In memory of Ben Whitaker, an early and inspired advocate for the cause of minority rights.

State of theWorld’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 20151 Events of 2014 Front cover: A Yi minority woman from Yunnan province stands among a crowd of fellow attendees of the 12th National People’s Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, March 2015. EPA/Wu Hong Inside front cover: A Bedouin girl in southern Israel’s Negev desert. REUTERS/Finbarr O’Reilly Inside back cover: A Garifuna boy stands on a beach in Honduras. Steve Pavey Acknowledgements Minority Rights Group International (MRG) Support our work gratefully acknowledges the support of all Donate at www.minorityrights.org/donate organizations and individuals who gave financial MRG relies on the generous support of institutions and other assistance to this publication, including and individuals to help us secure the rights of CAFOD and the European Union. minorities and indigenous peoples around the world. All donations received contribute directly to © Minority Rights Group International, July 2015. our projects with minorities and indigenous peoples. All rights reserved. Subscribe to our publications at Material from this publication may be reproduced www.minorityrights.org/publications for teaching or other non-commercial purposes. Another valuable way to support us is to subscribe No part of it may be reproduced in any form for to our publications, which offer a compelling commercial purposes without the prior express analysis of minority and indigenous issues and permission of the copyright holders. original research. We also offer specialist training materials and guides on international human rights For further information please contact MRG. A CIP instruments and accessing international bodies. catalogue record of this publication is available from the British Library. Learn more about minority and indigenous communities at www.minorityvoices.org ISBN 978-1-907919-63-3 Visit our online newsroom for stories and multimedia content from minorities and indigenous Published: July 2015 communities around the world. Lead reviewer: Carl Soderbergh Production: The Curved House Copy editing: Sophie Richmond Follow us: Proof reading: Jacqui Lewis Design: Tom Carpenter, Texture @minorityrights Printed in the UK www.facebook.com/minorityrights

Minority Rights Group International 54 Commercial Street, London E1 6LT, This publication is funded by the United Kingdom. European Union. The content is Tel: +44 (0)20 7422 4200 the sole responsibility of Minority Fax: +44 (0)20 7422 4201 Rights Group International and can under no Email: [email protected] circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position Website: www.minorityrights.org of the European Union. Focus on cities

State of theWorld’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 20151 Events of 2014 Edited by Peter Grant Minority Rights Group International Introduction

6 Foreword Rita Izsák, UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues

Part 1 Thematic essays

10 Minority and indigenous peoples’ rights in urban areas Corinne Lennox

22 Minorities and indigenous peoples in cities – conflict and conciliation Chris Chapman

32 Minority and indigenous women and urbanization Nicole Girard

44 Advocacy, participation and inclusion for minorities in urban areas Sajjad Hassan

54 The indigenous experience of urbanization Carolyn Stephens

62 Urbanization, minorities and indigenous peoples: how can the law provide protection? Lucy Claridge

Part 2 Regional overviews

72 Africa Inga Thiemann, Paige Wilhite Jennings and Laura A. Young

106 Americas Mariah Grant, Alfredo Gutierrez Carrizo, Janet Oropeza Eng, Carolyn Stephens and Derek Verbakel

136 Asia and Oceania Michael Caster, Shikha Dilawri, Nicole Girard, Hanna Hindstrom, Matthew Naumann and Jacqui Zalcberg

202 Europe Bill Bowring, Paul Iganski, Shorena Kobaidze, Nataliya Novakova, Tom Palmer and Federica Prina

226 Middle East and North Africa Sarah El Ashmawy, Tom Palmer, Miriam Puttick and Derek Verbakel

Part 3 Peoples under Threat

250 Peoples under Threat 2015 Mark Lattimer and Derek Verbakel

Part 4 Reference

267 Selected abbreviations 268 Contributors 271 Editor’s acknowledgements Foreword Rita Izsák, UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues

6 Foreword State of the World’s Minorities 2009 inorities and indigenous peoples of disaggregated data or overlooked altogether by have played a central role in cities local authorities. M around the world for centuries, The complex issues and challenges of urban whether as established communities with a indigenous and minority groups, which are presence spanning generations, or as new arrivals often rooted in social and institutional prejudice, in search of security, livelihoods and greater cannot be addressed solely through conventional freedoms. From New York’s Chinatown to the approaches to urban poverty reduction. Cities rich historical fabric of Mosul, until recently one must also proactively acknowledge and tackle of the most diverse areas in Iraq, under the right specific dimensions of discrimination. As with conditions minority and indigenous communities gender, disability, age and other potential areas have not only been able to prosper but also of vulnerability, planners and policy makers need contributed in numerous ways to the growth, to develop specific strategies that tackle minority development and diversity of their cities. For this and indigenous concerns. While the experiences to happen, however, adequate protection and of minority and indigenous communities policies must be in place to ensure that minority vary widely and cannot be easily generalized, and indigenous residents can freely and equally common priorities include increased security enjoy the opportunities that urban areas offer. in local neighbourhoods, heritage conservation, Sadly, all too often this is not the case. Since protection from evictions, equitable service being appointed UN Special Rapporteur on delivery and an end to segregation, both social minority issues in 2011, I regularly receive and physical. complaints and letters from minority groups from This impressive volume put together by all regions reporting allegations of discrimination Minority Rights Group International (MRG) in urban contexts. Even in countries with high highlights the continued failure of many levels of economic development, well-functioning municipal officials, city planners and other public services and a stated commitment urban decision makers to recognize and support to equality, many minority and indigenous their minority and indigenous populations. populations still live in slum-like conditions Furthermore, it draws attention to the limited on the urban margins. Other challenges facing understanding among rights activists of the minority and indigenous city dwellers include specific implications that urbanization has lack of access to appropriate services, inadequate for minority and indigenous communities. In housing, including threats of evictions, and other Canada, where the majority of the country’s manifestations of social exclusion. In addition, First Nations population now live in urban many face the daily threat of violence and areas, entrenched exclusion and discrimination intimidation from local gangs, right-wing groups have pushed young community members into and even police. Minorities and indigenous criminal gangs. In Bangladesh, Dhaka’s Dalit peoples in cities also must contend with how well population are mostly concentrated in isolated cities welcome their contributions to the cultural and unsanitary ‘colonies’ where basic services urban landscape and facilitate their participation such as water access are largely absent. In in the development of vibrant, multicultural Uganda, poverty and crop failure have driven urban identities. many Karamajong to migrate to Kampala, Yet I note that while some cities have taken where community members can end up engaged steps to adapt to certain urban issues, such as in begging, prostitution or being exploited in developing inclusively designed public spaces other ways. Though each example is unique, the or gender-sensitive transportation to respond to common thread between them is the particular challenges that women face in urban areas, the challenges that urban areas present for these concerns of minorities and indigenous peoples, groups. on the other hand, have yet to be mainstreamed This volume is an important contribution into urban policy to the same degree. As a result, to better understanding some of the challenges their predicament is often invisible in official facing indigenous and minority urban censuses or city planning, disguised by an absence communities, whose struggles often remain

State of the World’s Minorities Foreword 7 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 invisible. Moreover, while this report provides sector, to strengthen understanding of how a global overview with extensive and well- these challenges can be addressed and actively researched examples, it also asks the important improve the situation of marginalized urban questions often forgotten when thinking about communities. In many countries, in fact, this field: how can we better understand the minority and indigenous rights activism is alive challenges and causes of discrimination against and well in cities, where the necessary networks and marginalization of minorities and indigenous and resources do exist and could be readily peoples in urban environments, as well as propose mobilized. Though this volume often presents solutions and strategies of prevention that can a disturbing picture of the predicament facing truly work in practice? minorities and indigenous peoples in urban areas, In my view, it is essential that minority and it also includes some inspiring examples of urban indigenous advocates reach out with a view to communities taking steps to secure their rights. It developing a greater dialogue with development remains my hope that it will inspire all readers to practitioners and policy makers in the urban support indigenous and minority communities in the struggle to retain their unique cultures, while Below: A Dalit community in the Pongue benefiting from the opportunities that urban life Sweeper Colony in central Dhaka, Bangladesh. can offer. ■ Minority Rights Group/Livia Saccardi

8 Foreword State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 State of the World’s Minorities Foreword 9 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Minority and indigenous peoples’ rights in urban areas Corinne Lennox Introduction make cities safer, sustainable, democratic and s our cities grow, they are becoming equitable. more diverse in terms of ethnic General policy approaches to the urban poor A identity, cultural life, languages will not be sufficient to fulfil specific minority spoken and religions practised. Minorities and and indigenous peoples’ rights nor to assess the indigenous peoples are pushed to cities because impact of urban policy on these groups. These of poverty, violence, forced evictions from land rights are important for establishing a framework or poor social services in rural areas; others are for policy and planning that is consistent with the pulled by the prospect of better opportunities. international human rights law commitments of Many have lived in cities for generations and states. Attention to these rights is also important some are newly arrived from countries in for operational purposes. A human rights-based turmoil. While some can find support from other approach can mitigate potentially negative community members to integrate into city life, impacts of policy and also help to make policy most remain on the margins. more effective in tackling key challenges faced The current proposals for the Sustainable by cities, such as social cohesion, rule of law, Development Goals include Goal 11, ‘Make security, livelihoods support, public participation cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, and environmental sustainability. resilient and sustainable’. Without attention This chapter will examine urbanization, to the situation of minorities and indigenous keeping in mind the four key pillars of the peoples in cities, this goal will be much harder minority rights framework: the right to exist, the to reach. Factors such as the barriers created by right to non-discrimination, the right to identity discrimination, disproportionate levels of poverty, and the right to participation. Each rights pillar inter-communal tensions and unequal access to will highlight some important issues for urban political participation will undermine strategies policy to consider and some suggestions for that are blind to the specific issues faced by future action. Many of these issues will then be many minority and indigenous communities in explored in further depth through the thematic cities. The best way forward for urban policy and chapters that follow. planning is to make minorities and indigenous peoples visible and active participants in tackling Recognizing diversity in cities the many challenges that lie ahead for global The increasing population of minorities and urbanization. indigenous peoples in cities around the world is There are many unanswered questions for largely invisible in public policy and statistics. urban policy and planning about the place This is partly because dominant groups in cities of minority and indigenous communities in fail to acknowledge diversity and also because cities. Do cities offer more opportunities for many minorities and indigenous peoples occupy inclusion or new dimensions of exclusion? Can highly marginal spaces in terms of settlement, cultural identities flourish in urban spaces or employment and/or legal status. Take Santiago, do cities homogenize groups? Is discrimination for example, where almost half of Chile’s on the basis of an ethnic or religious identity Mapuche indigenous people live, yet, according less common in the city, or does discrimination to Andrea Aravena Reyes, Santiago office chief persist and even take on new forms? Is for the National Corporation of Indigenous governance in cities more representative of Development (CONADI), for most Chileans diversity than federal governance? What can ‘the Mapuche is still thought of as a person with be learned from the resilience strategies used an indigenous surname, living in the southern by minorities and indigenous peoples in cities? region of Araucanía, belonging to an old- These are just some of the issues that ought to fashioned community and fighting for rights to feature in what seems to be an under-researched land. All the rest are ignored and segregated.’ Or dimension of urban studies.1 Yet as the current China, where an estimated 100,000 Africans live volume shows, attention to the situation of in Guangzhou city alone, constituting the largest minorities and indigenous peoples is needed to community of African descent in Asia, where

State of the World’s Minorities Minority and indigenous 11 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 peoples’ rights in urban areas Right: Syrian refugee boy in the underground shelter where he lives with his family, El Akbiya, Lebanon. UNHCR/S. Baldwin many are left in legal limbo due to strict visa measures enforced by municipal authorities. A vital part of protecting minorities and indigenous peoples is recognizing that they exist in cities. States have an obligation to protect the existence of minorities and indigenous peoples. This means ensuring that minorities and indigenous peoples are physically safe but also that their identities are protected. Urban life can pose a threat to these groups on both of these counts. Melting-pot approaches to managing cities can offer some benefits but risk making minority identities invisible. Whereas national constitutions and policy might acknowledge different identities across the state, the municipal- level governance may be blind to the need for recognition in urban policy and planning as well. Conversely, in some countries, it is municipalities that are dealing with high diversity that have taken more proactive steps than the national government to accommodate the daily challenges of multiculturalism. The diversity of minority and indigenous communities themselves is one such challenge. Groups may have different needs, different rights claims, varying socio-economic statuses and a range of legal statuses. One city will typically comprise a range of ethnic, religious or linguistic group constitutes the local majority; frequently minorities and possibly indigenous peoples; provisions are made for forms of territorial they might be nationals of the state who are autonomy in such cases and resources allocated either historically resident in urban centres or accordingly. In most cities, however, minorities have migrated from rural areas. Alongside these and indigenous peoples do not have the same communities will often be migrants, asylum opportunities for recognition of territorial seekers and refugees or internally displaced autonomy and consequentially their right to persons (IDPs) whose legal status will be far more participate in decision making that affects them tenuous and thus their marginalization usually can be overlooked. The state may consider that greater. This presents a complex landscape for its obligations to minorities and indigenous urban policy to respond to and different rights to peoples do not extend to those who have accommodate. migrated away from their home regions to urban Minorities and indigenous peoples can also areas. For example, extra budgetary support often be invisible in cities because governments might be offered for teaching in minority and may make no provision for recognition of their indigenous languages for schools in minority and rights in these spaces. Minority and indigenous indigenous regions, but not to schools in cities peoples’ rights protection is often tied to a that nevertheless service a minority or indigenous particular space where a minority or indigenous population alongside other groups. Conversely,

12 Minority and indigenous State of the World’s Minorities peoples’ rights in urban areas and Indigenous Peoples 2015 governments may divert budgetary support from nearly half of the world’s refugees now settle in rural areas to support minorities or indigenous cities and towns instead of camps. For most, peoples in urban centres, thus undermining self- this resettlement will last for many years and government capacities elsewhere. can create tensions or exploitation by local Cities can be harsh and violent places for populations. minority and indigenous communities. Their Inter-communal conflict can erupt over common position of marginalization also means competition for space and resources and is often they will typically have weaker access to justice or stirred by political leaders seeking to profit from remedies for human rights violations committed factionalism. In Durban and Johannesburg, against them. Inter-communal tensions can result immigrants are being housed in temporary camps in discrimination between groups; in the worst as xenophobia and high unemployment have cases, this can escalate into violent conflict. Many triggered violent attacks, resulting in the deaths cities are historically known to be flashpoints of of six immigrants in Durban in 2015. inter-ethnic and inter-religious conflict, from Addressing the invisibility of minorities Belfast to Jerusalem and Sarajevo to New Delhi. and indigenous peoples in urban spaces is one There is also a fast-growing number of urban important step towards dealing with these refugees: according to the Office of the UN problems. Cities can reform their data collection High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), practices to ensure that minority and indigenous

State of the World’s Minorities Minority and indigenous 13 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 peoples’ rights in urban areas identities are counted through disaggregating many who belonged to dominant communities data along ethnic, religious and linguistic lines, in their country of origin often find they are along with important intersecting identities now a marginalized minority. The Urban of age and gender. The participation of the Audit’s 2012 Perception Survey of European communities themselves in the data collection cities, for example, found that on average, only process is also vital. Minority and indigenous 73 per cent of people agreed that the presence community members can be trained in data of foreigners was good for their city. Others collection techniques and are frequently better might find that they were discriminated against equipped to build trust between researchers and for their religion in their home region while in the local community. They can also enhance cities instead they face ethnic discrimination. data collection, for example, by identifying the Nationals of the country will likely find that types of research methods that will best involve discrimination against their group is not limited target groups and key issues of relevance to the to rural areas and structures of discrimination community. are remade in urban spaces. In Mexico City, one The proposed Sustainable Development Goal survey conducted by the Secretariat of Social 11 also calls for states to ‘enhance inclusive Development revealed that 40 per cent of ‘non- and sustainable urbanization and capacity for Native’ residents ‘would organize protests to participatory, integrated and sustainable human impede indigenous settlements near their homes’. settlement planning and management in all Discrimination in cities can take many forms. countries’. This will be facilitated by formal Direct discrimination can occur, for example, recognition of urban diversity and the creation when public servants from dominant groups of structures for participation in decision delivering services perpetuate discriminatory making. There is often a wide range of civil attitudes towards minorities and indigenous society organizations in urban centres that seek peoples in cities, thus denying them equal access to support minority, indigenous and immigrant to many services. communities. In Santiago, some 70 Mapuche Minority and indigenous victims of crime organizations are active in advocating for their can find that the police do not respond equally rights, helping to reduce their urban invisibility to their complaints and impunity may be and the exclusion that stems from this. widespread. Practices of ethnic profiling and Governments can work with these civil society disproportionately high incarceration rates organizations (CSOs) to improve urban policy. are also common. In Tel Aviv, 30 per cent of In Canada, for example, the federal government inmates at Ofek prison for minors are Ethiopian has adopted in 2014 a renewed national Urban Jews, but the community constitutes only 3 per Aboriginal Strategy, which provides funding cent of the national population. In Los Angeles, to urban indigenous organizations to promote the Police Department (LAPD) has undergone economic inclusion of urban First Nations numerous federally mandated reforms to respond individuals and communities. to decades of ethnic discrimination practices. A 2009 Harvard study on policing in Los Angeles The right to non-discrimination found that the LAPD has dramatically increased Discrimination in access to employment, the number of non-white police officers to 55 housing, health and education are among the per cent of the force, reflecting the city’s ethnic push factors that prompt many people from diversity more accurately. Community policing minority or indigenous communities to migrate approaches have also been adopted, such as to cities. Discrimination can decline in urban community forums, increasing the proportion spaces because identity differences are less visible of ethnic minorities who report a positive or structures of discrimination, such as local relationship between their community and the traditional hierarchies, less pronounced. LAPD. However, the hopes of overcoming the Access to adequate housing may be denied to barriers of discrimination in urban spaces are minorities and indigenous peoples who apply for not always realized. Among immigrant groups, government support or who seek private market

