Discrimination against minorities: a barrier to their full human development

4 March 2002

Chairperson,

Minority Rights Group International would like to highlight discrimination against minorities and indigenous peoples in the realization of the right to development as a priority area of work for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

In resolution 2001/9, the Commission on Human Rights last year took an important first step in addressing the exclusion of minorities and indigenous peoples from the right to development, when they stated that “in the process of the realisation of the right to development, special attention should be given to persons belonging to minorities, whether national, ethnic, religious or linguistic, as well as to persons belonging to vulnerable groups, for instance…indigenous peoples,…Roma, [and] migrants” (paragraph 16).

This resolution gave the OHCHR greater scope to address the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples in its work on development issues. Minority Rights Group International is pleased to have been a part of these efforts; as indicated in the High Commissioner’s report to the 58th Session of the Commission on Human Rights, we welcomed the support of the OHCHR in the convening of a meeting in July 2001 on “Tackling Poverty and Discrimination: Mainstreaming Minority Rights in Development Assistance”. Several important recommendations emerged from that meeting, which MRG believes will greatly inform the activities of the OHCHR on the right to development.

Discrimination against minority groups is the single most important barrier to their full human development. No development policy can effectively reduce inequalities between majority and majority communities if it does not tackle discrimination. The OHCHR can take a more proactive role in advising governments, national human rights institutions and development agencies on how to integrate anti-discrimination measures into policies for development. The new Anti-Discrimination Unit at OHCHR could play an important part in this work.

Recognising the existence of minorities and indigenous peoples within the State is a vital first step in realising their right to development and overcoming discrimination against them. The OHCHR should continue to engage with States on the issue of recognition as an essential component of its work on the right to development. The OHCHR should also use its position as a leader within the UN system on the subject of mainstreaming human rights into development policies to bring to the attention of development partners the need to integrate the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples into their activities and policies.

Greater efforts need to be taken to assess the potential impact of proposed development activities on minorities and indigenous peoples. Too often plans for improving the overall development of a State may systematically exclude or harm distinct minority or indigenous groups, which can have serious implications for peace and stability. The Independent Expert on the Right to Development in his fourth report proposes that in such circumstances, States may resort to “compensated violations” where those whose human rights are violated as a result of a development programme that benefits a larger number of people would receive compensation (E/CN.4/20002/WG.18/2, paragraph 40). The notion of “compensated violations” is objectionable and must be reconsidered by the Independent Expert; in particular, where minority or indigenous groups are concerned, to use “compensated violations” to evade human rights obligations is to underestimate the social, economic and political ramifications of denying a minority community their right to development. The OHCHR workshop on Extractive Industries and the Human Rights of Indigenous Peoples convened in December 2001 provided an excellent opportunity to highlight some of these ramifications, which included conflict, extreme poverty and cultural erosion. More work in this area is needed urgently. The OHCHR should engage in further activities examining the link between the denial of the right to development to minorities and, inter alia, conflict prevention.

The Millennium Development Goals are one of the most important steps in recent years towards the realization of the right to development but from a minority and indigenous rights perspective, the goals are seriously flawed. It is possible to achieve all of the Millennium Development Goals without impacting positively on the lives of minorities and indigenous peoples, and policy makers are not taking this into account. States may divert resources to achieve the goals, enabling the more visible and politically influential majority groups to achieve the goals, whilst the situation of minorities and indigenous peoples is allowed to deteriorate further. No safeguards have been built into the goals to prevent this from occurring. For example, there is no requirement to measure progress towards the goals through disaggregated data for minority groups.

There is also no guidance on how to achieve the goals, which leaves too much space for governments and development agencies to adopt top-down policies that are not compatible with the right to participation prescribed, inter alia, by the UN Declaration on the Right to Development. The goal of achieving “universal primary education” by 2015 could be met, whilst minority and indigenous children find themselves disadvantaged by an education system that is not available in their mother tongue, that under-resources schools in their communities, or that perpetuates discriminatory attitudes towards them. A reduction by two thirds of under-five mortality could also be achieved, with the remaining one third of children being mostly from minority or indigenous groups because no effort has been made to improve access to health care, clean water or adequate housing for their communities.

The OHCHR should support Governments and multilateral and bilateral development agencies in the review of their policies for the Millennium Development Goals to ensure that the rights of persons belonging to minorities and the rights of indigenous peoples are taken into consideration fully.

Essential to all of the recommendations articulated here is the full participation of minorities and indigenous peoples in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of development policies and programmes that will affect them. These communities have the right to free, prior and informed consent to development. The OHCHR could make a valuable contribution to ensuring this participation by devising models and guidelines on best practice for participation, in consultation with minority and indigenous groups.

Finally, Minority Rights Group International would like the Open-Ended Working Group on the Right to Development to be instituted as a permanent Working Group of the Commission on Human Rights. Efforts should be made to promote the use of this Working Group to review practice of States, domestically and through international cooperation, in promoting the right to development for minorities and indigenous peoples. This is essential if the right to development for all is to be secured and conflict over development is to be averted.

Thank you, Chairperson.