There are 370 million ethnic people around the world who are spread across more than 90 countries. They belong to more than 5,000 different Native cultures and speak more than 4,000 languages. These people represent about 5% of the world’s population.
Among the world, although they have different customs and cultures, they face the harsh realities: ejection from their family lands, being denied the opportunity to express their culture, physical attacks, and treatment as second-class citizens. Many organizations work on minority people’s rights and issues such as Amnesty, ActionAid, UN, and some others. We discuss 6 ways we can help to improve the rights of ethnic minorities
1. International law and Indigenous Peoples
Indigenous or minority Peoples’ rights are laid out in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Native Peoples, adopted in 2007. The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) is the central body within the UN system that deals with Indigenous issues related to economic and social development, culture, the environment, education, health, and human rights. The Forum was established in 2000.
2. Land rights
With a great example of Rohingya, many minority Peoples have been uprooted from their land due to discriminatory policies or armed conflict. Native land rights activists face violence and even murder when they seek to defend their lands. Human rights abuses related to their land rights and culture have prompted growing numbers of Indigenous Peoples to leave their traditional lands for towns and cities.Â
3. Maintaining their cultural identities
Ethnic people lived in the world for thousands of years. They belong to so many kinds of different cultures. We have to make sure peaceful efforts to maintain their culture. More than 20% of the carbon stored above ground in the world’s forests is found inland managed by Indigenous Peoples in the Amazon Basin, Mesoamerica, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Indonesia. We must support Indigenous peoples and preserve this knowledge as a vital tool to protect the environment and tackle climate change.
4. Safety from violence and abuse
Indigenous peoples are often demoted and face discrimination in countries’ legal systems, leaving them even more vulnerable to violence and abuse. Indigenous human rights defenders who speak out face intimidation and violence are often supported by the state. In addition, individuals may be physically attacked and killed just for belonging to an Indigenous people.
5. Ensure children’s educational language
Minority children use mainly dominant languages. Languages of instruction can and do have extremely negative consequences for the achievement of goals. We use arguments and research results from international law, education, applied linguistics, psychology, and sociology. The dominant-language medium education prevents access to education, because of the linguistic, academic, and psychological barriers it creates. We show that this education has a range of serious harmful consequences which violate various aspects of their rights to education and eliminate poverty.
6. Ensure good care for women
Minority ethnic society’s women are less likely to use health care facilities when pregnant because of discrimination and mistreatment; and so, they are more likely to die giving birth. Native women are about six times more likely to die in childbirth than women from the non-Indigenous population. The birth rate for adolescent girls is twice that of the general Guyanese population.
In Kenya, Maasai women are twice as likely to have had no antenatal care, and in Namibia, San women are ten times more likely to give birth without skilled attendance. some women suffer disproportionately from domestic violence as they bear the brunt of frustration and anger, resulting from deep-seated discrimination affecting the wider community.
