World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples

• communities that have been expelled from their land or property recover it or receive compensation; and,
• communities that are under threat of loss of land or property have it protected.

Minorities and indigenous peoples all over the world risk being driven from their land. They risk losing their livelihood and income, their heritage and often their identity as a people. Many communities have been closely bound to a particular territory for centuries. Yet once their land is wanted for 'development' (e.g. for dams, mining, oil or tourism) they are all too easily forced off their land and driven to live in poverty, with little or no compensation.

Conflicts lead to minorities and indigenous peoples being displaced, their property seized without compensation and their right to return to reclaim their property denied. Minorities and indigenous peoples often remain as refugees or displaced persons for decades, sometimes centuries. The denial of the right to property is a used to stop them from returning.

Removal of communities from their land is also a major cause of conflict. At the same time, mass displacement of peoples is one of the worst consequences of 'development' projects that fail to understand minority and indigenous peoples' rights.

Why isn't the land protected?

It is so easy for minorities and indigenous peoples to lose their land because their land rights are seldom recognized. Although indigenous communities have occupied their lands for centuries, long before the current states existed, their practice of collective ownership and lack of written record of ownership is often held by governments or outsiders to mean that they have no rights. Colonial powers dispossessed peoples en masse, often through a trick of consulting 'chiefs' who had no power to sign away land. Successor governments have been equally adept at using consultations with purported leaders to justify throwing people off their land, or claiming the community did not own the land in the first place. Displaced minorities often lack written evidence of ownership, whether in the parts of Africa, the Balkans, Turkey or South Asia.

Women are often at an even greater disadvantage to prove any form of ownership. Governments have also been reluctant to recognize property rights that would help nomadic communities preserve their way of life, whether Roma in Europe or pastoralists in Africa.

Protecting and reclaiming land and property

And yet, in the last decade, there has been a growth in the recognition of minorities and indigenous peoples' land and property rights. Significant legal victories have been won in Australia, Nicaragua, South Africa and Turkey, which state that historical injustices should be recognized and righted, proving that a people can collectively own a land based on historical rights. But legal victories, while important, are not enough. The Cherokee Nation in North America won a stunning legal victory in the United States Supreme Court in 1832. Yet the Cherokee were still deported en masse in 1838. As long as powerful governments feel they can seize valuable lands from communities that they view as too small, unimportant or insignificant, land will continue to be seized.

MRG's campaign

We are campaigning to ensure that communities at risk of losing their land are protected, and that those who have lost it are supported to reclaim it (or at the very least receive full compensation). We advise communities of their land and property rights and on how to implement these. We are also campaigning for greater legal recognition of historical and communal rights, the right to the restoration of land and the right to full consultation. We will also ensure that those who contribute to the displacement of communities are made aware of the consequences of their actions, and call for sanctions against them.

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