[MRG e-bulletin] Minority Rights Group International - e-bulletin

Wed Jul 13 14:43:38 BST 2005

Minority Rights Group International - e-bulletin

Welcome to the minority Rights Group International (MRG) email bulletin. Simply click on the links below in order to access the full news story or publication on MRG's website, or alternatively visit our site at: http://www.minorityrights.org

In this e-bulletin: 

	*	Statements made at the 11th Session of the UN Working Group on Minorities 
	*	Helping or harming minorities: The Millennium Development Goals
	*	Minorities unite to maintain and strengthen UN Working Group
	*	Forced eviction: a policy of oppression against minorities
	*	Drafting Iraq's New Constitution: Principles and Materials 
	*	Kenyan Endorois legal success takes historic land rights case to final stage
	*	Message of minority rights taken to international conflict prevention conference
	*	New guide promotes minority participation in Economic life in South-East Europe
	*	Focus on: Burma (Myanmar): The Time for Change - 60th birthday of Aung San Suu Kyi
	*	Events: Acadians commemorate 'the Great Upheaval' 
	*	Worth a closer look: The Media Diversity Institute
	*	Publications -  
		- Participation in Economic Life: An Advocacy Guide for Minorities in South-East Europe
		- Aceh: Then and Now (MRG report)

News

Statements made at the 11th Session of the UN Working Group on Minorities - June 2005
MRG in cooperation with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), held its annual training event prior to the United Nations Working Group on Minorities (30 May - 03 June 05). This year the training was attended by over 35 minority participants from every continent. The minority rights and advocacy training helped minority representatives to raise their issues directly to their government delegations, expert members and others attending the Working Group, enabling them to make a vital and substantial contribution to this forum. The interventions made by MRG/OHCHR participants in the training are now available on the MRG website at:
http://minorityrights.org/partnerinterv.asp

Helping or harming minorities: The Millennium Development Goals 
Current strategies towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) could increase existing inequalities and may harm some minority communities that are amongst the poorest of the poor. Globally minorities should gain from progress towards the goals, yet are in fact being left behind, stated MRG in advance of 'MDG+5', a UN consultation and assessment process beginning in New York in June. The MDGs can be met more effectively by ensuring that the needs and rights of minorities are respected through strategies that reflect their uniquely vulnerable and marginalized status within many societies.
http://www.minorityrights.org/news_detail.asp?ID=368

Minorities unite to maintain and strengthen UN Working Group
Over 40 minority organizations attending the UN Working Group on Minorities in June have joined MRG in a collective statement calling for the forum to be maintained and strengthened amid moves by some states to undermine its work. Plans to shorten the WGM from five days to three, and to hold it during the Sub-Commission on Human Rights, were met with concern by minorities and expert Members of the Working Group alike. Minorities fear a 'death by a thousand cuts' for the only UN forum in which they can directly raise their issues and stated that a new Independent Expert on Minority Issues should supplement and not replace the important work of the WGM.
http://www.ohchr.org/english/issues/minorities/docs/11/Joint%20MRG+_4.doc

Forced eviction: a policy of oppression against minorities
Outrage over the Zimbabwean Government's forced eviction and destruction of the homes of thousands of families has caused international condemnation and led to renewed calls for sanctions. But, as MRG points out, forced eviction has long been a strategy employed by governments to deal with troublesome minorities and opposition groups, or those communities simply in the way of their development plans. Here MRG considers other examples of forced eviction including those against the Ogoni in Nigeria, the Endorois of Kenya, evicted to make way for tourism development, the Chagossians, forcibly evicted from their Indian island homes, and the Roma. 
http://www.minorityrights.org/features/features_evictions.htm

Drafting Iraq's New Constitution: Principles and Materials 
Over the next few months, the people of Iraq are entrusted with an historic task: to write a new permanent constitution for their country. To serve the country well in the years to come, this constitution needs to be drafted with the involvement of all Iraq's different communities. MRG has developed a resource pack to assist with this vital process outlining some of the main principles and standards underpinning constitutional government, comparing relevant examples and alternatives for constitutional settlement in Iraq. The pack places particular emphasis on the advancement of human rights and the participation and protection of all of Iraq's diverse communities.
http://www.minorityrights.org/news_detail.asp?ID=369

Kenyan Endorois legal success takes historic land rights case to final stage
A case brought before the African Commission for Human and Peoples' Rights by the Endorois people of Kenya over their eviction from their ancestral lands was declared admissible in May. The Commission will now make a judgment on the merits of the case. The recent success of the Endorois heralds the first time that the Commission will consider the merits of an indigenous land rights case and is also the first significant victory for the community since they were expelled from their lands to make way for the Lake Bogoria National Park and subsequent mining activities. MRG is supporting the Endorois in bringing this case through its legal cases programme.
http://www.minorityrights.org/news_detail.asp?ID=282

Message of minority rights taken to international conflict prevention conference 
Delegates elected from amongst nearly 40 minority representatives attending the MRG/OHCHR training on minority rights and advocacy in May, will take a message that minority rights are key to conflict prevention to a major international conference to be held in New York in July. Minorities voiced their issues and concerns during a two-day seminar on minorities and conflict prevention and resolution held in Geneva on 26 and 27 May. This seminar was amongst the first dedicated to considering how failure by states to promote and protect minority rights, discrimination, exclusion and displacement from lands and territories can contribute to conflict.   
http://www.gppac.org/

