UN Commission on Human Rights, 59th Session

27 March 2003

Madame Chair,

I speak on behalf of Minority Rights Group International.

Without the full integration of the standards in place to secure the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples in development processes, development is unlikely to meet the needs of these marginalised groups. Without the integration of their rights, they are unlikely to benefit from development, including in ways that are meaningful to them, and it raises the possibility that development will in fact harm them.

The divergent positions often taken when the right to development is discussed at the UN masks agreement on fundamental aspects and risks allowing inertia to set in. Over the past several years the international community has turned its attention to development understood as a right, notably by adopting the Declaration in 1986, and subsequently through the establishment of a branch in the OHCHR '... the primary responsibilities of which would include the promotion and protection of the right to development', by convening the Working Group on the Right to Development and through the appointment of an Independent Expert. The Durban Declaration and Programme of Action refers to the right to development three times,1 the Plan of Action of the World Summit on Sustainable Development four times2; the Millennium Declaration calls on the international community to share responsibility for managing worldwide economic and social development. 3

Minority Rights Group International has recently published a series of reports and papers on the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples and the right to development. Our study on the Philippines4 highlights the detrimental effects on indigenous peoples of development projects in the areas of gold and copper mining operations, agro-industry and forestry management on ancestral lands. A study on the Ogiek of Kenya5 paints a dire picture of displacement, underdevelopment, severe threats to their culture and way of life and the failure to secure associated rights related to overcoming poverty, illiteracy and the disenfranchisement of women. Our study on the Ogoni of Nigeria6 shows that while oil is the basis of the nation's wealth, indigenous and minority groups who live in the area that generate it continue to be impoverished. Notably, in the recent ruling by the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights in the Ogoni Case, 7 the Commission, referring as well to international established principles, found a violation of, inter alia, Article 21 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the right of all peoples to freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources. The African Commission also found a violation of Article 24 of the African Charter, which guarantees the right to a healthy environment favourable to development.

A conclusion reached in the MRG study on Indigenous Peoples and Poverty in Latin America8 was that due to their political marginalisation, indigenous peoples are largely absent from the planning, design and implementation of development policies and programmes that directly affect their lives and territories. This right to meaningful participation is detailed in a report by MRG entitled 'The Right to Development: Obligations of States and the Rights of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples, 9 which addresses the intersection between the right to development and the rights of minorities and of indigenous peoples and charts the obligations of states, acting nationally and internationally.

The integration of the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples within the fulfilment of the right to development is fundamental to any just and sustainable development. A critical first step is to include minority and indigenous rights into strategies for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Without this, there is a danger that resources are diverted to more influential majority groups, or that strategies to achieve the MDGs actually worsen the situation of minorities and indigenous peoples. Both the international community and policy makers need to ensure that discrimination against minorities and indigenous peoples in the realisation of the right to development is addressed, otherwise these groups may not benefit equally from the MDGs, 10 and the ability to achieve the Millennium Development Goals as a whole will be undermined. 11

Madam Chair,

In resolution 2001/9 on the right to development, the Commission on Human Rights 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). In 2002, this reference was omitted from the new resolution. This is undoubtedly a step backwards.

Madam Chair:

MRG calls on the Commission to ensure the reinsertion of the paragraph in the resolution on the right to development that recognises the rights of the most marginalised among us in the processes and outcomes of development.

The inclusion of this language will contribute to the much-needed consideration by a range of actors as to how to give the right to development meaning for minorities and indigenous peoples, including within the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals. For example, the Millennium Project of the Secretary-General should pay particular attention to these groups in elaborating their strategies for achieving the goals.

To these ends, the Commission should recommend that all state reports on the realisation of the MDGs include disaggregated data on minorities and indigenous peoples.

Surely, common ground can be found to take some crucial steps to securing basic rights so fundamental to existence and dignity. We implore that the Working Group on the Right to Development and this Commission seek constructive methods of engagement. So very much needs to be done.

Thank you for your attention.

Delivered by: Margot Salomon

1 Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, UN Doc. A/CONF.189/12.

2 WSSD Plan of Implementation, UN Doc. A/Conf.199/20.

3 Millennium Declaration GA Res. A/Res/55/2, para. 6, 8 Sept. 2000.

4 Gerardo Gobrin and Almira Andin, Development Conflict: The Philippine Experience, MRG and KAMP 2002.

5 Nyang'ori Ohenjo, Kenya's Castaways: The Ogiek and National Development, MRG and CEMIRIDE 2003.

6 Legborsi Saro Pyagbara, The Ogoni of Nigeria: Oil and Exploitation, MRG and MOSOP 2003

7 ACHPR Communication No. 155/96, The Social and Economic Rights Action Centre and the Centre for Economic and Social Rights/Nigeria, 27 May 2002.

8 Birgitte Feiring and MRG partners, Indigenous Peoples and Poverty: The Case of Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, MRG 2003.

9 Margot E. Salomon with Arjun Sengupta, The Right to Development: Obligations of States and the Rights of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples, MRG 2003.

10 The MDGs represent one of the most important steps in recent years towards the realisation of the right to development. From a minority and indigenous rights perspective, however, 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 or is ignored. 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 or indigenous groups. There is also no guidance on how to achieve the goals. Governments and development agencies could adopt policies that are not compatible with international human rights standards and the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples. For example, the goal of achieving 'universal primary education' by 2015 could be met, while 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. Or the goal of universal primary education itself may not be reached if minorities and indigenous peoples feel that the educational prescription is not relevant to their values and lifestyles, choosing instead to boycott the formal educational process.

11 See, Corinne Lennox, Minority and Indigenous Rights in the International Development Goals, MRG 2001.