14 Minority and indigenous State of the World’s Minorities peoples’ rights in urban areas and Indigenous Peoples 2015 accommodation. In many cities, this will leave urban gangs, harming wider social cohesion. The them with no option but to live in the worst absence of traditional occupations in cities also slum areas with little security of tenure, and leaves many minorities and indigenous peoples inadequate water and sanitation. This can also with limited use for their skills. produce residential segregation along ethnic or Indirect discrimination can also be a major religious lines, intersected with class. The end problem: policies and legislation may not result is disparity in access to adequate housing; be attuned to the realities of minorities and a 2010 UN-Habitat study found that in Mexico indigenous peoples, resulting in unintentional City, for example, while 16.4 per cent of all harm to these groups. For example, the houses have only one room, 34.3 per cent of requirement of a formal legal address to register indigenous people’s homes fall into this category. for health and education facilities might In Vancouver, indigenous people constitute 3 disproportionately affect minority and indigenous per cent of the population but 30 per cent of communities, which often have a higher degree the homeless. In the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, of housing insecurity. more than half the population are of African Minorities and indigenous peoples have a right descent, despite comprising just 7 per cent of the to not be discriminated against on the basis of, population in the city’s richer neighbourhoods. inter alia, race, national, ethnic or indigenous Minorities and indigenous peoples are also origin, religion or language. There are several more likely to be pushed into employment in the options for legislative and policy reform to help informal economy, where wages are lower and reduce discrimination. legal protection against discrimination is much Regularization of legal status can enable weaker. One study by UN-Habitat in 2010 minorities and indigenous peoples to access found that Maasai indigenous women selling livelihoods in the formal economy where artefacts in urban centres in Kajiado district in protection against discrimination is stronger. southern Kenya earned less than non-Maasai Labour rights associations for the informal sector traders, who were better organized and more can be supported to better include minorities able to secure trading licences. Discrimination and indigenous peoples. In Pune, Dalit women also leads to minorities and indigenous peoples are part of a workers’ cooperative, SWaCH often being concentrated in the most hazardous (Solid Waste Collection and Handling), that and polluting jobs. The majority of sweepers in negotiated an agreement with the municipal Lahore, Pakistan are Christians, occupying the authority to have exclusive rights to manage lowest ranks of employment in the sanitation the waste recycling, a move that has improved services. In Pune, India’s ninth largest city, nearly wages, safety and security for the workers. 90 per cent of waste-pickers are women, most Targeted micro-credit programmes can help of whom are Dalits. Minority and indigenous minorities and indigenous peoples to overcome women in many of the world’s cities make up a discrimination in accessing financial services. large proportion of domestic servants with little For example, the government of India has labour rights protection. In the Philippines, a launched in 2015 a Venture Capital Fund for 2005 UN-Habitat report estimated that 50,000 Scheduled Castes to support Dalits to finance indigenous women unable to find employment in innovative enterprise and green businesses. urban areas have migrated abroad to work, often Support to small businesses run by minorities as domestic servants. and indigenous peoples can also help diversify In schools, children can face discrimination their employment opportunities; the Norwegian from pupils or teachers, often with little Centre for Multicultural Value Creation is assistance for those who do not speak the assisting immigrants to start their businesses by dominant language of the city. This leads providing advisory services, coaching and training to higher drop-out rates for minority and in business establishment. indigenous children and, in turn, lower levels Land titling and more accessible tenure policies of employment. This also leaves some children in informal settlements can give minorities and vulnerable to recruitment into ethnically based indigenous peoples more security and a legal

State of the World’s Minorities Minority and indigenous 15 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 peoples’ rights in urban areas address to access other services. Such policies Discrimination (ICERD). Special measures can be particularly important for minority and are targeted programmes to help individuals indigenous women who may lack equal access overcome discrimination in accessing specific to land rights under traditional or national law human rights. These can be appropriate especially or who have migrated to urban areas to escape where disparities are evident or heightened in gender-based violence. urban contexts. In the urban area of South East Schools can offer integration programmes for Queensland, Australia, for example, the Urban minority and indigenous children through special Institute for Indigenous Health runs several language training, parental outreach and fee programmes on urban Aboriginal health designed waivers. In Athens, a Filipino migrant workers’ and led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander union, Kasapi Hellas, runs their own primary health workers, including dedicated health school, attended by a majority of Filipino clinics and targeted public health campaigns for children but also other ethnic minorities and Aboriginal people to address community-specific Greeks. Intercultural schools (with more than 45 health disparities. per cent of students with a migrant background) Minorities and indigenous peoples often have also been created in Greece to offer live alongside other urban poor people who specialized teaching in cross-cultural education may experience other forms of discrimination and Greek as a foreign language. and inequality. There is a need to be sensitive UNESCO has been supporting anti-racism to inter-communal tension that might arise initiatives by launching in 2004 the International from any policies targeted at minorities and Coalition of Cities against Racism. The coalition indigenous peoples, or from the exclusion of brings together more than 500 member cities to these groups from mainstream pro-poor policies. share experiences of tackling forms of racism and Transparency is important to demonstrate the promoting inclusion. Regional coalitions have aims of targeted policies as one component adopted Ten Point Action Plans, which help of broader urban poverty reduction strategies. to focus plans and strengthen accountability. Data collection is one tool to show the need One of the first steps taken in one participating for targeted measures. In Canada, for example, city, Quilmes, Argentina, was to administer a the Ontario provincial government has an survey asking residents to provide information ‘Our Health Counts’ Urban Aboriginal Health on discrimination, which has served as a baseline Database Project to gather data on health for data collection and a guide for planning indicators and related social determinants of appropriate policy responses. health, such as access to adequate housing. Legislation and complaints mechanisms on non-discrimination can be tightened to ensure Protecting cultural and access to basic rights in cities. In the US, the religious identity Department of Housing and Urban Development Cities are the most diverse multicultural spaces oversees the Fair Housing Act (1968), which on the planet. The global metropoles, in prohibits housing discrimination based on race, particular, bring together cultural and religious colour, religion, national origin, sex, disability life from around the world. This is a great or familial status. The act is accompanied by an opportunity for urbanites to sample the music, enforcement mechanism, which will investigate food, art, dance, languages and traditions of cases of alleged discrimination. The Fair Housing many identities and to forge new identities Initiatives Program supports public and private from cultural fusion. The proximity of so many organizations to combat discrimination in differing communities, however, can also create access to housing, including investing in public tensions over competition for scarce resources, education campaigns to ensure compliance with political power and physical space to express the Fair Housing Act among private landlords. one’s identity. City governments can also adopt ‘special States should protect the rights of minorities measures’ under the International Convention and indigenous peoples to practise their on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial cultural and religious identity freely. However,

16 Minority and indigenous State of the World’s Minorities peoples’ rights in urban areas and Indigenous Peoples 2015 assimilation pressures can be a major problem for have all been denied permission to build minority and indigenous communities, especially or restore places of worship, while Russian those that have migrated to cities. Discrimination Orthodox churches are growing in number in can prompt individuals to try to blend into their the city. new society in the hopes that their identity will For communities whose cultural life is tied be less of an obstacle in accessing employment or to land and natural resources, the city will housing, for example. Such enforced invisibility offer little support to sustain such practices. requires shedding visible signs of religious In some urban regions, the spread of cities is identity, changing names, abandoning traditional encroaching illegally on ancestral lands, usually languages and other strategies to hide one’s ethnic without consent or compensation. Processes of or religious affiliation. In more extreme cases, so-called ‘gentrification’ (in the global North) there may also be open hostility against certain or ‘modernization’ (in the global South) are groups and masking one’s identity becomes a pushing minority and indigenous communities matter of safety and even survival. out of their neighbourhoods in the name of There can be differing levels of integration development and diminishing cultural diversity. sought by different groups within minority In China, the Old Town of Kashgar, Xinjiang, and indigenous communities. This can be has been home to Uyghurs for centuries and particularly pronounced in cities that contain is organized into distinct neighbourhoods that multi-generational immigrant groups. Older support Uyghur community relations. However, generations might cling more closely to their Kashgar is being demolished to make way for distinct ethnic, religious or linguistic identities, new high rise construction, without the effective while younger generations are seeking greater participation of Uyghurs in the redevelopment opportunities for multicultural inclusion in of the city. Similarly in Istanbul, the historic highly diverse cities. The urban space can present Roma settlement of Sulukule was demolished greater choice for degrees of integration sought in the name of urban regeneration, displacing by communities. On the other hand, lack of some 3,500 Roma to new housing in a remote service provision that is responsive to the needs neighbourhood, with higher rent, few jobs and of different groups can make some minorities inadequate compensation. and indigenous peoples highly isolated from Traditional livelihoods may also be difficult mainstream life in the city. Urban policy needs to pursue in the city in the absence of relevant to take account of these multi-generational needs, resources and markets. Loss of cultural and including along gender lines. religious traditions can also impact on minorities Practising one’s cultural or religious identity and indigenous people seeking to return to their might also be more difficult in new urban place of origin, prompting feelings of dislocation environments. For example, there may be fewer or even practices of alienation in home places of worship for one’s religion or fewer communities. opportunities to use one’s mother tongue, Formal and informal spaces can be supported including in schools. States can adopt positive for protecting and promoting the expression measures to enable minorities and indigenous of minority and indigenous cultural life in peoples to express their identity in community cities. In Montevideo, for example, the Afro- with other members of their group. This may Uruguayan House of Culture promotes a wider include eliminating restrictive planning laws understanding of the values, customs, culture for religious buildings or providing teaching and history of Afro-descendants in Uruguay. materials on minority cultural life. In Moscow, Such spaces can also support wider economic and the mayor has refused to permit the building social inclusion aims. For example, in Liverpool, of any new mosques, arguing that most of the the Kuumba Imani Millennium Centre was Muslims in the city are not permanent residents originally founded by the CSO Liverpool and therefore have no entitlement to such Black Sisters. It now serves as a resource centre provision for worship. Muslims, Jews, Hare and meeting and training space for the local Krishna and various Protestant communities community, particularly for members of black

State of the World’s Minorities Minority and indigenous 17 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 peoples’ rights in urban areas Right: An Aymara indigenous woman casts her The governance of cities represents an vote at a polling station in Patamanta, Bolivia, important opportunity for fulfilling the rights 12 October 2014. EPA/Martin Alipaz of minorities and indigenous peoples to participate in decision making that affects them and ethnic minority groups. In Canada, there is or the regions where they live. In most cities, a nation-wide network of nearly 120 Friendship the proportion of minorities and indigenous Centres that provide culturally relevant support peoples in the population is not matched by the programmes and services to First Nations people proportion of representatives from minority or transitioning into or living in urban areas. indigenous groups in government: in London, for example, the population of ‘black and minority Participation in public and ethnic’ people is around 40 per cent but the political life number of London councillors of this identity is Wider studies on urban poverty have found that only about 15 per cent, with about 30 per cent of two major factors for poverty reduction are ‘the those being minority women. extent to which the urban poor are organized One advantage of municipal governance and the nature of their relationship with local is that local elections are often open to voter government’.2 On both counts, minorities and participation by resident non-citizens, which can indigenous peoples can be at a disadvantage. increase the participation of some categories of They may have less social capital and other minorities, such as refugees or migrant workers. capacities to organize in public life and they However, not all countries will extend voting often lack representation in political life and/or rights to non-citizens. In other cases, the lack of patronage ties to local government actors. Across secure housing – and thus a legal address – can both issues, exclusion due to discrimination is a impinge on voter registration. These problems are root cause. not unique to minorities and indigenous peoples, Participation in public life can be one means but they are often disproportionately affected by of accessing political decision making. Minorities such barriers due to discrimination in access to have the right to form associations, including adequate housing or highly restrictive citizenship across borders, and in many cities there will criteria. In the US, the mayors of New York, be a diverse range of such organizations. Chicago and Los Angeles have launched a new Individuals may also seek to join other forms of Cities for Citizenship programme to naturalize associational life such as trade unions, housing the 8.8 million US legal permanent residents who associations or other political organizations. The are eligible for citizenship: besides being excluded 2012 Immigrant Citizens Survey in Europe, from voting, an estimated 52 per cent of them however, shows great variation across cities on have low incomes. the participation of immigrants in such groups. Minorities and indigenous peoples can In general, immigrants in the studied cities were have success in seeking political office at the slightly more likely to join immigrant or ethnic municipal level. In some countries there are associations than to join general trade unions minority and indigenous-focused associations or political parties, suggesting possibly a lack of such representatives, such as the National of trust or practices of exclusion in these latter Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials in the institutions. In other regions, so-called slum US. Social capital for standing in elections can dweller associations have played a major role in be easier to harness in cities where ethnic or improving basic conditions and security of tenure religious groups are concentrated and national for those living in urban slums. More research structural barriers to political inclusion are less is needed on whether minorities and indigenous pronounced. Conversely, politicians can use peoples have an equal rate of participation in ethnic or religious affiliation as vote-seeking such associations or face similar practices of patronage, which can have the effect of excluding discrimination. It cannot be assumed that urban the most marginalized minorities from political poor organizations and participatory processes are representation. Without this vertical patronage inclusive of minorities and indigenous peoples. individuals often cannot broker access to essential

18 Minority and indigenous State of the World’s Minorities peoples’ rights in urban areas and Indigenous Peoples 2015 institutions like schools, public services or micro- structures for representatives of CSOs that credit. have been formed by minority groups. In In many rural spaces or regions where minority Denmark, for example, the Integration Act or indigenous communities constitute a majority (2005) recognizes that Integration Councils or have ancestral ties to the land they may can be established at the municipal level to give have achieved recognition of self-governance advice on integration and nationally there is a and territorial autonomy. These structures will Council for Ethnic Minorities, founded in 1999. often not be appropriate in cities. In such cases, However, there are mixed views on the success of forms of cultural autonomy can be used instead these institutions, which have no legal authority, to empower groups to exercise governance may not be fully representative and exist against over key religious or cultural affairs. In Mexico a backdrop of integration policy that has been City, which was founded on ancestral lands of criticized as too assimilationist. For the right to indigenous peoples, a Council for Indigenous participate in decision making to be fulfilled, Consultation and Participation for Mexico City participation of minorities and indigenous has been established. The council reviews policies peoples must be full and effective, with genuine that will impact on indigenous peoples but also involvement in democratic processes and the cultural diversity initiatives in general. opportunity to influence outcomes. Such Many cities have created similar consultative consultative institutions must also be transparent

State of the World’s Minorities Minority and indigenous 19 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 peoples’ rights in urban areas and representative, offering equal opportunities Museum’ where communities share their cultures for the participation of minority and indigenous and an exposition of local products. women and different age groups. These efforts can start with stated commitments by city governments on supporting Building the benefits of diversity diversity, non-discrimination and outreach to into cities CSOs engaged on these issues. One way to As urbanization increases and our cities become operationalize these commitments is through even more diverse, policy makers need to funding: for example, the intercultural cities think through the implications of cultural and index shows that many cities have used the religious plurality for the future of urban space. criterion of ‘interculturalism’ to allocate grants Diversity has many benefits for cities if managed for public events. In Geneva, for example, up to effectively, including with respect for the rights of 60 per cent of grants are allocated on this basis. minorities and indigenous peoples. Further research is needed on intercultural In response to the need for more analysis of relations in cities. In general, data collection the benefits of diversity in cities, the Council can be more reflective of ethnic and religious of Europe launched in 2008 a project on diversity. This will help uncover inequalities and ‘Intercultural cities: governance and policies can identify major barriers to inclusion. Research for diverse communities’. This is a major can also pinpoint some of the unique resilience programme of research and policy exchange strategies used by minorities and indigenous that ‘supports cities in reviewing their policies peoples to cope in urban settings; for example, through an intercultural lens and developing how do individuals deal with the barriers of comprehensive intercultural strategies to help discrimination in accessing services and what them manage diversity positively and realize the can be learned from this to tackle other social diversity advantage’. The programme has created barriers to integration? In Europe, for example, an ‘intercultural cities index’ and other tools to the Immigrant Citizenship Survey focuses on measure how cities are supporting diversity in large cities in Europe and provides researchers several sectors from governance to public space, and policy makers with data on key dimensions business support and cultural life. More than of integration. 60 cities in Europe, North America and Asia Innovative data collection tools can also be have completed the index with support from the applied: for example, social distance surveys project. or isolation indexes can measure how people More interventions are needed to facilitate living side by side in cities view other ethnic and multicultural space and interaction in cities. religious groups. This data can show where inter- Research by scholars such as Ashutosh Varshney communal relations are tense and can be used to on inter-communal relations, for example, devise policy responses to reduce the potential for suggests that ethnic and religious diversity in conflict. The use of the ‘transect walk’ method, associational forms of civic engagement – for where researchers and community members walk example in professional associations, trade unions together through community spaces to discuss or activity clubs – can help to counter attempts and document various issues, can also be helpful by political leaders to polarize communities to map spatial inequalities, communal segregation along ethnic or religious lines. Shared cultural and shared space in urban settlements. Another space can be very significant for bridging important data collection tool is the impact ethnic and religious divides and building the assessment. Impact assessments can reduce day-to-day foundations of integrated social the likelihood of urban policy and planning life. For example, building a sports centre or exacerbating discrimination or inter-communal organizing multicultural festivals can give people tensions by measuring how proposed activities opportunities to interact in a neutral space. In or legislation might affect ethnic or religious Mexico City, the ‘Feria de los Colores, Sonidos y communities differently. Affected communities Sabores – Interculturalidad a través de tus sentidos’ participate in the assessment process at different includes a forum for public debate, a ‘Living stages, from design to implementation and

20 Minority and indigenous State of the World’s Minorities peoples’ rights in urban areas and Indigenous Peoples 2015 evaluation, to provide vital data on potentially should include disaggregated data on the positive or negative impacts of proposed situation of minorities and indigenous peoples, activities. Impact can be measured against several including along gender and age lines. ■ variables, including existing state obligations to respect, protect and fulfil human rights standards.

