The concept of diaspora goes back in the history of humanity. Originally used by the ancient Greeks to describe a dispersion of the Greek population outside Greece, the concept was later borrowed by the Jewish, Armenian, African and other Diasporas, obtaining a more painful meaning of persecution, forced expulsion, loss of a homeland and longing for return. As defined by Cohen, these diasporas are an example of a “victim diaspora” (Cohen, 1997, 31). Armenian diaspora is known to be the second oldest in human history (Tololyan 2007). It is difficult to calculate the precise number of the Armenians living in the diaspora nowadays. According to BBC News (2007) and the information obtained from the Ministry of Diaspora of the Republic of Armenia, the Armenian diaspora currently estimates about 8 million people residing in more than 120 countries of the world, which is about 60% of the Armenian worldwide population (BBC News 2007). In the set of relations between the Armenian Homeland and Diaspora the issue of protection of the rights of the Armenian Diaspora, as representing a majority of the Armenian nation, acquires crucial importance and becomes very relevant to the activity of the newly established Ministry of Diaspora. The purpose of this paper is to study the latest developments regarding the international protection of minority rights and to find and analyze the instruments for protection of the rights of the Armenian national minorities abroad. The paper concentrates on the institutional framework of the national minority right protection. It attempts to elaborate the concept of national minority protection under universal and regional standards and answer the following research questions: 1. What legal instruments serve to protect the minority rights at the universal level? 2. What legal instruments serve to protect the minority rights at the regional level? 3. What legal instruments for protection of national minority rights are ratified by the countries hosting the most numerous Armenian communities? 4. Are there major differences among the universal and regional minority rights standards?