
Scholars and practitioners from all over the world generally agree that South Tyrol is an illustrative example of successful ethnic conflict resolution and minority protection through territorial and cultural self-governance. Sometimes this autonomous Italian province is presented as a ‘model’ of diversity governance for various other cases of societies divided along ethno-cultural lines across the world.
DOI: 10.1163/9789004405455_008