Conclusion Endnotes The High-Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the 1. Good, K.R, Turgeon, L. and Triadafilopoulos, T., Post-2015 Agenda concluded in its report: ‘Cities Segmented Cities? How are where the battle for sustainable development Urban Contexts Shape will be won or lost.’ Giving attention to the Ethnic and Nationalist Politics, Vancouver, UBC rights of minorities and indigenous peoples in Press, 2014; Wood, cities will be essential to winning this battle. P. and Landry, C., The Intercultural City: This will also offer general collective benefits, Planning for Diversity such as conflict reduction, better environmental Advantage, London, Earthscan, 2007; Scott sustainability, greater revenue and less inequality. A. Bollens, On Narrow Cultural, religious and ethnic diversity in Ground: Urban Policy and Conflict in Jerusalem and cities is a fact and will continue to grow as Belfast. Albany, NY: State urban spaces expand. We cannot ignore this. University of New York Press, 2000; Ashutosh This diversity has the potential to make or break Varshney, ‘Ethnic Conflict our cities. With the right measures in place, in Urban Asia’, The Cities Papers, 2014, http:// minorities and indigenous peoples can be equal citiespapers.ssrc.org/ethnic- partners in making urban life flourish for all. conflict-in-urban-asia/. 2. Satterthwaite, D. and Mitlin, D., Reducing Urban Recommendations Poverty in the Global South, • Policies for reducing the exclusion of minorities Abingdon, Routledge, 2014, p. 7. and indigenous peoples in cities should be devised with the full participation of the affected communities, with due consideration for representation also along gender and age lines. • Respect should be given for self-identification and for enabling individuals and communities to define the transformation of their own cultural and religious identity through urban life. • Urban policy should measure the impact on discrimination of urban development plans. Participatory impact assessments to analyse the potential effects of activities on inter-communal relations and inequality should be used for policy planning. • Legislative reform and monitoring tools for reducing discrimination in cities should be adopted. • The legal regularization of minorities and indigenous peoples living in cities should be prioritized, including offering secure legal status, housing tenure, employment protection, access to health care, permits for places of worship and registration in schools. • Research and data collection on urban areas

State of the World’s Minorities Minority and indigenous 21 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 peoples’ rights in urban areas Minorities and indigenous peoples in cities – conflict and conciliation Chris Chapman arely do cities simply mirror the Below: A Syrian Kurdish refugee waits for dynamics of the country they are transportation at the Turkish border after fleeing R situated in. At the very least, large cities, northern Aleppo, an area dominated by ISIS particularly capitals, magnify and concentrate the insurgents. REUTERS/Murad Sezer trends and developments that mark a country’s history. And often they serve as testing grounds denied equal access to resources such as public for new phenomena, or even form their own services or their identity and culture is not micro-societies, with demographics, economies respected. Cities can also be highly symbolic and politics that are markedly different from the in their own right, being seen as a focus for countries they are located in. As foci of economic the aspirations of a people – as is the case with activity, they attract populations on the move, Jerusalem, regarded by both Jewish Israelis and and these in some cases significantly change the Palestinians as a religious centre and as their ethnic or religious make-up of the city. It might respective national capital. Kirkuk, a few hundred be a religious minority fleeing persecution in miles to the east, is seen by the Kurds of Iraq as another country, or an indigenous people evicted their Jerusalem, due to long-standing grievances from their rural territory. In some cases the over Saddam Hussein’s attempts to engineer demographic change is more subtle and gradual. the city’s demographics by expelling Kurds and Cities may also become less diverse as a result of providing Arabs with financial incentives to conflict, if a specific community is targeted and settle there. It is also the centre of much of the forced to flee. For instance, since 2003 Baghdad country’s oil wealth. has been transformed: what was once a mixed On the other hand, cities offer many Sunni/Shi’a city with significant Christian and opportunities for promoting conciliation. The Kurdish minorities is now overwhelmingly Shi’a, fact that populations live in close proximity offers with Sunnis comprising as little as 10–15 per opportunities for tension, but also for positive cent of the population. interaction. The state will often be ready to invest Cities can generate inter-communal tension, more resources in conciliation efforts in large most commonly if one or more groups are cities, seeing the potential for greater rewards, deprived of having a say in decision making, and also – particularly in the case of capital

State of the World’s Minorities Minorities and indigenous peoples in 23 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 cities – conflict and conciliation cities – the possibility to create a highly visible conflict has recurred regularly since the 1950s, example that can serve as inspiration for the rest a situation which has by and large been avoided of the country. Belfast is a good example of such in Calabar. an approach. Large-scale infrastructure projects, As in many countries, many ethnic groups if well-managed, can help to provide jobs, in Nigeria have customary leadership structures hence reducing the competition for resources, which may be recognized to a greater or and bring people together – although they can lesser extent by the state. This can have the also result in forced evictions and the pricing advantage of giving legitimacy to local-level of poorer sections of the population out of the conflict resolution mechanisms and allowing for immediate area. New generations may learn to decentralized decision making. In both cities that live side by side with ‘the other’ without feeling were studied, one ethnic group was larger than the same resentments as their mothers and the other two, but in Warri, authorities took a fathers. Cities can also offer a refuge to minorities series of decisions that strengthened the status and indigenous peoples fleeing conflicts: a large of the traditional leadership of the Itsekiri, the population of Kurds now live in Istanbul, many largest ethnic group, vested control over land in having moved there from Turkish Kurdistan in an Itsekiri institution, excluded non-Itsekiri from the east of the country either fleeing the conflict contesting elections and moved a key governance or seeking economic opportunities. The conflict institution to an Itsekiri area. These moves has a way of catching up with them, however: triggered outbreaks of violence beginning in the unknown numbers of those who grow up in 1950s and continuing until 2003. The failure to Istanbul have returned in later years to fight prosecute people responsible for inciting ethno- with the armed wing of the Partiya Karkerên political violence, murder or illegal seizing of Kurdistanê (PKK), the main Kurdish nationalist resources has also been pinpointed as a major organization in Turkey. More recently, protests cause of continuing conflict. In Calabar, by in a number of towns and cities, and at the contrast, decision makers took into account the Syrian border, over the failure of the Turkish need to reassure each group that they would not state to support Kurds besieged by ISIS in the be excluded when deciding on the respective Syrian city of Kobane turned violent when they statuses of traditional leaders. In one case, they were tear-gassed by police. even went against the recommendation of a judicial panel of enquiry that had recommended Top-down intervention in leadership a far-ranging expansion of the Efik king’s powers structures in 2000 (the Efik are the largest group in the city A comparative study by Ukoha Ukiwo of two numerically). cities, Warri and Calabar, in the Delta state The dynamics that either fuelled or checked of Nigeria, suggests that the potential for violence in Warri and Calabar are arguably the conflict significantly increases when the state is same as those that play a role in conflicts in any perceived as intervening in a partisan manner environment, whether urban or rural. The fact to favour one group over others. Both cities are that the city of Warri served as a flashpoint for populated mainly by three ethnic groups – the violence, however, points to a heightened risk Efik, Efut and Qua in Calabar, and the Ijaw, of conflict when populations are concentrated Itsekiri and Urhobo in Warri – but, unusually in a small space and access to resources is poorly for Nigeria, the dynamics between the groups managed. In addition, the official recognition are not structured in terms of indigenes and of traditional leadership structures turned migrants: rather, all groups are considered out to present challenges in the two Nigerian indigenes in the state in question. (In Nigeria’s cities, where ethnic diversity is higher and the federal system, indigenes are groups which settlement areas of different ethnic groups overlap are officially recognized as being native to a more than in rural areas. particular state – one of the federal units of In divided cities, it is common for public Nigeria – a status that carries with it a number services to become segregated along identity lines. of privileges.) In Warri, violent inter-group At its most extreme, this can result in cities –

24 Minorities and indigenous peoples in State of the World’s Minorities cities – conflict and conciliation and Indigenous Peoples 2015 and countries – running an entire set of parallel per cent of Sabean Mandaeans, a pre-Christian public services, at considerable extra expense and religious minority who speak a dialect of requiring an increased bureaucracy to run them. Aramaic, have fled the country. Those who still Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the lived in rural areas have moved to cities: now period following the Balkan wars of the 1990s are the 5,000 remaining Mandaeans are to be found examples. A 2006–7 report by the Organization overwhelmingly in the cities of Baghdad, Kirkuk for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and Maysan. While minorities in Iraq tend to noted that lack of cooperation between the have little faith in the official security forces, governments of Serbia, Kosovo and the minority these bodies offer at least the hope of a more Serb community in Kosovo was blocking moves neutral security umbrella than that provided by to integrate public services there. The report does the militias and tribes that typically dominate the recognize that in some cases, parallel services landscape outside Iraq’s cities. were necessary to cover gaps in coverage, and also Even for Iraq’s larger minorities, however, ‘for the provision of services to some minority life in cities offers a precarious sense of security. communities who avoid seeking aid from the Cities such as Erbil and Baghdad have social Kosovo-run health care facilities due to lack of clubs run by Christians where alcohol is served, trust’. Croat and Bosniak parallel institutions in exempted from the prohibition laws usually the city of Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina) are applied to businesses of this kind. But while in another example. Erbil, which is under the aegis of the Kurdistan Parallel service provision in education can Regional Government, the status of these clubs in some cases contribute to the availability of is not questioned, in Baghdad there are periodic mother-tongue schooling for minority and raids and closures by the authorities. When indigenous children, and ensure that the culture the Chaldean Catholic Our Lady of Salvation of the community is portrayed in a positive Church in Baghdad was attacked by militants light. However, in the absence of state support in October 2010, resulting in the deaths of 58 and a national-level policy, larger minority worshippers, police and bystanders, witnesses and indigenous communities are more likely stated that police vehicles posted to protect the to muster the resources to provide services; church were removed shortly before the attack. particularly those minorities that can call on the If these small populations are to remain in support of a kin-state. Service provision gaps can Iraq – and many in the Mandaean community arise for smaller groups, as was the case for the fear that theirs will not – it is essential that Bosniaks and Gorani in Kosovo. municipal decision making in these cities takes the particular security needs of their communities Minority and indigenous peoples’ into account. rights – what can they bring to peace- Hence it might be thought that monitoring making in cities? of minority and indigenous peoples’ rights A feature of most of the academic literature on implementation by international bodies would be divided cities is that it tends to fall within the welcomed by countries facing ethnic or sectarian discipline of conflict resolution/management/ tensions. In Belgium, however, the oversight of transformation, rather than human rights or, the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention more specifically, minority and indigenous on the Protection of National Minorities peoples’ rights. A conflict transformation (FCNM) has been resisted. Though Belgium approach tends to emphasize the needs and signed the Convention in 2001, it has yet to interests of belligerent parties. An added value ratify it. This has much to do with the particular of a minority and indigenous peoples’ rights situation of the capital city, Brussels. Within the approach, however, is that it could contribute to complex constitutional arrangement of Belgium, strengthening a policy focus on the situation of which includes two geographical regions smaller minority or indigenous groups who are (Wallonia and Flanders) and three linguistic not active parties to the conflict. For example, communities (French, Flemish and German), since the 2003 Iraq crisis, it is estimated that 90 the Brussels Capital Region has a special status.

State of the World’s Minorities Minorities and indigenous peoples in 25 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 cities – conflict and conciliation Historically a Flemish-speaking city, located consociationalist power-sharing appears to tick geographically within Flanders, it now has a a number of minority and indigenous peoples’ French-speaking majority, and has protections rights boxes. It reserves key government positions for both languages. (The considerable numbers of for representatives of a range of ethnic groups; English-speakers, due in large part to the presence provides for representation of those groups of European institutions and NATO, should according to share of population in civil service also not be forgotten, and a number of other jobs; and allows minorities and indigenous languages are spoken by migrants and refugees peoples a veto on policies and legislation that will from Africa and the Middle East). significantly affect them. Contested cities offer Much of the current tension between the two opportunities to bring in an additional layer of main linguistic communities – which has risen power-sharing at the municipal level. This can to the point at which a definitive partition of the serve to relocate some of the ethnic in-fighting country has been seriously considered – centres away from the national stage. It also allows for around areas of demographic flux such as the new configurations of power-sharing – a different municipalities surrounding Brussels, in a region way of dividing up the cake – based on different known as the Vlaamse Rand. These are officially local-level demographics, thus helping to allay the Flemish-speaking but, because of the pressure on fears that smaller groups have of being excluded. housing in the city, increasing numbers of French However, in practice, smaller minority and speakers are taking up residence there. As part of indigenous groups are often excluded, particularly the compromise which serves to allay the fears of those who were not represented by one of the the Flemish that they will be pushed out of the warring parties (and therefore, more often than greater Brussels region, these boroughs maintain not, did not get a seat at the negotiating table). their Flemish character, for example by having In addition it discourages effective governance signs in Flemish only. by basing appointments on identity rather than The rejection of FCNM monitoring is not competence. about an antipathy to minority rights per se, Johannesburg presents an exceptional example, but is based on a fear that external monitors in that – as at the national level – power- unfamiliar with the context and history would sharing modalities were established only as challenge such hard fought-for and delicately an interim measure, to pave the way towards balanced arrangements – among other things eventual majoritarian democracy. In the city, the by requiring bilingual signage. The fear is not arrangement that was concluded involved the necessarily well founded. The Council of Europe, re-drawing of ward boundaries to bring together as a rule, takes local specificities into account previously white and black areas. This allowed for when making human rights interventions the creation of wards that had a sustainable tax in member states. Conflict situations are by base, and were therefore able to provide adequate definition never stable but in a state of constant services – this was not possible for majority flux, and as such the arrangements that are black areas using apartheid-era boundaries, in place to contain them must be constantly because those areas were ‘fiscally depleted owing reassessed and, where necessary, renegotiated. to restrictions on nonresidential uses and the The resolution of tensions tends to be largely illegality of homeownership’.1 influenced by the demands of the most powerful Nevertheless, South Africa, with its emphasis party or parties, and the role of minority and on non-discrimination, majoritarian democracy indigenous peoples’ rights within such situations and avoidance of affirmative action in legislative is to remind all actors that there are interests and executive positions, remains the exception: in of smaller communities at play which there is a general, power-sharing arrangements are almost moral and legal imperative not to ignore. ubiquitous in peace agreements that follow on A minority and indigenous peoples’ rights from identity-based conflicts. Minority and framework is also relevant in assessing the success indigenous peoples’ rights frameworks offer a of the power-sharing arrangements that often check on the more discriminatory outcomes of result from peace negotiations. On the face of it, these arrangements; in a 2009 decision against

26 Minorities and indigenous peoples in State of the World’s Minorities cities – conflict and conciliation and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Bosnia and Herzegovina by the European Court In Beirut, in the absence of state-sanctioned of Human Rights, Sejdić (a Roma) and Finci memorials, there are many shrines and statues (a Jew) used minority rights standards when erected by one community or the other. they successfully convinced the court to order There is a kind of anarchic democracy to the government to amend the country’s power- this arrangement: in theory, any community, sharing set-up (resulting from the Dayton peace no matter how small, is free to express their agreement), which explicitly excludes them from visualization of the war; in practice, however, this significant political positions. Unfortunately, is likely to be dependent on power dynamics at due to a failure to reach political consensus the local level.5 on the issue, no progress has been made in implementing this ruling. What can be done to promote conciliation? Cities, conflict and memory Bollens identifies four approaches to the In post-conflict scenarios, cities are often the management of contested cities – neutral, locus for conflict memorials. Such memorials partisan, equity and resolver, with the latter themselves often become the focus of tensions, or being the most likely to succeed in positive are used by one community to create a one-sided transformation of conflict dynamics.6 In practice, historical narrative. Memorialization has been as is usually the case with conflict management difficult even in the Bosnian town of Brčko, often approaches, there will be a tendency to apply cited as one of the few examples of successful these to communities that are associated directly post-conflict reconciliation after the wars that with the conflict – that is, communities out of tore apart the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. which an active armed group has emerged. What A largely Bosniak town when the war broke out is less clear is how minorities and indigenous in 1992, but separating two chunks of Serb- peoples not associated with armed groups – held territory, Brčko was fought over bitterly usually smaller communities – will fare. The and presented a particular challenge during the table overleaf attempts to sketch out the possible Dayton peace negotiations. It was eventually outcomes for such communities. given a unique autonomous status, outside Minorities and indigenous peoples in cities not the Serb and Bosniak/Croat federal structures, associated with armed groups may be immigrant and is now diverse, relatively integrated and communities, or those who have migrated prosperous. But discussions over a common war from other parts of the country, seeing the city memorial collapsed, and there are now separate as a safe haven. As such, they are less likely to Serb, Croat and Bosniak monuments in the city be integrated into decision making structures. centre, serving as symbols of division rather than Belfast, for example, has a growing immigrant peace. The Croatian city of Vukovar, which has a population from Asia and Eastern Europe, who mixed Croat and Serbian population and was the experience hate crime in a city that is struggling scene of a three-month siege by Serbian forces, to overcome a legacy of violence and has no as a result of which it was incorporated into the shortage of weapons. Decision makers at the self-proclaimed Republic of Serbian Krajina, has national level and international organizations that the highest concentration of war memorials in intervene in conflict management will need to Croatia.2 These memorials, far from helping the make efforts to ensure that such communities are population to come to terms with the past and included in processes at city level. move towards reconciliation, ‘express the Croat Because of the particular challenges presented discourse of victory through victimhood’3 and by cities, an approach often proposed is a consolidate fear of the other. In the memorials, special status for cities – usually capitals – ‘the city’s division is mirrored and reified’.4 managed by a neutral third party such as the In other cities, the state has stood back from UN. Such an approach may involve elements the process of memorialization. In Belfast, of the neutral or equity approaches – or both. Protestants and Catholics produce their own This has been considered for Jerusalem (UN memorials and these are tolerated by the state. General Assembly Resolution 181 [II]) and

State of the World’s Minorities Minorities and indigenous peoples in 27 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 cities – conflict and conciliation

Approach Impact on communities not associated with armed groups

Neutral: aims to be blind to identity-based This approach could actually result in dis- concerns in all government action. crimination, in that it would treat all sectors of the population the same, ignoring the specific human rights needs and cultural differences of minority and indigenous communities. It is hard, for example, to see how decisions around language use in primary and secondary educa- tion could be neutral – in practice, the majority language is likely to be favoured.

