Struggles for Recognition: Cultural Pluralism and Rights of Minorities

Over the past decades, an increasingly influential Political Philosophy approach has been seen to defend issues relating to cultural injustices. The daily struggles arising from political agendas within different societies confirm this. This perspective can be summarised using the Hegelian expression “struggle for recognition”, and it is this expression that underpins the current position of minorities members and their defenders. This means that misrecognition, disrespect, and humiliation form the base of (cultural) injustices and must be avoided. Minorities are a fundamental part of democratic societies, but their rights have not always been respected. Inmigrants are currently the object of xenophobic campaigns. Rome people, the European minority, face additional difficulties, which results in them being key players in cases of indiret discrimination. The distribution of territorial power and the situation of national minorities have been causes of different political problems.“Who am I? Where do I belong?” are questions asking for indentity. Some people argue these should be relevant issues when applying the criminal law, circle of moral incumbency to cover animals -non humans-, arguing that they of life that involves their survival as a whole. Those groups are faced with members and their defenders.This publication is part of the “New Challenges of Law” project. Action agreement UC3M-CAM excellence of the University teaching staff (V Regional Plan for scientific research and technological innovation).