The bad and the intolerable in minority cultures practices: reflections in light of Will Kymlicka’s thought

Abstract

The article's objective is to formulate normative standards about the protection of internal minorities, understood as those that pertain, but do not fit in cultural groups that are minorities within a State. In order to achieve that, initially, the main aspects of the multiculturalism debate are presented. The theoretical framework adopted is Will Kymlicka's, called liberal culturalism. Afterwards, as a necessary premise to the construction of the normative standards about the protection of internal minorities, the article proceeds to an investigation about which is liberalism's core value – whether tolerance, or autonomy. Each perspective leads to different normative outcomes in respect to what situations legitimize a liberal State to intervene in a minority group so as to protect individual rights. After reaching the conclusion that autonomy is liberalism's core value, five standards are suggested aimed at providing a way to identify which situations of fundamental rights of internal minorities violation are serious enough to be classified as intolerable, making an intervention feasible. Finally, the standards are applied to a case.