Partisan: the state intervenes explicitly to This approach does not pretend to achieve favour the interests of one party in the a just outcome in a conflict and as such will conflict – usually the community that holds have negative outcomes for all communities power in the state – and to attempt to cement other than the dominant one. It is possible its power. that resentment built up within minority and indigenous communities linked to active conflict parties will be taken out on those who have arrived from other parts of the country or from abroad.

Equity: essentially maintains the status quo This approach is unlikely to make while attempting to undertake steps through fundamental changes to underlying dynamics affirmative action measures to address and structural injustices that may be a root imbalances (mainly in access to resources). cause of the conflict. If resources are scarce, affirmative action measures may focus on communities linked to armed groups in the hope of reducing tensions by providing a peace dividend.

Resolver: rather than ‘incremental reform’, As Bollens argues, this model has the best it seeks ‘basic structural change’. Led not by chance of achieving a just outcome and national government but local-level sectoral eliminating the structural injustices that experts/civil servants, technical know-how underlie the conflict. However, efforts will is used in order to challenge the political need to be made to ensure that the needs assumptions that justify and buttress the status and fears of all communities – not just those quo. Aims to identify and address the needs of linked to armed groups – are considered. each party in terms of delineation of territory, freedom of movement, management of public spaces and access to resources and employment.

28 Minorities and indigenous peoples in State of the World’s Minorities cities – conflict and conciliation and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Sarajevo (Owen-Stoltenberg proposal of 1993). that the city would eventually be reunited The thinking behind these proposals in both and that the foundations for a prosperous and cases was to provide for a neutral adjudication integrated city should be laid as early as possible. of issues surrounding access to shared areas The plan has succeeded in promoting commercial and territorial demarcation, including sensitive activity in inner-city areas and creating issues surrounding holy sites. Neither proposal pedestrian-friendly public space. succeeded in gaining the support of all concerned Governments may need to introduce parties. However, the Belfast experience may specific measures to help members of minority shed some light on how such externally managed communities overcome their suspicion of state- arrangements might work in practice. run facilities. In Kosovo, the town of Rahovec/ In 1972, the British government imposed Orahova is home to a Serbian minority who direct rule on Northern Ireland, which had had generally travelled to majority Serb areas in its own parliament since 1921, in response to the north some 50 miles away to access public growing sectarian violence, in the hope that services. In 2006, the local authorities took government by politicians not directly linked proactive steps to encourage the Serbs to use to the province would be more successful at the town’s public facilities by making vehicles managing the contentious issues that drove available with drivers from the minority Protestant–Catholic clashes. Even after the community. This resulted in an increase in the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in take-up of government-run services. 1998, which established a Northern Ireland Cities are built environments, and the very Assembly, direct rule was reinstated on several structure of the city may be defined by the occasions due to disagreements over issues such as dynamics of a conflict. What should town decommissioning of weapons and policing. planners do when cities are ghettoized? When However, the approach from London proved antagonistic communities do not mix? Efforts to be overly cautious, focusing on conflict to transform ghettoes after they have been torn containment but making no progress towards apart by violence can yield positive results – for addressing the root causes behind sectarian example, the regeneration of Electric Avenue grievances. The failings of this approach are after the 1981 Brixton riots in London – but for particularly apparent in Belfast. Urban planners, local communities the outcomes are not always seeking not to antagonize either party, served positive: processes of gentrification often occur only to reinforce sectarian conditions by shying whereby local communities are forced out by away from real change. For example, the current soaring property prices. spatial structure of the city imposes tight Town planners may be tempted to break constraints on the growing Catholic population down barriers between communities, integrating while protecting the under-used land of the residential areas by force if necessary. However, declining Protestant majority. Interviews with much depends on how those town planners urban planners in Belfast found that they ‘follow are viewed – whether residents see them as the wishes of the people’ and ‘practic[e] the art well-intentioned, neutral interveners working of the possible’. They avoid ‘social engineering towards a goal of reconciliation. A new tram line decisions’, and do not wish to determine ‘how in Jerusalem that links the east and west of the the society or economy should change’.7 city appears on the face of it to be an attempt In some cases, local-level administrators took at integration: travelling between communities action within their limited mandates to attempt that normally have little interaction, it features to further integration and reconciliation. Urban signs and announcements in Hebrew and Arabic. development in Nicosia, Cyprus, was held back Highly symbolic, a stretch of the line follows the for many years while negotiations between 1949 Armistice Line, and runs past many of the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot leaders failed city’s most important monuments. However the to progress. The respective mayors of the Turkish tram has been the focus of attacks by both Jewish and Greek sides of the city, however, agreed a Israelis and Palestinians, meaning that many ‘Nicosia Master Plan’, based on the assumption residents of both communities are now too afraid

State of the World’s Minorities Minorities and indigenous peoples in 29 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 cities – conflict and conciliation Above: A Palestinian woman (L) and an Israeli and amenities. Instead, the preferred spaces woman ride a light rail tram in Jerusalem, of intercultural interaction are the day-to-day November 2014. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun ones: ‘libraries, schools, colleges, youth centres, sports clubs, specific cinemas, the hair salon, the to use it. One Palestinian resident interviewed hospital, markets and community centres’.9 by the Telegraph newspaper described the tram The key factor for success, when attempting as ‘a mobile Jewish settlement in the heart of to incorporate a conflict transformation East Jerusalem’. It should not be forgotten that perspective into urban design, is involving local the tram’s integrationist bent contrasts sharply communities, particularly at the planning stage. with another major infrastructure project with a Many of the factors that contribute to peace or diametrically opposed objective – the West Bank exacerbate tensions relate to structures – roads, barrier. paths, bridges, walls, parks. When a footbridge One strand of expert opinion recommends between Catholic and Protestant areas in Belfast instead a focus on creating public spaces was modified in order to improve access for the where communities can interact, usually on disabled, the surrounding community was not the border where divided communities meet.8 consulted. High platforms were built on each The temptation for planners to make a visible side of the bridge, and crucially, the bridge was statement by creating architecturally sophisticated moved so that it directly overlooked a row of public spaces – often with grandiose, peace- houses with cars parked outside. The result was promoting symbology – should be avoided, that the platform served as a vantage point for however. These are particularly problematic youths to throw stones at their neighbours. As a if they come at the expense of public services consequence, the design facilitated violence rather

30 Minorities and indigenous peoples in State of the World’s Minorities cities – conflict and conciliation and Indigenous Peoples 2015 than serving as a link.10 where grievances are still live, efforts need to Nevertheless, physical design can only go so far be made incrementally to build confidence and in the absence of steps to address the root causes provide spaces for interaction, even if initially it is of conflict: on a limited level. And, finally, all arrangements should be assessed on their compliance with ‘Design means little when vast swathes of Belfast human rights standards, particularly minority and are divided along sectarian lines and only real indigenous peoples’ rights. ■ improvement will come through social integration, mixed-education and political progress. Designing a Endnotes bridge to prevent stone throwing will prevent stone throwing but the hatred will remain.’ 11 1 Bollens, S.A., ‘Governing polarized cities, in J. McEvoy and B. O’Leary Urban design can also be consciously used to (eds), Power Sharing in reinforce structures of power and domination: Deeply Divided Places, Philadelphia, University of Jerusalem’s road network includes modern, Pennsylvania Press, 2013, high-speed highways linking the centre of the pp. 335–6. 2 Baillie, B., ‘Divided city to the settlements, while roads in Palestinian memory: the reification of enclaves are older, narrower and slower. While ethnicity in post-conflict Vukovar’, Working Paper the city appears to favour Israelis’ freedom No. 25, Conflict in Cities of movement, Palestinians find themselves and the Contested State, www.conflictincities.org, p. ‘dominated and fragmented by conflict 5. infrastructures’ – most notably in the form of 3 Ibid., p. 15. 12 4 Ibid., p. 6. the separation barrier. Belfast’s ‘peace walls’ 5 The author wishes to thank are another example of architecture that aims to the anonymous reviewer for this observation. keep communities separate. While potentially 6 Bollens, S.A., On Narrow necessary in the short term, in the long run such Ground: Urban Policy and measures can entrench the dynamics of a conflict Ethnic Conflict in Jerusalem and Belfast, New York, by decreasing everyday interaction. SUNY Press, 2000, pp. It is clear that contested cities offer both 23–5. 7 Bollens, S.A. ‘Ethnic challenges and opportunities for peace-making. stability and urban The elements needed for success in the urban reconstruction: policy dilemmas in polarized environment will be the same as those required cities’, Comparative Political for national-level peace-building – encompassing, Studies, vol. 31, no. 6, 1998, pp. 694–5. in most cases, inclusive dialogue, a long-term 8 Bollens, S.A., commitment to and investment of resources in ‘Peacebuilding in the city: planning and design addressing the root causes of the conflict, and strategies’, Fragile States, some sort of truth telling and transitional justice April 2014. 9 Landry, C. and Wood, process. However, the urban context also throws P., The Intercultural City: up its own requirements. Urban communities Planning for Diversity – including those of minorities and indigenous Advantage, London, Earthscan, 2012, p. 260. peoples – must be closely involved in the design 10 Donnelly, M., ‘Building and implementation of urban infrastructure bridges in Belfast’, Planning Resource, 3 November projects, particularly those with an overt peace- 2009. building objective. If progress towards peace is 11 Ibid. 12 ‘Rethinking conflict stalled at the national level, but municipal leaders infrastructure: how the have the will to promote reconciliation at the built environment sustains divisions in contested urban level, no matter how symbolic, they should cities’, Briefing Paper 2, be empowered to do so. While measures to keep Conflict in Cities and the Contested State, www. communities apart – both physically, and by conflictincities.org, pp. providing separate services – may be necessary 2–3.

State of the World’s Minorities Minorities and indigenous peoples in 31 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 cities – conflict and conciliation IndigenousMinority and women’s landindigenous rights: womencase studiesand urbanization from Africa ElisaNicole Scalise Girard ‘My community looks up to me. Some male members But for women from minority and indigenous of course, often try to discredit us or patronize us but communities, the city poses key specific overall, I feel I have been appreciated as a person challenges to their lives, and in some cases their who lives and works in the city who has been of some very existence. Cities, while mirroring the broader help to the community. I feel very confident after national patterns of discrimination, also create coming to Delhi.’ new forms of exclusion. At the same time, cities Sarah, Chin Woman from Burma living in can provide key opportunities for minority and New Delhi indigenous women to improve their life chances. Even in the most challenging circumstances, arah is a 27-year-old woman from a small indigenous and minority women may on some town in Chin State, Burma. As a minority level ‘choose’ urban life – even if that choice is S ethno-Christian community, Chin face often largely informed by a lack of alternatives. discrimination, assimilation and persecution from the majority Buddhist state. Livelihood The lure of the city opportunities are extremely limited and further In many countries throughout the world, study is usually only a dream for women. ‘For indigenous and minority women in rural areas many of us, being able to get married to a good are increasingly moving to the city. While the earning husband or someone who had worked migration flows in many countries were primarily or is working in a foreign country, is the most male, with women often following in later waves, important thing in life.’ Eight years ago she this imbalance has now levelled out as women decided to chance her luck in India, first in the take up an increasing proportion of migration north-eastern states, then in Delhi with the hope flows. Movement to the city, or between cities of finding some higher education opportunities. and rural areas, is directly and indirectly related Here, she was able to find work and study further. to gender differentiated roles and gendered ‘I am lucky enough not to work in factories experiences. Trends also vary depending on like many other women in the community,’ she specific countries’ level and type of economic explains. ‘In factories, women are subjected to development; the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) all forms of exploitation and are discriminated in reports for instance that rural–urban migration is their wages and working hours, and are looked dominated by women in countries with quickly down upon.’ Discrimination against people from expanding export-oriented manufacturing sectors. north-eastern Indian states is rampant in Delhi, Displacement from ancestral lands is one because of their East Asian looks that make them of the key drivers of indigenous migration to stand out from continental Indians. With similar the city. Land dispossession poses a distinct looks to north-easterners, Chin women face this challenge for indigenous women as many of same discrimination. their traditional livelihoods, such as handicrafts, traditional medicinal knowledge or food ‘I have faced harassment in New Delhi for sure; production, are based on maintaining access women are felt, touched, molested and harassed in to land and its natural resources. Their role in every place. Being Christians and having a different the community centres around these and other culture – males and females mingle freely in public tasks: without them, roles and responsibilities unlike the locals – also makes people view us as can change and this in turn can have a negative westernized and immoral, and women are seen as impact on women’s status. In Southeast Asia easy targets.’ and parts of northern India and Bangladesh, for example, many indigenous peoples practise Delhi, like metropolises all over the world, has shifting cultivation. Women’s role in this form of been a beacon for millions of migrant women agriculture is well established, with some estimates who seek opportunity for themselves and their suggesting that they perform up to 70 per cent of families. Some are driven by extreme poverty, the related work.1 State-sponsored conservation some by conflict and warfare, and some, like policies that seek to eradicate this practice in the Sarah, by a desire to continue their studies. name of environmental preservation directly affect

State of the World’s Minorities Minority and indigenous women 33 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 and urbanization the status of women, as their contribution to food availability of guns and ammunition in the production, resource management and health region has had a direct impact on indigenous care is seriously undermined and their traditional Karamajong pastoral herders. Cattle raids between knowledge is lost. In northern Thailand, for them and neighbouring groups have become example, forest conservation and bans on shifting more violent, which in turn has led to military cultivation have been directly tied to increasing efforts to disarm the population. This has led food insecurity and women’s migration to cities, to an even more insecure situation rife with Chiang Mai in particular, in search of work. The human rights abuses. As a result, indigenous creation of national parks on indigenous territory Karamajong, especially women and children, have has also prevented women from gathering the been displaced to struggle in the urban slums of materials necessary to make traditional handicrafts Kampala or Jinja. or medicines that could otherwise generate Gendered property and inheritance rights income, further dispossessing them and driving discrimination is also a key driver of women’s urban migration. migration to the city, due to customary laws All over the world, development projects and practices that privilege male rights, as have taken place without the free, prior and well as discriminatory state policies. In Kenya, informed consent of indigenous peoples, leading for example, Maasai customary inheritance to mass displacements and women’s migration is patrilineal, whereby women’s property is to the city. In the Philippines, massive open- contingent on the men in their lives, either their pit mining across the country in the ancestral father or husband. If a woman’s parents die, their territories of indigenous peoples, particularly in property will go to her brothers. If a marriage the Cordilleras, has contributed to a loss of access dissolves or the husband dies, women are to clean resources. Many indigenous women considered to no longer have rights to their shared struggle to secure employment with the mining property. In this case, property such as livestock companies and leave to find work in urban areas, or even the family home is likely to go to the suffering extreme poverty in cities like Baguio husband’s family. or Manila. Similarly, it is estimated that in India The Indigenous Movement for Peace approximately 26 million indigenous people have Advancement and Conflict Transformation been displaced under the auspices of development (IMPACT) is a non-governmental organization projects since independence in 1947, many (NGO) working with urban Maasai women. of which are hydroelectric projects. Without Director Ole Kaunga Johnson notes that Maasai sufficient resettlement programmes in place, many women mainly ‘migrate due to challenges they end up in urban centres. face at home’ stemming from property rights Armed conflict and separatist movements in issues. ‘Gender-based violence, marriage breakage areas populated by minorities as well as indigenous or early death of spouse, due to violence related traditional territories have long been a driver of to natural resource based conflict between minority and indigenous women’s migration to indigenous nomadic groups, are some of the the city, as they are forcibly relocated on a massive leading reasons for women to migrate,’ he scale alongside their communities or fear for their explains. safety in militarized zones. In the Mindanao region In Canada, the Indian Act of 1876 had of the Philippines, decades of fighting between dramatic consequences that resulted in indigenous the government and Moro-Muslim separatist women’s migration to the city. Women have groups have resulted in mass displacements comprised the majority of First Nations urban affecting mostly Muslim communities. After being migrants since the 1950s. There are several reasons displaced into IDP camps, there are very few for this. First, in an amendment of 1951, women livelihood options. Besides being vulnerable to lost their native status if they married non-status trafficking, Muslim women migrate to Cotabato men, meaning they could not pass status on to City or General Santos City, often becoming their children nor remain on reservations. This underpaid domestic workers. provision did not, however, apply to men. This Likewise, in Northern Uganda, the increased clause was brought to the attention of the UN

