SHRG AND THE UN WORKING GROUP ON MINORITIES

In 1992 the UN adopted the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities. The Working Group on Minorities was created in 1995 in order to review implementation of the Declaration.

SHRG has been actively participating at the UN Working Group on Minorities.

SHRG Minorities Project

It is now increasingly recognised that minority issues and lack of respect and protection of minority rights lead to intra-state tensions and conflicts, posing a threat to national and international peace and stability. With this in mind a crucial debate has been taking place, within academic and policy-making cycles, concerning the need to protect the rights of minority communities by tackling the disputes arising from demands of integration into the national space and culture against the need to maintain cultural, linguistic and religious individual and community identities.

Within this framework and with the support of the UN Working Group on Minorities, SHRG has recently launched a project on minorities that involves the study of a wide range of different minorities with the view to contributing to a better protection of minority rights. To this end, using as a reference the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious or Linguistic Minorities - adopted by UN General Assembly Resolution 47/135 of 18 December 1992 - this project analyses different types of minority issues that arise within different national, regional and international economic, social, political and legal frameworks. With the protection of the rights of minorities in mind, the aim of the project is to produce a working set of principles on best practices of states in the area of minority rights in order to assist states, NGOs and intergovernmental organisations, such as the UN, to improve the protection and promotion of the rights of minorities.

Minorities -The SHRG Minorities Project is concerned with the Dalits in India, Roma in Greece and Spain, Afro-Brazilians, Christians in Pakistan, and Sikhs in the UK, US and Canada.

Method of Work - The project will extend to a four years period and will be conducted in different stages. It will involve a thorough study of academic and other research papers and policy documents as well as extensive fieldwork in the countries involved with the participation of the minorities concerned. The findings of the project will be published at a later stage.