CONSTITUTIONAL STATUS AND CRIMINAL LAW PROTECTION OF THE RIGHTS OF NATIONAL MINORITIES AND ETHNIC GROUPS IN THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC

The matter and significance of the issue of the rights of national minorities belongs not only to the traditional subject matter of legal and socio-political sciences, but due to its legislative anchoring and actual implementation, it is included among topics that are often problematic, or have a controversial interpretation, which is manifested in plurality, or rather in the difference of opinion on their essence and meaning. However, lawyers, political scientists, sociologists, and also politicians agree on one thing – the rights of national minorities and ethnic groups are subject to constitutional regulation in the domestic environment, they are part of the constitution as the basic law of a democratic state. In this indicated sense, the concept of their constitutional adjustment can be understood in two directions. In general sense – when the status of national minorities and ethnic groups can be characterized as part of the constitutional principles of fundamental rights and freedoms; and in the specific sense – when constitutions grant national minorities and ethnic groups certain specific rights linked to their nationality, or ethnicity (Fridrich, 2013).