34 Minority and indigenous women State of the World’s Minorities and urbanization and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Human Rights Committee in the case known as privilege male education, the city is usually the Sandra Lovelace v. Canada (1979–81), whereby only place to pursue secondary or post-secondary the committee concluded that Canada was in education. Indeed, despite a lack of data on breach of Article 27 of the International Covenant this issue, it is clear that the choice to pursue on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). In 1985, education has influenced many women to make the Canadian parliament revoked this section of the journey to the city. the Act. Second, in regard to real and matrimonial Life in the city property, reservations are governed by the Indian ‘The memory of our mountains and jungles and Act. But the Indian Act does not cover division of their sound kills us. We face new problems in property on reserves upon separation or divorce. raising our children and relating with our partners, The then UN Special Rapporteur on adequate because the city is not our customary environment. housing, Miloon Kothari, in his report on his We are pursued by the images of the anguish when 2007 visit to Canada, notes how this ‘legislative we had to leave, running with what little we void [has had] dramatic results’. He continues: had or could carry in order to outrun death and desolation. Amidst this anguish, we are in charge ‘In some cases, women – and their children – are of our families, accepting activities that are not forced to choose between staying in a bad and/or traditional in our cultures, such as getting jobs as violent situation or leaving the matrimonial home. domestic servants or, in the worst of cases, even Often, the choice to leave results in the woman and selling our bodies.’ her children being forced to leave their community Indigenous woman from Colombia3 and/or become homeless.’ The city harbours much potential, but for Trafficking too has a key role to play in how minority and indigenous women a great minority and indigenous women move to urban number of obstacles must first be surmounted. areas, with many lured on a false pretence of Discrimination faced in the city often compounds work or sold outright by their families. Those and builds on the discrimination that drove who lack citizenship or identification are them to the city in the first place. The need particularly vulnerable to brokers who will take for opportunities that they cannot access in advantage of them, especially when they lack a rural or displaced setting becomes a need skills in the majority language, as is the case in for opportunities that are difficult to access Thailand and Burma. Those who are in situations in an urban setting as a result of entrenched of displacement are vulnerable to traffickers discrimination. In some cases, ‘the interplay as well, with little access to decent livelihoods between exclusion, employment and poverty is but, equally, nowhere to turn. Rural indigenous clearer in the cities’.4 women in Chiapas, for example, are targeted by traffickers for sex work in the city. ‘It is very easy Employment to trap an indigenous woman compared to a The hope of obtaining adequate and safe mestizo’, notes one trafficker cited in a local study, employment is a clear draw to urban areas. ‘first of all they do not speak Spanish and, second, Indigenous and minority women, however, both as they are suffering from poverty due to loss of those who are migrants and those who have lived their land and house in the conflict, they need their entire lives in the city, can find that their some employment urgently’.2 hopes remain unrealized. Women largely remain For a great many minority and indigenous responsible for unremunerated care work in their women, though, urban migration is driven by the own families, as well as working towards a formal search for education for themselves or for their income. This results in what has been called ‘time children. Women from minority and indigenous poverty’, whereby women are burdened by both peoples routinely have lower education and responsibilities, a huge contributing factor to literacy rates than their male counterparts, but urban poverty for women. for those who are able to challenge practices that Women, including those from minority and

State of the World’s Minorities Minority and indigenous women 35 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 and urbanization Right: A Bangladeshi Santhal woman carries raw bricks in the brickfield in Habigonj, Bangladesh. Poor labourers migrate to brickfields to meet the growing demand of construction works as urbanization rises rapidly in the country. EPA/Abir Abdullah indigenous communities, overwhelmingly work in the informal industries, from handicraft sellers, street vendors and domestic workers to seamstresses, rag pickers and garbage collectors. Women are more frequently employed in the informal sector than men because a stable schedule is often not required, work can be completed at home, and skills or qualifications are not demanded. While there is a degree of freedom and flexibility in the informal sector, it offers little security in times of crisis and little mobility to better positions. Paid domestic work can be considered part of the informal industry as it is often unregulated and piece-work by nature. In many countries around the world, minority and indigenous women are the backbone of this workforce, mainly in urban areas. One study focusing on indigenous women migrating to towns and cities in four states in India, for example, found that 60 per cent were employed in domestic labour.5 Similarly, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 40 per cent of Afro-descendant women work as domestic labourers.6 Domestic work is not only underpaid and undervalued, it can be dangerous and in some cases essentially bonded slave labour. A problem too is that exploitative patterns that exist in rural areas may well carry over to urban centres. In Nepal, many indigenous Tharu in the Terai region – including women and girls – have been enslaved Organization around the time of abolition, more under the debt bondage system called kamaiya or than 30 per cent of (ex-)kamaiya children were kamalari (the latter referring specifically to young working away from their homes. And many female domestic servants). Based on bonded ended up in the urban centres of Nepal – 14 per labour practices that have been in existence for cent of domestic child labourers in Kathmandu, centuries, kamaiya is now officially prohibited, and 24 per cent of domestic child labourers in but girls and women encounter many obstacles Pokhara, were of Tharu origin. upon rehabilitation, and often end up back in Other than domestic work, it is common domestic work. There is also a profound legacy for minority and indigenous women to become effect, despite the abolition of kamaiya by law locked into certain urban employment sectors. in 2002, in that the children of (ex-)kamaiya For example, Dalit women in Bangladesh are Tharu families risk becoming child labourers. largely a rural population, but for Dalits living According to a study by the International Labour in the capital city Dhaka the majority were born

36 Minority and indigenous women State of the World’s Minorities and urbanization and Indigenous Peoples 2015 in the city and live in vast informal settlements. government offices. Other than cleaning jobs, some To be Dalit is to be untouchable, outcast from Dalit women are involved in sewing clothes at home. the social and religious hierarchy. Employment is But guardians and male members of the family do hereditary, passing down jobs that are considered not like their sewing and other activities other than dirty and demeaning through the generations. sweeping jobs.’ According to Zakir Hossain, the Director of Najorik Uddyog, an NGO working with Dalit Similarly in India too, Dalits – many of communities in Dhaka, a large proportion of them women – are employed by municipal Dalit women are public cleaners. governments to work in waste removal. In the city of Pune, however, waste-pickers, 90 per cent ‘The main employment of Dalit women is cleaning of whom are Dalit women, were able to organize and sweeping jobs in the municipality, the City themselves into a union in 1993. Thereafter, Solid Corporation and other government and non- Waste Collection and Handling (SWaCH) was

State of the World’s Minorities Minority and indigenous women 37 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 and urbanization created, a worker-owned cooperative of waste- again exposes women’s vulnerability to eviction. pickers who were given in 2008 exclusive rights Domestic violence often increases during and by the city to work as garbage collectors. The after the stress of evictions, meaning the burden of city has provided uniforms, protective gear and re-establishing one’s home falls in multiple ways some motorized carts; women report working on the woman’s shoulders. Since many women fewer hours for the same amount of money and use their homes to generate income, through increased respect in the community. piece-work for example, evictions can destroy or Indigenous women of Bangladesh, the Garo stall women’s income earning opportunities. group in particular, are almost exclusively Even in places where families in low-income employed by the urban beautician industry. The housing settlements have proof of tenure, urban industry is largely unregulated and their working beautification drives have resulted in the mass hours and holiday time are at the whim of the demolition of minority homes, or the prevention owners. They regularly work 10–12-hour days, of selling goods on the street, as is the case for seven days a week, for extremely low pay. Despite Tamil and Muslim communities in Colombo, Sri this, they have been able to support themselves Lanka. While exact figures are not given, author and their families through the economic Minna Thaheer claims that many Muslim low- independence the industry has provided. income households in urban slums in central and According to one study, 67 per cent have been north Colombo are in fact led by single women, able to save money for purchasing property or for who are divorced, widowed or abandoned. their children’s education. Clientele reportedly Despite the community’s long-time residency prefer and expect to have an indigenous woman in Colombo and title deeds to their homes, last- to perform this sort of work, due to stereotypes minute evictions and house-demolition have that describe them as loyal and disciplined. not been prevented, severely impacting women- headed households. After evictions, some have Housing been relocated to remote areas outside the city Female-headed households are increasing in centre, making the commute to their inner-city urban areas throughout the world, and are jobs much more difficult. Many of the women more common in urban than rural areas. Such work in the informal sector as domestic workers households are typically income-poor and or informal street sellers. Street beautification tend to be tenants rather than home-owners. initiatives by the government have prevented Nevertheless, there are also benefits for women Muslim women from generating an income, in female-headed households as they are able creating additional stress as police clear vendors to decide how funds are used and are less likely from the streets. Thaheer further suggests that it to suffer from ‘secondary poverty’, where men is their potential as a minority opposition voting withhold funds for themselves, to the detriment base that has fuelled evictions in central Colombo. of women and children. Discrimination based on Positively, however, the threat of evictions and its ethnicity further compounds these difficulties: disproportionate impact on the lives of Muslim in Brazil, Afro-Brazilians make up 60 per cent of women has spurred their increased engagement in income-poor female-headed households. Afro- municipal-level politics. Brazilian women have difficulty securing access to credit as they are not considered eligible for loans Gender-based violence in the city or mortgage schemes, limiting their ability to All women have a right to the city, but this purchase their own property. right can be undermined through gender-based Minorities and indigenous peoples are violence or the fear of such violence that can especially vulnerable to evictions in urban restrict women’s mobility, especially at night. In areas, as many reside in informal settlements, low-income and informal settlements, a lack of lacking security of tenure, and are often the secure infrastructure can accompany violence first targeted for evictions by municipalities. against women, including dimly lit areas, Evictions, however, have a disproportionate effect structurally weak housing that is vulnerable to on women. Discrimination in property rights break-ins, and unsafe public transit, public toilets

38 Minority and indigenous women State of the World’s Minorities and urbanization and Indigenous Peoples 2015 and secluded areas. racial and social discrimination, discriminatory Evidence suggests that urban women are at economic policies and internal armed conflict.’ the greatest risk of violence, particularly in poor Such violence permeates Afro-Colombian communities, by strangers. But in Canada, women’s experience in the city: indigenous women are almost three times more likely to be killed by a stranger than non- ‘When there is not a strong support system, as she indigenous women. What is more, this is largely had it in her rural community, it can have a severe an urban phenomenon. According to research impact on her children. Due to a culture of violence conducted by the Native Women’s Association and gangs, kids quickly become engaged in easy- of Canada into individual cases of missing money activities and soon death, early pregnancy, and murdered Aboriginal women, 70 per cent and prostitution.’ disappeared from an urban area and 60 per cent were murdered in an urban area. According The presence of paramilitaries in urban areas to Dr Heather Howard, Assistant Professor of is extremely dangerous for Afro-Colombian Anthropology at Michigan State University, ‘the women, especially in cities like Buenaventura particular challenges [of violence against urban where, according to government figures, 84 per indigenous women in North America] have to do cent of the population is black. Sexual violence with the lack of criminal justice, policing, social is used in Buenaventura by armed groups as services, and general attention to indigenous a means to control territory and terrorize the women who are being sexually trafficked or are community. ‘We are all victims in a collective sex workers.’ According to research included sense,’ one woman from Buenaventura recounts. in a March 2015 CEDAW report, ‘the rate of Impunity for perpetrators is commonplace and Aboriginal women engaged in street prostitution many of Buenaventura’s residents have reportedly is 70 percent in Winnipeg, 40 percent in lost faith in the government’s ability to protect Vancouver, and nearly 80 percent in Vancouver them. Local authorities are also accused of Downtown Eastside’, so exposing these women overlooking violence against women, viewing it to disproportionate amounts of violence. Most as primarily a ‘social’ problem. However, this sort of the homicide cases against indigenous girls of discrimination in the justice system is starting and women remain unsolved, despite normally to be addressed by the Attorney General’s office, high clearance rates for homicide in Canada; which is conducting ‘sensitivity training’ for its indigenous women consistently report a distrust officials to deal with such cases. in police, due to bias and misconduct, and a reluctance to report violence. Access to health services In situations of conflict and displacement, Health is intricately related to being able to secure Colombia’s urban areas have posed particular other rights, such as adequate housing and a life dangers for women from Afro-Colombian free from violence. Unfortunately, just because communities. As a result of ongoing conflict a woman lives in closer proximity to health between paramilitary groups, cities like Cali, care services than her rural counterparts, this Bogotá and Medellín have accommodated a high does not mean that she is able to access them. influx of internally displaced Afro-descendant Indeed, for minority and indigenous women, women, many of whom have endured gender- cultural barriers, including language and a lack of based sexual violence fleeing their homes or in culturally sensitive services, combined with poor situations of displacement. ‘Afro-Colombian socio-economic status and discrimination, present women have been disproportionately and serious barriers to accessing whatever benefits the negatively impacted by all the manifestations of city may have to offer. violence in an urban area, including its sexual, A lack of regular access to clean water and economic and environmental aspects,’ explains sanitation facilities can pose direct threats to Charo Mina-Rojas, coordinator of an Afro- women’s health. Diseases that stem from a lack Colombian women’s human rights defenders of sanitation, such as schistosomiasis, a parasitic project. ‘This violence has been the result of disease that results in lesions to the urogenital

State of the World’s Minorities Minority and indigenous women 39 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 and urbanization tract, make women three times more vulnerable Education and cultural continuity to HIV infection. Discrimination against Dalits The pursuit of education consistently in India manifests itself in unequal access to encourages young people to move to cities, and water and sanitation. On the national level, it is is a dream of many urban youth. Once again, estimated that 60 per cent of non-Dalit women however, proximity is no guarantee of access. have access to adequate sanitation and water, Unaffordable fees pose significant barriers, as does whereas only 38 per cent of Dalit women have discrimination from fellow students, teachers and adequate access. The same discrimination is even in course content, leading to higher non- manifested in urban slum dwellings, where Dalits completion rates. are over-represented. In one study from an urban Nevertheless, there is certainly evidence that slum in Chennai, 30.3 per cent of Dalits had no supports a positive link between urbanization and access to adequate water supply and sanitation, increasing access to education among minority and compared to 20.8 per cent of non-Dalits. A lack indigenous women. In Latin America, for example, of hygienic options in informal settlements, two out of three indigenous girls complete primary particularly around menstruation, causes school in urban areas, compared to half or less in unnecessary shame and threats to self-respect for rural areas. Though geographical proximity may women. As many urban informal settlements do play a part, it may also be the case that urban not have access to clean water, due to gendered indigenous parents also have a better understanding responsibilities, women must travel and queue for of the importance of education for girls than long hours to collect water. their rural counterparts. In some countries, Besides a healthy environment, access such as Brazil, Costa Rica and Honduras, urban to healthy food is critical for minority and indigenous females have higher primary school indigenous people in the city. For many completion rates than their male counterparts. indigenous people who have migrated to urban For the situation in Colombia, Mina-Rojas areas, including in the developed world, urban makes a distinction between Afro-Colombians diets are a severe health threat, resulting in who have been raised in big cities and those malnutrition, diabetes and obesity. According to who have migrated as a result of displacement, Dr. Heather Howard, the principal researcher for saying that the former have more opportunities the Transforming Diabetes in Urban Aboriginal for education and advancement. In most cases, Toronto project, one of the key challenges faced she says, for Afro-Colombian female rural– by urban indigenous women is food security. She urban migrants the negative impact of the city explains: outweighs the positives. But even for long-time urban residents, discrimination hinders the ‘While there is little published research on this, I benefits of educational attainment: ‘For Afro- know from my own research in Toronto that this Colombian women a one year increase in her is a significant issue, and includes problems with academic situation can increase her income by access to fresh, healthy food that is affordable; and/or about 8 per cent. But still, even when academic reliance on food-banks or community/social service levels are similar, Afro-Colombian women’s salary provider communal meals, where the nutritional is still lower than her white counterparts.’ value is not optimal. It impacts women in particular Assimilation and loss of cultural knowledge because they are often the ones responsible for many systems can also come from urbanization. other people being able to eat healthily – more than Pronounced in situations of displacement and men, they are caregivers for older relatives and young dispossession from traditional lands, passing children.’ traditional knowledge on to the next generation can become extremely difficult. This poses ‘Indigenous women have been taking the particular challenges for women, as they have a lead to address these issues too,’ she adds, by key role to play in the transmission of spiritual ‘initiating community garden projects and and cultural knowledge. In Tanzania, for promoting approaches to diet grounded in example, Maasai women who practise traditional decolonization.’ medicine have found it difficult to continue upon