New guide promotes minority participation in economic life in South-East Europe
Minorities across South-East Europe are vulnerable to poverty and economic exclusion and have little information about their rights to economic participation, or about advocating for their effective participation in economic life. This participation requires and includes such things as full, equal and meaningful access to education, employment and housing, as well as access to credit and development programmes. A new MRG guide seeks to empower minorities to advocate for, and bring about, change in policies, practice, attitudes and approaches to minority rights in South-East Europe.  
http://www.minorityrights.org/TrainingManuals/TrainingManual.asp?ID=33

Focus on: Burma (Myanmar): The Time for Change

Burma (Myanmar): The Time for Change - 60th birthday tribute to Aung San Suu Kyi
In May 2002 MRG published its report 'Burma (Myanmar): The Time for Change' at a time of some hope for the future and coinciding with the brief release from house arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy. On 19 June 2005, Aung San Suu Kyi spent her 60th birthday once more under house arrest having spent almost 10 years in detention. MRG joins the many others calling for Aung San Suu Kyi's release and that of all political prisoners in Burma. In addition MRG urges constructive moves to bring about an end to the conflicts that have plagued the state and a nationwide ceasefire, constitutional reform and immediate steps to establish human and minority rights with the assistance of the international community.   
http://www.minorityrights.org/OnlineReports/OnlineReport.asp?ID=20

Events

Acadians commemorate 'the Great Upheaval' - July 28
2005 marks the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the deportation of Acadians from Nova Scotia (Canada) and adjacent areas to Louisiana and other points along the Atlantic rims. The first removal by the British, commonly called 'the Great Upheaval', began in 1755 and affected approximately 7000 people. Following British military successes, further Acadians were captured and deported until 1763. Acadians resettling to Louisiana became known as "Cajuns", and their culture has continued to flourish. As French Catholics in several other colonies of Protestant and Anglophone New England, their reception was more difficult, making assimilation one of the only viable means of survival. A World Congress of Acadians held in 1994 and again in 2004 reunited descendants of those who were deported. Today a thriving renaissance of Acadian culture is celebrated through its music, theatre and literature. The Government of Canada has designated July 28 as 'A Day of Commemoration of the Great Upheaval'. For further details:
http://www.umaine.edu/canam/ham/acadiansettlement.htm 

For further information about the events above and details of MRG programmes and advocacy activities, please visit MRG's website or contact us directly.
http://www.minorityrights.org

Worth a closer look

The Media Diversity Institute (MDI) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that mobilises the power of media to lessen inter-group conflict, advance minority and human rights, and support deeper public understanding of all types of social diversity. It is based in London and has offices in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. MDI focuses on regions where news media have played a destructive role in exacerbating ethnic and religious conflicts and violations of human and minority rights. MDI works with media organisations, journalists, journalism educators, NGOs and governments to prevent and reconcile conflict, promote tolerance of vulnerable groups, and stimulate balanced and non-partisan journalism. 
http://www.media-diversity.org

Information contained in external websites does not necessarily reflect the views, policies or opinions of MRG and its staff.

Publications

Participation in Economic Life: An Advocacy Guide for Minorities in South-East Europe
Economic, social and cultural rights are on the political agenda. In recent years, they have been given increased attention, internationally, an domestically. This guide provides an overview of rights and mechanisms relevant to the participation of minorities in economic life in South-East Europe. It contains examples of best practice and lessons learned by people or organizations advocating for effective economic participation by, or on behalf of, minorities in the region.
http://www.minorityrights.org/TrainingManuals/TrainingManual.asp?ID=33

Aceh: Then and Now
At the end of December 2004, a huge earthquake and tsunami killed thousands, injured many more and wreaked havoc in this northern province of Sumatra, Indonesia. International aid has poured in and international teams are working alongside Acehnese and Indonesian teams. What is less well known is that Aceh was in the midst of a conflict between the Indonesian forces and the Gerakan Aceh Merdeka (GAM, the Free Aceh Movement) that has killed 15,000 civilians since 1976. 
http://www.minorityrights.org/OnlineReports/OnlineReport.asp?ID=44

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Minority Rights Group International (MRG) is a non-governmental organization working to secure the rights of ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples worldwide, and to promote cooperation and understanding between communities. 

MRG is a registered charity no. 282305, and has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council and observer status with the African Commission for Human and Peoples' Rights.

Contact MRG: 
54 Commercial Street, London, E1 6LT, UK. 
Tel: 020 7422 4200      Fax: 020 7422 4201 
email: minority.rights at mrgmail.org 
http://www.minorityrights.org 

Disclaimer - July 13, 2005 
This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for mrg_e-bulletin at gn.apc.org. If you are not the named addressee you should not disseminate, distribute, copy or alter this email. Whilst MRG has taken reasonable precautions to ensure no viruses are present in this email, it is the responsibility of the recipient to ensure that the onward transmission, opening or use of this message and any attachments will not adversely affect its systems or data. No responsibility is accepted by MRG in this regard and the recipient should carry out such virus and other checks as it considers appropriate. Any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and might not represent those of MRG. Opinions, conclusions, contractual obligations and other information in this message, in so far as they relate to the official business of MRG , must be specifically confirmed in writing by MRG

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