40 Minority and indigenous women State of the World’s Minorities and urbanization and Indigenous Peoples 2015 relocation to cities, where medical boards and city successful rise of indigenous Bolivian women, authorities demand a licence and a permanent despite the challenges that still lie ahead. location for their work, amounting to largely Indigenous and minority women’s worker unaffordable expenses. cooperatives have also helped women make the leap out of poverty in the city. In the small Finding their way in the city tourist city of San Cristóbal de las Casas, in the As indigenous and minority women establish Mexican state of Chiapas, the indigenous weavers’ themselves in cities, they are increasingly coming cooperative, Sna Jolobil, currently comprises 800 together to resist oppression, discrimination weavers from 20 Tzotzil and Tzeital indigenous and marginalization. In cities all over the communities. The success of the cooperative, world, indigenous and minority urban women’s which was founded by a local male weaver Pedro movements are gaining strength and are Meza and an American partner in the 1970s, organizing for their rights to the city. has enabled indigenous women to continue Bolivia, with over 60 per cent of its population their cultural traditions and, depending on their belonging to an indigenous people, is a prime preference, stay in their rural communities or example. Disenfranchised by centuries of relocate successfully to an urban setting. Micaela oppression, the latter half of the twentieth century Diaz Diaz, an elderly indigenous Tzotzil woman, saw an increase in migration among indigenous recounts her experience at Sna Jolobil after she women to urban areas. Living on the outskirts separated from her abusive husband: of the capital La Paz, many are employed as domestic workers or work in the city’s streets, ‘One day Pedro Meza, the organizer of the co-op, selling goods in the market. With their colourful asked me to come work in the store for just a month layered pollera skirts, woven shawls and bowler or two. So I came to San Cristóbal and rented a hats, known as chola, their distinct dress room … I also sold my weavings and began to make singled indigenous women out for insults and some money. In 1977 Indians weren’t supposed to discrimination: they could be denied service in walk in the streets of San Cristóbal at night. We restaurants and shops, prevented from taking taxis didn’t have permission to live in town. Even though and public buses, even barred from entering Plaza I was one of the first Indians to work and live there, Murillo, La Paz’s central square. I never had any problems. I liked living in San Since then, however, there has been a Cristóbal and working in the store all those years.’ dramatic change in the political participation and empowerment of indigenous women in the The right to the city city. The election of Bolivia’s first indigenous For better or worse, our futures are urban, and president in 2006, Evo Morales, was supported the cities of the world, especially those in the by an array of indigenous women’s organizations, global South, are increasingly female. Many the largest of which was the Bartolina Sisa women will be the heads of their households Departmental Federation of Indigenous Rural and the primary income earners. Women Women. Indigenous women’s voices have been experience the city differently than men, increasingly heard in national media, and many however, moving through gendered barriers of now occupy positions as journalists and television poverty, discrimination, violence and political hosts, working in government ministries, banks exclusion. But all women too do not experience and law offices. And spectacularly, many are their cities in the same way, and those who face doing so while donning their traditional outfits, discrimination on account of multiple aspects reclaiming their cholita identities. In fact, with of their identity have even more obstacles to Bolivia’s growing economy, as indigenous women confront. Indigenous and minority women have gained more economic and political clout, are among the most marginalized, their stories chola fashion is even entering mainstream society, largely invisible to governments, despite their with designer labels and fashion shows. For the potential to add to the prosperity of cities overall. earlier generation of rural–urban migrants, few So how can cities be made inclusive for would have imagined such a relatively quick and minority or indigenous women? First, we must

State of the World’s Minorities Minority and indigenous women 41 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 and urbanization Right: Aymara women dance in traditional chola In order for minority and indigenous women dress, La Paz, 2014. The fashion of to access the potential benefits of the city, their cholitas is slowly beginning to enter the right to the city must be realized and the very mainstream as the status of indigenous women foundations of discrimination – that is, the way in Bolivia improves. REUTERS/ABI/Bolivian societies and institutions are structured – must Presidency/Handout be rebuilt. Any policy or legislation that aims to address indigenous and minority women’s urban be able to understand the exact situation facing experience must include the participation of minority and indigenous women in urban areas. affected groups, and consider the wider economic, Governments are obligated to collect data that is social, cultural and political factors at play. ■ disaggregated on the basis of gender and ethnicity Endnotes so that we can see who is migrating to which cities and what their urban experiences are like. 1 AIPP and IWGIA, Shifting Cultivation, Livelihood and The availability of research on minority and Food Security: New and Old indigenous women in cities is extremely scant, Challenges for Indigenous and much of the research for this chapter has been Peoples in Asia, Chiang Mai, 2014. provided by independent researchers and media, 2 Acharya, A. and Codina, non-governmental and civil society organizations M., ‘Poverty and trafficking of indigenous women in or UN agencies. Mexico: some evidence Second, minority and indigenous women are from Chiapas state’, Journal of Sustainable Society, vol. 1, more successful in cities if there are formal or no. 3, 2012, 63–9. informal associations and networks of minority 3 Uguerara Da Amba Giunu Tabua submitted to the and indigenous women working to increase their IACHR Rapporteur on 20 own well-being and social capital. Governments June 2005, quoted in Inter- American Commission of must acknowledge and support their crucial Human Rights, Violence efforts and include them in the development of and Discrimination against Women in the Armed relevant policy and legislation. Conflict in Colombia, 2006, Third, the participation of minority retrieved May 2015, http:// and indigenous women in municipal-level www.cidh.org/countryrep/ ColombiaMujeres06eng/ administration and politics is necessary to reduce IV.htm discrimination and create more effective policies, 4 Sanchez, M. and Bryan, M., Afro-descendants, such as affirmative action policies, targeted Discrimination and land, property and housing rights programmes Economic Exclusion in Latin America, London, MRG, and policies, micro-credit lending initiatives, 2003. employment assistance and vocational training 5 Society for Regional Research and Analysis, programmes. In places where existing policies Migration of Tribal Women: and legislation are ineffective, as in the case of Its Socio-economic Effects – An In-Depth Study of Canada, a national-level review and plan of action Chhatisgarh, Jharkhand, must be undertaken to understand where the M.P. and Orissa, Gurgaon, October 2010, p. 41. system is failing. In this way, city officials and 6 Sanchez and Bryan, op. cit. law enforcement must be adequately trained to understand the specific plight of minority and indigenous women and the relevant municipal mechanisms that are in place. Finally, transition and settlement services that can assist with finding employment, housing or counselling services, for both recent arrivals and long-term residents, will go a long way to integrating minority and indigenous women as strong, effective members of the urban community.

42 Minority and indigenous women State of the World’s Minorities and urbanization and Indigenous Peoples 2015 State of the World’s Minorities Minority and indigenous women 43 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 and urbanization Advocacy, participation and inclusion for minorities in urban areas Sajjad Hassan Introduction unemployed, 20 per cent are not covered by hough cities can offer an array of health insurance, and 90 per cent are living below services, entitlements and opportunities, the poverty line.’ T minorities in urban areas are often On the other side of the globe, in Bangladesh, discriminated against in their ability to access Dalits face similar obstacles. Discriminated these benefits. Housing, infrastructure, education against due to their ‘low caste’ status, as in and employment are all areas where this exclusion other parts of South Asia, Bangladeshi Dalits may be felt, particularly in a context of hardening are confined to some of the lowest paid jobs, prejudice and right-wing mobilization within the such as cleaning toilets and sweeping streets. majority community. This chapter will explore A significant proportion are urban, situated in some of the obstacles that minority communities municipally designated slum ‘colonies’ with no face in securing recognition and equality, with a land ownership rights, despite their extended focus on the specific challenges and opportunities occupation of these areas, with many living in these groups encounter in urban contexts. Much tiny huts often housing three generations of of the content is action-oriented and focused on the same family under a single roof. Besides practical solutions, drawing on examples of best the obvious problem of overcrowding, this also practice and lessons learned from the work of affects the autonomy of younger members of select minority rights organizations from around the family, and particularly of women, to pursue the world. Focusing on a range of case studies, their choices. As with a large proportion of Roma including Roma in Europe, Dalits in Bangladesh, settlements, there are few basic amenities such African American homeless persons in Chicago, as piped water, adequate sanitation or electricity and Dalit and Muslim homeless migrants in and there is limited access to schooling. As a Delhi, the chapter will explore some of the key result, most Dalits have no formal education and drivers of urban exclusion and identify potential very few are able to enjoy the benefits of higher ways forward to achieve safer, more equitable education. According to a 2006 study, 64 per cities for these marginalized communities. cent of the country’s Dalits have received no education at all. Overview of major challenges facing The homeless are a disadvantaged section, in minorities in urban settings cities worldwide, that face severe challenges of Europe’s Roma community, which includes citizenship and access, especially as affordable between 10 and 15 million people across the housing becomes increasingly unavailable. region, is a good example of how minorities may Significantly, in many cities minority and still experience acute marginalization even in a indigenous communities are disproportionately general context of economic development and represented by this extreme form of urban falling poverty rates. Many of the richest urban hardship. The case of the city of Chicago is centres in Europe have Roma encampments on instructive. Across the US, African Americans their peripheries, characterized by sub-standard represent 39 per cent of the national homeless living conditions and high levels of spatial population, despite accounting for just 14.1 per segregation – in many cases as a direct result of cent of the national population. In Chicago, the deliberate policies by local authorities or national situation is even more pronounced: here, African governments, such as forced evictions. In these Americans make up 32 per cent of the population settlements, basic infrastructure is often largely and account for an extraordinary 75 per cent of absent and access to public services, schools and the homeless population. Multiple structural and employment opportunities is limited. Housing individual factors play their part in sustaining this conditions are also poor. An 11-country survey imbalance, but institutionalized racism seems to be by the European Union Agency for Fundamental a significant driver of homelessness. Julie Dworkin Rights (FRA) in 2012 noted that ‘about 45 per of Chicago Coalition for the Homeless (CCH), cent of the Roma surveyed live in households a group that works with Chicago’s homeless by lacking an indoor kitchen, toilet, shower or organizing, advocating and helping them access bath, or electricity…One in three Roma is rights, particularly to housing, explains:

State of the World’s Minorities Advocacy, participation and inclusion 45 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 for minorities in urban areas ‘Homelessness is an outcome of a combination of fact that the homeless are largely made up of factors – poverty, school drop-out and high crime these two minorities. rates – that together pull children into the revolving While the situation of the homeless in door of crime and incarceration. African Americans urban areas generally is acute, the challenges suffer disproportionately from poverty and the experienced by those belonging to minorities unequal school system that forces children to drop are especially difficult. This is the case in Delhi, out early. Once sucked in, there is little escape – for example, the fastest growing metropolis youth with criminal backgrounds are more unlikely in India and a magnet for labour from rural than others to pursue higher education or find jobs. areas. Migrant labour in Delhi includes a large Joining the ranks of the homeless is usually the proportion of Dalits and Muslims, mostly endpoint of this journey’. landless labourers from poor northern states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. The problems experienced by African American Concentrated around settlements with large homeless people in Chicago are manifold, some Muslim populations or in the older parts of the of them common to all homeless persons but city, again traditionally Muslim, they struggle to others specific to their situation as a marginalized access housing and in many cases end up sleeping ethnic group. Housing figures at the top in the open streets. The absence of a permanent of the list. There is a shortage of affordable home means they are not even recorded for the accommodation due, among other factors, to purposes of social security schemes such as food poor stock that has been further diminished rations or pensions. Violence on the streets, in some cases by city plans that seek to replace especially against homeless children and women, high-rise developments with lower-density mixed is known to be high. income housing. Affordability gaps are especially acute in neighbourhoods with a high proportion The development and creation of of African Americans. Overall, there has been minority community organizations a sharp increase in the number of the city’s Struggles for the advancement of the rights of homeless in recent years, rising to an estimated minorities require (besides an enabling legal 138,574 persons in 2013/2014. environment and capacity in places to support In India, the drivers of homelessness are the process), platforms and collectives for somewhat different and typically intertwined minority communities to organize themselves, with the dynamics of migration from rural to articulate their concerns and engage with other urban areas, where extreme poverty combines stakeholders. But community mobilization is not with the pressure on migrant labour to support an easy task, especially among very marginalized families back home. Again, minorities – groups. The Dalit example from Bangladesh principally Dalits and poor Muslims – are is instructive here. Efforts by Dalit rights disproportionately represented among the organizations led to the establishment in 2008 homeless. While data on homelessness, collected of the Bangladesh Dalit and Excluded Rights as part of the decennial census, does not Movement (BDERM). This was meant to serve disaggregate by religion or ethnicity, there is as a platform for the Dalit community, with enough evidence that points to this imbalance. the aim of educating members on their rights, In the context of urban poverty nationally, Dalits building public awareness against discrimination, and Muslims face higher levels of overcrowding sensitizing policy makers to the poor condition and are concentrated disproportionately in the of Dalits and strengthening the capacity of Dalit most marginalized urban areas, with an estimated run organizations to do all this. Mobilizing 23 per cent of Dalits and 19 per cent of Muslims Dalits to organize themselves on a platform based in slums, compared to 11 per cent of the for recognition and rights was at the core of majority community. There is also anecdotal this strategy. The fact that much of the Dalit evidence, as well as evidence in the form of population in Bangladesh is urban-based meant qualitative accounts of civil society organizations that the objective of many of these struggles have working on homelessness issues, pointing to the been specifically urban issues.

46 Advocacy, participation and inclusion State of the World’s Minorities for minorities in urban areas and Indigenous Peoples 2015 These civil society partnerships have, over network of civil society bodies monitoring the time, led to many positive achievements, pushing implementation of the Decade of Roma Inclusion Dalit concerns onto the national political agenda (2005–2015), National Action Plans (NAP) and and leading eventually to the government National Roma Integration Strategy (NRIS). In making specific commitments to assist its Dalit 2012, European Union member states agreed, population in its budget. BDERM also helped after an effort by the Decade of Roma Inclusion bring the issue to the attention of international Secretariat and the Open Society Foundation, agencies and UN bodies, with the World Bank’s to sign up to a mechanism for monitoring the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper for Bangladesh implementation of NRISs and NAPs together including a specific objective for ‘housing for with Roma and civil rights organizations. These all’ on the human rights situation of the Dalit ‘shadow reports’ are meant to channel local community. But the challenges to mobilizing knowledge into national and European policy Dalits continue to be significant. For one, processes and reflect on the quality and outcomes anti-Dalit attitudes in society are deep-seated: of government measures, thus serving a watchdog changing the mindsets of different stakeholders, function across the region. György Sümeghy of such as decision makers, service providers, Habitat for Humanity International (HfHI), civil society partners and the public at large, is an international housing rights agency with a difficult. And then there is the issue of building strong presence across Europe, and which is part Dalit platforms themselves. Afsana Amin of of an alliance of organizations supporting Roma Nagorik Uddyog (‘Citizens’ Initiative’), a civil inclusion, notes that: society group seeking to promote participation, access to justice and development, which also acts ‘Monitoring of NRIS and DAPs is best practice at as the secretariat to BDERM, says: a very high level, to enable civil society to use these standards to monitor how national governments ‘Discriminated [against] for centuries, Dalits have deliver for Roma rights, such as on better housing internalized their second class status. Educating and access to urban infrastructure. Although not a them to demand reversal of this status is an uphill very strong policy framework – given governments task. This is compounded by the poor literacy can get away with reporting poor action too – amongst the community, and the acute poverty, the mechanism does provide civil society with a along with the concentration in low paid ‘dirty’ platform and basis to monitor compliance and act as jobs. [This] means that mobilizing for rights and watchdogs.’ dignity is not a priority for them. And Dalits being sub-divided along sub-castes, makes it a difficult The Romania report, for example, notes that task to organize all on a common platform.’ the housing situation of Roma remains ‘dire’, with a wide range of issues including ‘a lack of BDERM’s efforts to counter this take the form basic amenities, eviction from properties rented of programmes for Dalit youth on skill building, by local authorities and many cases of families as well as leadership training for national and abandoning their homes due to inability to cover district committee Dalit members. It also utility costs’. That Roma rights groups lead supports projects for the conservation of Dalit or are active contributors to these reports has language, culture and traditions, while promoting meant an expansion of the space available for awareness raising and public education initiatives community organizations to influence policy and on constitutional rights and entitlements, such as practice on Roma integration. Besides HfHI , housing and land tenure. another important contributor to this process is Roma rights activism has taken a different the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC). Its route, with the Open Society Foundation and research and data on the human rights situation the European Commission leading the way of Roma has been very helpful in assessing the in opening up policy space for Roma rights impact of law and policy on awareness-raising, organizations to have their voices heard. This policy development and strategic litigation. took the form, for example, of creating a But the field is never open; there have been

State of the World’s Minorities Advocacy, participation and inclusion 47 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 for minorities in urban areas obstructions, too, to inclusion. These have others have continued with evictions and the come from the increasing wave of nationalistic demolition of Roma settlements. There is also the mobilization across Europe, supported in large case of Gyöngyöspata, a village in Hungary where measure by right-wing extremist rallies, protests a number of years ago a Roma settlement was and petitions. Some municipalities have built patrolled and menaced by right-wing militias. walls to separate minority communities, while Given the weak capacity of national systems in

48 Advocacy, participation and inclusion State of the World’s Minorities for minorities in urban areas and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Left: A Roma girl proudly wears her ‘Roma’ jacket, Bucharest, Romania. Jake Stimpson

barrier to greater mobilization for minority rights. For the CCH, communities in Chicago have been mobilized through outreach programmes, legal advocacy and a law project that litigates for the rights of the homeless. And in organizing its constituents the coalition puts homeless persons right at the centre, to prioritize the issues, provide testimonies, participate in decision making fora, engage the media and act as leaders for campaigns. Julie Dworkin of CCH notes that:

‘It is incredibly important to have the voice of the constituents to have effective advocacy. Someone with the personal experience and deep insight of the issues of homelessness, to sit in front of you to tell the story, can be a very strong message. We frequently bring groups of homeless persons down to lobby state legislators.’

Although not exclusively, much of this work takes place in the city’s African American communities as this is where the large majority of Chicago’s homeless come from. Given that in this instance, institutionalized racism acts as a chief contributor to homelessness, education, organization and advocacy – all different aspects of community mobilization – go to the root of the problem, building a constituency not only among the homeless persons belonging to minorities, but also among the wider population and state actors. Meanwhile, attitudes in society remain a big hurdle to community mobilization; Dworkin adds:

‘There continues to be this perception that homelessness is caused by poor decisions and personal problems – such as substance abuse, laziness and unwillingness to find remunerative employment. Influencing this thinking, although not mentioned in so many words, is racism. This is, of course, not true – it is primarily due to poverty why people some of these countries, the presence of anti- become homeless. And yet, when people hear minority right-wing mobilizations has meant homeless – they think single men, African American that any attempts to enhance the scope of Roma men, and drugs.’ rights carries the risk of a backlash, particularly in urban settings where pressures on services and There are other hurdles too to community resources are often most intense. This acts as a mobilizations among the homeless, mostly to do

State of the World’s Minorities Advocacy, participation and inclusion 49 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 for minorities in urban areas with the urban setting: was CCH’s targeting of its programmes at districts with large African American homeless ‘The transient nature of the population [means that] populations, increasing outreach with the it is difficult to develop long-term relationships – as community. In some cases, then, it is universal well as the fact that most persons are in crisis, and urban issues, rather than the particular concerns basic needs have to come first, rather than making of specific minorities, that might in the long time for public action.’ run be able to mobilize other stakeholders in the city to support the process. This, of course, can Similar challenges exist for the homeless in Delhi. be a delicate balance as it is important that the Lack of awareness and sensitivity to the plight particular challenges of minorities are not made of the homeless, and negative stereotypes, if not invisible in advocacy efforts by collectives and outright prejudice among the general public larger civil society organizations. and officials against Dalits and Muslims – as mentioned, the minorities who make up the bulk Increasing visibility for of the homeless – results in a situation where minority issues much of the homeless population of the city is In the struggles for minority rights, the biggest not covered by any social security programme. barrier is society’s attitudes towards minorities However, it was activism on the part of a food and its understanding of the complex exclusion rights collective – the Right to Food Movement they face. Creating visibility for minority issues, – working with a sympathetic higher court,1 that besides collecting data that provides the evidence led to the crafting of a programme of support of the exclusion these groups face, also requires for Delhi’s homeless, including night shelters, raising awareness to ensure this information has improved facilities in day shelters and soup a presence in the public domain. In India, where kitchens, among others. Constituents of the minority specific data is only now beginning to Right to Food Movement and other urban rights be collected and published, this information is collectives in Delhi have worked with national helping groups to design specific programmes of and state governments to implement some of interventions, as well as helping minority issues the programmes that the Delhi government to gain greater traction with policy makers and formulated in response to the court’s verdict. society at large. Yet as the situation in Chicago Their focus has been localities where minorities, demonstrates, where homelessness statistics by including Muslims and Dalits, are concentrated, ethnicity have been publicly available for many as well as other marginalized minorities – years, data is not sufficient on its own to result in including women, children and elderly persons, in positive outcomes. among others. This targeting of minority areas The Roma situation speaks to another has helped the benefits reach the most deserving predicament of minorities that has particular people. relevance to the issue of community specific Whilst it is true that the homeless examples, data: prejudices are so deep-rooted that to talk both from Chicago and Delhi, do not necessarily of minority exclusion publicly could be self reflect minority activism as such, they do defeating. As György Sümeghy explains: provide examples where general initiatives still ended up achieving positive outcomes for ‘The policy community is divided on whether it is a minorities. In India it was the shared issue of good thing to collect ethnicity-based data on Roma. homelessness on the streets of Delhi, rather Given the risks, perhaps it is in their interest not to than a minority specific concern, that created be identified as Roma, as that might actually attract the necessary consensus for traction and led to further prejudice, and result in Roma being targeted various improvements for all homeless people, or further disadvantaged.’ particularly benefitting minorities: this is an example where working with general rights This fear of a backlash against Roma means organizations and finding shared issues yielded that pushing for special measures or affirmative results. With Chicago, on the other hand, it action policies could be a risky proposition – as

50 Advocacy, participation and inclusion State of the World’s Minorities for minorities in urban areas and Indigenous Peoples 2015 they could help mobilize the opposition. What Roma access to services and entitlements. Limited activists have found useful though in this context success with this traditional service delivery are anti-discrimination policies, to enforce a level approach to rights-based work, however, has playing field and penalize racism. There is also led to a change of strategy, with some actors the realization that general pro-poor activism on now focusing their efforts on the political its own will not necessarily address discrimination sphere. Drawing much inspiration from the civil against minorities, and that specific platforms rights movement in the US, an Open Society and programmes are required to make sure Foundation engagement programme includes minority concerns are not blurred or overlooked. training for leaders to enable them to stand The challenge, activists believe, is to overturn the up for their rights. The effort is also to enable prejudices underlying these exclusions – through Roma to become active voters at the local level creating awareness and educating the wider and, under an initiative run in Macedonia society about Roma. and Hungary led by HfHI, organize dialogues Countering prejudice is a challenge that Dalits between local government and representatives of in Bangladesh and organizations speaking for the Roma community, centred on the housing them, such as BDERM and Nagorik Uddyog, issue, to create awareness and strengthen the also face. The struggle in the country to ensure voice of Roma while educating city officials Dalit rights are recognized as a category worthy on how to act on the concerns of their Roma of policy attention has been a long, drawn- constituents. out one. BDERM and alliance partners are BDERM’s work in Bangladesh, similarly, now demanding that the government include has focused on the political empowerment of disaggregated data on caste in the next national Dalits, developing a grassroots Dalit leadership census. This is on the back of demands and and organizing them on rights-based platforms campaigns for better housing and upgraded to advocate for decent housing, training and facilities for Dalits in urban settlements, livelihood support for Dalit youth. But minority including land allocations and regularization rights platforms have their limitations, due to of tenure. However, much of the success of their small constituency as well as the limited the Dalit struggle in Bangladesh has itself been voice they have within the rights movements. the impact of efforts, by Nagorik Uddyog and Partnerships and alliances with larger rights other groups in BDERM, to raise the profile platforms can help amplify voices. Dworkin of of the issue and bring multiple stakeholders CCH notes: within the fold of the alliance. These efforts bore fruit in 2008, with political parties adopting ‘Much of what we do is in partnership with other the term ‘Dalit’ and including Dalit issues in groups. These are coalitions of outside groups we their manifestos, thus committing to include lead or join; efforts led by unions, such as the Dalits within the policy framework. In parallel, Fight for 15; grassroots pro-poor collaborations, BDERM also reached out to international such as Chicago based organizations representing stakeholders, such as the International Dalit poor people (Sweet Home Chicago); or community Solidarity Network and the UN. These have had organizations and neighbourhood associations salutary effects in bringing Dalit issues centre- concerned about affordable housing.’ stage in pro-poor policy debates in Bangladesh and internationally, with a focus on housing and A problem, she adds, is that ‘what is affordable other urban rights. for the poor, might still not be affordable for the homeless’. Where minority groups align Engaging local authorities: how to with larger platforms, a balance must be struck participate in local political processes? between the group’s core interests and those of Many of the initiatives for engaging local the larger pro-poor platform. These latter groups authorities on Roma rights have been about might be concerned about the poor, but not the civil society organizations working alone or in most poor specifically, including the homeless. partnership with local authorities to advance Hence a common ground has to be reached. This

State of the World’s Minorities Advocacy, participation and inclusion 51 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 for minorities in urban areas is not to undermine the importance of partnering populations, designing campaigns in such a way with pro-poor formations – as Dwarkin makes as to increase outreach with the community, clear, ‘they have size and bring a lot of scale and that shaped positive outcomes. It helped, of reach, all of which is a help to our cause too. course, that an overwhelming majority of the Organizations working with the homeless do not city’s homeless population happened to be have that sort of heft.’ African Americans. The Roma case demonstrates In Delhi, the role of the Supreme Court the limitations of taking a ‘general’ poverty in asking its commissioners to monitor the reduction approach and the importance of implementation of its Right to Food ruling in recognizing that discrimination is an issue by favour of the urban homeless meant that space putting the emphasis firmly on rights. This has was created for the civil society organizations to led to a change of thinking towards – and greater positively influence outcomes. This also opened focus on – empowerment of Roma people, up ground for strengthening the principal while still recognizing the constraints facing a homeless rights collective in Delhi, the Shahri disempowered community such as the Roma Adhikar Manch: Begharon ke Saath (SAM- when voicing their demands in an atmosphere BSK). Numbering over 20 organizations and hostile to minorities. It is perhaps Bangladesh social movements, SAM-BSK works to promote that provides the strongest evidence of how a and protect the rights of the homeless. In minority rights platform, of and by minorities, recent times, SAM members have pooled their can work together with national and international resources to provide emergency night shelter pro-poor networks to deliver real benefits for and care for the homeless in the winter months. minorities. It will be instructive to further track Other outcomes have been the enrolment of the results on that count to understand the the homeless in electoral registers, giving them factors that enabled this positive outcome. the ability to exercise their democratic rights, In this concluding paragraph, some tentative something that migrants lose when they travel recommendations are presented to overcome from rural areas to cities. Crucially, the use of an barriers and create more effective advocacy for encompassing category ‘homeless’, rather than minority rights in urban settings: the specific minority, Dalit or Muslim, has meant that service providers have tended, on the whole, • Better data collection, disaggregated by to be supportive of these efforts. The work has community and on a range of issues relating to not attracted the kind of resistance that, in the urban space, disseminated through suitable media literature, seems to visit interventions targeted at to policy makers and other stakeholders. Data is minorities, particularly religious communities. of particular importance for minorities in cities, most of which have relocated from their original Lessons and Recommendations settings and often lack clear official recognition. This essay began by exploring some of the The absence of disaggregated data is behind obstacles that minority communities face in much of the invisibility of many of the poorest securing recognition and equality in cities, and most marginalized groups, including many drawing on examples of best practice and minorities. lessons from select minority rights organizations • Inclusive pro-poor urban rights platforms around the world. What is the relevance of that provide space for minority voices and each case study for the broader consideration perspectives, including in neighbourhood of urban minority rights advocacy? The Delhi committees. example perhaps demonstrates how a focus • Capacity development for minority rights on shared issues rather than minority-specific activists and platforms at both local and concerns can create a common consensus and national levels to support community members deliver results for all communities, particularly in undertaking their own organization and benefitting minorities. With Chicago, on the advocacy. other hand, it was the targeting of programmes • Awareness-raising programs on the condition of at neighbourhoods with large African American minorities in cities and urban areas, with public

52 Advocacy, participation and inclusion State of the World’s Minorities for minorities in urban areas and Indigenous Peoples 2015 initiatives on minority rights, equality and anti- discrimination. • Strong anti-discrimination legislation against racism, hate speech and other issues, with a designated watchdog to ensure their strong enforcement. • Campaigns demanding better provision for minorities through clear budget allocations and their implementation in a participatory and transparent manner, accompanied by public campaigns educating minority citizens on these issues. • Engagement of international fora, drawing on international standards, to raise minority concerns as well as help create the momentum for global campaigns on minority agendas. ■

Endnotes

1. The Right to Food Case was brought before the Supreme Court in 2001 by the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), to demand better food rights for the country’s poor. In response, the court has been issuing a set of interim orders, asking national and state governments to improve the provision of food and nutrition for the poor. The court also appointed commissioners to report on implementation. In 2010, after a severe bout of cold weather in Delhi that caused the deaths of many homeless persons, the commissioners proposed that national and state governments should provide not just food, but also shelter and associated facilities for Delhi’s homeless.

State of the World’s Minorities Advocacy, participation and inclusion 53 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 for minorities in urban areas The indigenous experience of urbanization Carolyn Stephens he world has long had cities and as it is linked to the very concept of indigeneity. towns, and there have long been At an international level and in most national T urban populations, but it was only in contexts, indigenous peoples are those groups or 2007 that the United Nations (UN) calculated individuals who self-identify as ‘indigenous’ – this that, for the first time in history, the world’s is how population figures are typically generated population had become more urban than rural. within national surveys or censuses. Many But while the majority are now acknowledged to elements of self-identification of indigeneity live in an urban world, it is still often assumed become more complex and fluid in urban areas, that indigenous peoples are not included: the however, including aspects such as the occupation common image is of isolated communities cut of communal lands, links to ancestral territories off from the modern world, largely disengaged and the preservation of traditional cultural from the challenges and advantages of the practices. These aspects can be particularly urban future. Yet this is not the reality for the challenging in cities as indigenous community thousands of indigenous people who migrate members may feel unwilling to self-identify in to towns and cities every year, nor for the order to ‘fit in’, particularly among indigenous many more who have lived for generations in youth. As a result, urban indigenous populations urban areas. This chapter looks at a real but may become officially invisible if they prefer not hidden issue in global policy – the impacts of to self-identify due to stigma and marginalization urbanization on indigenous peoples. within the dominant urban society. This in turn While urbanization can provide major can mean that authorities fail to recognize the opportunities for indigenous well-being and existence of the urban indigenous population organization, the city can also be a challenging, and that national indigenous development alienating and frightening experience, particularly programmes, if they exist, will remain focused on for migrants, threatening their identity in the rural communities while the growing challenges process. As Michael Dodson, Aboriginal and of indigenous peoples in cities are overlooked. Torres Strait Social Justice Commissioner for Finally, it should be noted that the context Australia, has put it, ‘[R]emoved from the land, also depends on the degree of urbanization in a we are literally removed from ourselves.’ Despite particular country. In countries with indigenous these issues, however, indigenous migration communities plus a relatively high level of to cities has persisted and established urban urbanization, particularly where this urbanization indigenous communities continue to expand. has taken place over a longer period, there is The UN Office for the High Commissioner for usually more experience of urban indigenous Human Rights (OHCHR) calculates that in issues – in Australia, for example, where urban many countries more than 50 per cent of the indigenous policies have existed for decades. indigenous population now live in towns and Latin America, too, is highly urbanized and home cities. Indigenous urbanization has been driven to a number of megacities which concentrate by the search for a new life in a context of rural more than 10 million inhabitants – often with a poverty, land grabbing, conflict and challenges, significant presence of indigenous peoples. The the agency notes: urban indigenous experience in these larger urban centres is distinct from that in small towns. The ‘Over the last three decades, they have moved from other factor is the proportion of indigenous or their traditional lands towards urban areas partly minority peoples in an urban area, particularly seeking opportunities for education and employment, in smaller urban settings in remote regions such partly because of human rights abuses and violations as areas of India and China, where indigenous in particular to their land rights and partly for peoples are the majority in their region. In these cultural survival.’ 1 areas, when they are often also the majority in the urban setting, their experience is very different Urban indigenous identity is perhaps the from the experience of an indigenous person who most important but also most complex of the belongs to a minority in a large urban setting. challenges of the urban indigenous experience,

State of the World’s Minorities The indigenous experience 55 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 of urbanization Increased international attention be initiated by indigenous peoples themselves, Despite a strong focus over the last decades on motivated by opportunities for improved the process of world urbanization and its impacts employment, health, housing, education, political on different population groups, the situation participation or other benefits that they may lack of indigenous peoples in urban settings only in their own territories. The rural–urban internal began to reach international attention recently. migration of the Māori, for instance, began after It was not until 2007 that the UN Permanent the Second World War, when they started to Forum on Indigenous Issues first hosted a special migrate in greater numbers than ever before. meeting on the urban situation of indigenous Now, 70 per cent of Māori individuals reside peoples. According to UN-Habitat, the outside their traditional lands. urbanization of indigenous peoples is the result What is important, however, is to recognize the of two processes: (i) cities growing to engulf diversity of urban indigenous experience and the indigenous settlements, making their ancestral possibilities as well as the risks cities present. ‘The lands part of the urban space; and (ii) migration impacts of urban areas on indigenous peoples by members of indigenous peoples to towns and vary greatly,’ according to Elsa Stamatopoulou, cities for various reasons. The main difference Chief of the Secretariat of the UN Permanent between these two is based on the relationship Forum on Indigenous Issues. ‘Some are able to that the communities have to the land they adapt and improve their situations considerably occupy. When indigenous land is overtaken by without loss of cultural identity; in other cases, urban space, the indigenous community may indigenous peoples are subject to discrimination, continue to live on ancestral lands, although exclusion and violence.’ now in an urbanized setting. In the case of So, whether indigenous peoples are moving to forced or voluntary migration, on the other urban areas with hopes for a new life, escaping hand, indigenous individuals are in-migrants like hardship in rural areas or have already lived in other new arrivals to the city. Both groups are urban areas for generations, what is the evidence frequently exposed to discrimination, however; of the impacts of the urban experience on according to UN-Habitat: ‘generally, both indigenous peoples in terms of health, progress indigenous rural–urban migrants and long-time and social well-being? indigenous “urbanites” tend to be marginalized and discriminated against by dominant Specific impacts of urbanization on population groups’. indigenous peoples Common factors that lead to the movement Urbanization as a process can affect indigenous of indigenous peoples from their lands and peoples either directly or indirectly, in positive territories and towards cities include poverty, and negative ways. Impacts can also vary by environmental factors, conflict, the absence of group: indigenous women, children and young basic services and inadequate legal protection people may be particularly negatively affected over ancestral lands. In Chile, for instance, 34 per by the new urban environment in terms of, cent of the national indigenous population live in for example, access to safe housing, water and the metropolitan area of the capital Santiago, and sanitation, personal security and alienation. The have been there for decades since mass exodus most direct impact, or certainly the most readily from rural areas occurred during the military measurable, is through urban poverty – most of regime of Augusto Pinochet. More recently, the the indigenous peoples who migrate or relocate to indigenous Bedouin of the Negev (Naqab in urban areas end up in the low-income informal Arabic) desert region of Israel are being forcibly settlements that dominate cities and towns in urbanized by the Israeli government to allow Latin America, Asia and Africa. In these areas their ancestral lands to be developed, with the they have limited access to good quality urban result that their traditional lifestyle of land-based housing, healthy food, clean water and health semi-nomadic pastoralism is being replaced with services. Even in Australia, with a long tradition landless, labour-force-led urbanization. of indigenous urbanization, urban Aboriginal Indigenous migration to urban areas may also people are often forced to choose between

56 The indigenous experience State of the World’s Minorities of urbanization and Indigenous Peoples 2015 homelessness or overcrowded, low-income to sell their crafts and products to mostly urban accommodation. Urban areas often lack the citizens in Europe and the USA. Urban areas benefits of traditional healthy lifestyles, such as provide communication facilities that allow indigenous foods and medicines, with unhealthier indigenous peoples to engage with the rest of alternatives such as processed foods and drinks the world about their situation. In Brazil, for taking their place. Indigenous peoples can also example, the Munduruku people began an ‘auto- face more exposure in urban settings to infectious demarcation’ campaign of their ancestral land diseases and environmental pollution, including around the Tapajós River in 2014, in response exposure to sexually transmitted diseases, to the government’s failure to do so ahead of the particularly for indigenous women. construction of two mega-dam projects on the But on the positive side urban areas can river. The community had consistently protested provide access to better schools, improved health against the dam projects, which they say will services and enhanced living conditions. There flood ancestral lands and displace their native may also be better opportunities for indigenous communities. The government claims the dam women to study and have careers. Towns and projects are necessary to provide energy to the cities can even be spaces for the renovation and region’s growing urban centres. Both Amazon maintenance of indigenous identity. In Chile, Watch and major news channels covered the the Mapuche and Aymara communities initially story and supported the indigenous campaign. denied their identities on arrival to the city, Most evidence on the urban indigenous but gradually there was a shift from ‘negative experience is from countries with a long ethnicity’ to ‘positive ethnicity’, with the urban history of urbanization, often accompanied areas facilitating indigenous organizations, by indigenous extermination or active educational groups and political associations.2 policies of assimilation such as the United Indirectly, urban development processes can States, Canada and Australia. For example, affect indigenous peoples by encroaching on Aboriginal Australians have a long and unhappy indigenous territory, in the process displacing experience of urbanization – forcibly taken them to urban areas. The process of urbanization from their lands at the time of the notorious can also push resource extraction processes into policies of assimilation, Aboriginal Australians indigenous territories and create widespread have experienced the worst of all aspects of environmental destruction, undermining urbanization: from the mid-nineteenth century indigenous livelihood sources and creating a they were isolated from their culture and range of health issues in these communities. traditions, introduced to alcohol and drugs, and Urbanization can also threaten indigenous not given access to decent jobs or education. livelihoods by reducing access to materials The consequences of this history of forced for their art and cultural work. For example, displacement to urban settlements is still seen artisanal pottery, which enabled some Batwa to today, with high rates of alcoholism and drug earn some outside income or barter with other dependence among Aboriginal youth and poor communities, is no longer viable because the health compared to non-Aboriginal Australians basic raw material is now being used to produce across a wide range of health outcomes, including bricks. People who used to buy their pots now diabetes, maternal nutrition, heart disease and use plastic containers. various lifestyle-related health problems. Indirectly, urbanization can also have very The urban experience of Australian Aboriginal positive impacts for indigenous peoples. Urban peoples is mirrored in many other settings. communities can bring resources to indigenous Canadian First Nations peoples suffered a very areas through tourism, sales of indigenous goods similar fate to that of Australian Aboriginal in urban centres or even international support for peoples. Historically nomadic or in small indigenous artisans and cultures. For example, settlements in remote areas, living sustainably the international Fair Trade movement has strong with the land, they were forcibly displaced and links with indigenous communities throughout ‘civilized’ in assimilation programmes largely the world and supports indigenous cooperatives designed to ‘westernize’ First Nations peoples.

State of the World’s Minorities The indigenous experience 57 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 of urbanization By 2011 the Canadian census recorded that ‘off- Comparing indigenous and non-indigenous reserve Aboriginal people constitute the fastest sex workers, they found that First Nations growing segment of Canadian society’, with 56 indigenous women were three times more likely per cent based in urban areas.3 to have HIV than other sex workers and had a The impacts of this process in Canada high prevalence of inter-generational sex work. have been profound. Urban First Nations This finding illustrates the long-term effects communities in Canada live in much worse of destructive attitudes and policies towards conditions than other urban groups. A recent indigenous peoples – with impacts that continue study explored worrying evidence that indigenous despite changes in policies.4 women are over-represented among new It is notable that data on the impacts of HIV infections and street-based sex workers. urbanization is much scarcer in regions such as

58 The indigenous experience State of the World’s Minorities of urbanization and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Left: A Maasai boy watches the construction of a new road outside Arusha, Tanzania. Panos/ Frederic Courbet

areas they find themselves living in low-income and vulnerable settlements in the urban areas. This brings with it other problems associated with urban life. Video diaries recorded by urban indigenous women in Shillong talk of their fight to gain access to appropriate services and their struggles with issues such as domestic violence and alcohol. Another important study looked at the urbanization and assimilation of Hmong in Laos into Lao culture and society, and the consequent impacts on indigenous identity and culture. The authors found that Hmong in Laos are undergoing rapid urbanization, aided by the aggressive relocation policies of the Lao government. Forced contact has obliged Hmong to adapt to aspects of Lao culture, resulting in social and cultural upheaval.5 Among the most difficult impacts of urbanization on indigenous peoples are the long- term impacts of displacement from traditional lands and cultures. Indigenous peoples, perhaps more than any other group, struggle to feel at home in cities and may experience racism even in poorer urban communities with other recent migrants. There is evidence that this has an impact on recent indigenous immigrants and can affect young indigenous peoples growing up in urban areas to the extent that they do not want to self-identify as indigenous in their new settings. Some evidence suggests that this stigma can also mean that indigenous peoples begin to regard themselves and their physical difference as a problem. For instance, a study of positive body image that looked at inter-ethnic and rural–urban Asia, where the majority of urban people live and differences among an indigenous sample from which has the highest proportion of indigenous Malaysian Borneo found that urban indigenous peoples globally. However, a study in Shillong in women had a significantly more negative body northern India highlights the health problems of image than either rural indigenous women or the urban indigenous communities particularly other urban women.6 for women. Meghalaya state is a rapidly Urban areas can be home to centres of cultural urbanizing state in north-east India, home to learning, for both indigenous peoples and other indigenous people mostly belonging to the Khasi- urban residents. This can be supported or Jaintia and Garo tribes. The study highlights destroyed by national governments. One positive that, while rural indigenous health indicators are example from 2014, linked to Argentina’s worse, when indigenous peoples migrate to urban participation in the International Conference of

State of the World’s Minorities The indigenous experience 59 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 of urbanization Indigenous Peoples, was the inauguration by the capacity building. Similar initiatives elsewhere President of the Salón de los Pueblos Originarios give important guidance on how governments (Salon of the Indigenous Peoples) in the National can approach and support urban indigenous well- Government House. In neighbouring Brazil in being. In Chile, for example, the government the same year, the closing of a former indigenous has launched a programme of support to museum (Aldeia Maracanã) in Rio de Janeiro end inequality between indigenous and non- that had become a centre for indigenous culture indigenous Chileans called ‘development and ideas was brought to international attention with identity’. In Port Augusta in Australia, when planning officials forcibly evicted an an evaluation of urban indigenous initiatives indigenous community occupying the site next to concluded with the advice to create long-term, Maracanã stadium. culturally appropriate ‘listening services’, flexible and without a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Both Moving towards a culturally inclusive programmes highlight the importance of training urbanization government staff to be more listening, reflexive In terms of overall impacts of urbanization on and respectful of other cultural views. indigenous peoples, the evidence from multiple Evidence also suggests that a critical way settings suggests that indigenous peoples, until to improve life for urban indigenous peoples now, have experienced a complex mix of negative is through initiatives to support and sustain factors while positive impacts have emerged when their identity. This is most successful when the urban indigenous communities have become indigenous communities come together and stronger and more organized. organize themselves. One interesting initiative Urban areas can also potentially provide in Argentina, Chile and Nigeria uses radio to more opportunities for indigenous peoples to support urban indigenous peoples to ‘maintain improve their lives and rural indigenous peoples home languages; gain access to health, education, often migrate to urban areas in search of these and employment information; greet friends and opportunities. Unfortunately, in many settings relatives; and re-create traditional culture under urban opportunities are not readily available circumstances of modern pressures, but also to to indigenous peoples, particularly for recent open up opportunities’.7 urban migrants, and they may find themselves in The creation, or recreation, of a ‘positive’ informal settlements and working in low-paid, urban indigenous identity is a critical element, often hazardous occupations. particularly for indigenous young people, who The positive aspects of urban life can include can feel allied to their culture but also alienated better access to services such as housing, by it in the face of the globalized modern city education and health, but for indigenous peoples or town. Indigenous organizations become these services must be accessible in cultural critical in this context: Māori ‘edgewalkers’ in as well as geographical terms. In most urban the Pacific navigate this delicate intersection settings indigenous peoples find services difficult between indigenous tradition and urban society, to access due to stigma and lack of cultural and studies show that being comfortable with appropriateness. a pluricultural identity can be key to urban Entrenched attitudes towards indigenous indigenous well-being. peoples can have long-term impacts on them and As a final point it is worth noting that their situation in urban areas and this forms a urbanization seems to be the future for people significant challenge for policy makers wishing everywhere, and it is worth reflecting that towns to make a better life for urban indigenous and cities have always served as homes for communities. A critical challenge in this disenfranchised groups in search of inclusion regard is the support of both urban society and and diversity. Different ethnicities coexist in government. Recognizing these challenges, in many major cities around the world – with many 2014 the government of Canada announced people of various religions, cultures and languages an improved urban strategy with two streams living together and learning from each other. of work focused on urban partnerships and London, a global city with an extraordinary

60 The indigenous experience State of the World’s Minorities of urbanization and Indigenous Peoples 2015 array of ethnic and religious diversity, is one example of a major urban centre that has managed to achieve a relatively cohesive urban society while being enriched by its mix of different cultures. The experience of urbanization for indigenous peoples, too, could be just as positive as they bring their heritage to urban areas. Fundamentally, the challenge is not urbanization itself but the overall structural attitudes of society towards indigenous peoples. While the urban experience of indigenous peoples to date has not been positive, there is no reason why well-governed cities and towns should not be able to integrate indigenous peoples in a way that benefits them and the wider urban society. There are already many cities around the world trying to develop policies to overcome long- standing prejudice and historical attitudes. At the same time, there are many indigenous groups and individuals fighting for their inclusion in urban areas. Our urban future will be richer for the inclusion of indigenous peoples in our towns and cities. ■

Endnotes

1 OHCHR, ‘UN world 5 Stewart, M., Xiong, K. report alerts to the and Xiong, X., ‘Hmong condition of indigenous in Laos: urbanization and peoples’, news item, 1 adaptation’, UW-L Journal February 2010, retrieved of Undergraduate Research, May 2015, http:// 7, 2004, retrieved May www.ohchr.org/EN/ 2015: http://www.uwlax. NewsEvents/Pages/ edu/urc/JUR-online/ WorldIndigenousReport. PDF/2004/stewart%20 aspx. et%20al.pdf. 2 Reyes, A., ‘Identidad 6 Swami, V., Kannan, K. Indígena en Chile en and Furnham, A., ‘Positive contexto de migración, body image: inter-ethnic urbanización y and rural–urban differences globalización’, Les Cahiers among an indigenous ALHIM, vol 27, 2014, sample from Malaysian retrieved May 2015, http:// Borneo’, International alhim.revues.org/4942. Journal of Social Psychiatry, 3 Government of Canada, vol. 58, no. 6, 2012, pp. ‘Urban Aboriginal peoples’, 568–76. retrieved 15 April 2015, 7 Carcamo-Huechante, https://www.aadnc-aandc. L.E. and Legnani, N.D., gc.ca/eng/1100100014265/ ‘Voicing differences: 1369225120949. indigenous and urban radio 4 Aboriginal Affairs and in Argentina, Chile, and Northern Development Nigeria’, New Directions Canada (AANDC), ‘Urban in Youth Development, no. Aboriginal peoples’, 125, 2010, pp. 33–47. retrieved May 2015, https://www.aadnc-aandc. gc.ca/eng/1100100014265/ 1369225120949.

State of the World’s Minorities The indigenous experience 61 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 of urbanization Urbanization, minorities and indigenous peoples: how can the law provide protection? Lucy Claridge lmost every country in the world has The elements which are of particular relevance experienced some form of urbanization. to minorities and indigenous peoples include AFor some, urbanization translates (i) legal security of tenure: regardless of the into better health care, quality of education, type of tenure, all persons should possess a employment opportunities and a host of other degree of security of tenure which guarantees benefits which would rarely be available in rural legal protection against forced eviction, areas. Conversely, other individuals never fully harassment and other threats; (ii) accessibility: experience the intended benefits of urbanization, housing is not adequate if the specific needs suffering land insecurity, poor living conditions, of disadvantaged and marginalized groups are unemployment and crime. As recognized in other not taken into account, including people facing chapters, minorities and indigenous peoples – as discrimination; and (iii) cultural adequacy: some of the most marginalized communities – adequate housing should respect and take into can suffer disproportionately from the effects of account the expression of cultural identity and urbanization. This can result in eviction from ways of life. their ancestral lands for urban development This right is also enshrined in various other processes, environmental destruction due to regional instruments and jurisprudence. For resource extraction on indigenous territories, example, Article 31 of the Revised European a breakdown of traditional lifestyles, and a Social Charter states: deterioration of traditional knowledge and culture. ‘With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of This chapter will outline the various key the right to housing, the Parties undertake to take international human rights legal standards measures designed: 1. to promote access to housing which may come into play when considering of an adequate standard; 2. to prevent and reduce the effect of urbanization on minorities and homelessness with a view to its gradual elimination; indigenous peoples, and draw on jurisprudence 3. to make the price of housing accessible to those of international and regional courts, and quasi- without adequate resources.’ judicial mechanisms, illustrating how such situations have been successfully challenged In its 2001 SERAC v. Nigeria2 decision – which through litigation. While not all of the cases and concerned violations of the right to health, the other sources mentioned specifically touch on right to dispose of wealth and natural resources, urban environments, they provide norms and and the right to a clean environment and guidance relevant to the effects of urbanization family rights – against the military government on minorities and indigenous peoples. of Nigeria as a result of its condoning and facilitating the operations of oil corporations The right to adequate housing on the ancestral land of the Ogoni people, the Article 11 of the International Covenant on African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) Rights (ACHPR) made the interpretation that enshrines ‘the right of everyone to an adequate various rights under the African Charter on standard of living for himself and his family, Human and Peoples’ Rights (the African Charter) including adequate food, clothing and housing, implied a right to adequate housing, finding: and the continuous improvement of living conditions’. The Committee on Economic, Social ‘Although the right to housing or shelter is not and Cultural Rights (CESCR), which monitors explicitly provided for under the African Charter, ICESCR’s implementation, has elaborated on the corollary of the combination of the provisions this right, declaring in particular that adequate protecting the right to enjoy the best attainable housing consists of more than simply ‘four state of mental and physical health, cited under walls and one roof’, and includes legal security article 16 above, the right to property, and the of tenure, access to public goods and services, protection accorded to the family forbids the affordability, habitability, physical accessibility, wanton destruction of shelter because when housing location and cultural adequacy.1 is destroyed, property, health and family life are

State of the World’s Minorities Urbanization, minorities and indigenous 63 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 peoples: how can the law provide protection? adversely affected. It is thus noted that the combined that Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 covers three effect of articles 14, 16 and 18(1) reads into the principles, namely: (1) enjoyment of possessions; Charter a right to shelter or housing which the (2) the qualified prohibition on deprivation of Nigerian government has apparently violated.’ property; and (3) qualified state control of the use of property.3 The ECtHR has reiterated that The right to property and freedom these three principles should not be viewed as from eviction forming one concept of property protection: that Linked to the right to housing, the right to is, the enjoyment of possessions is guaranteed, property is set out in Article 17 of the Universal but this guarantee is not without limits. In Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which particular, the second and third principles provides ‘(1) Everyone has the right to own covered by Article 1 of Protocol 1 have to respect property alone as well as in association with the principle of proportionality.4 In other words, others, and (2) No one shall be arbitrarily any interference with the right to property deprived of his property.’ This right is of has to satisfy three ground rules: it must be in particular relevance to minorities and indigenous accordance with the law,5 pursue a legitimate peoples in the context of urbanization, since aim6 and strike a fair balance between the indigenous peoples are frequently forced off their individual right to property and interest of the ancestrally owned land for it to be developed general public.7 and/or used for extractive industries, and According to Article 14 of the African Charter, minorities’ property rights are often ignored as ‘The right to property shall be guaranteed. It may a result of institutionalized discrimination or only be encroached upon in the interest of public denied in the context of post-conflict situations, need or in the general interest of the community when they seek – unsuccessfully – to return to and in accordance with the provisions of their homes. appropriate laws.’ The test laid out in Article Somewhat controversially, the right to property 14 of the African Charter is conjunctive. That has never been expressly recognized in the other is, in order for an encroachment not to be in key UN human rights treaties – the International violation of Article 14 it must be proven that the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) encroachment was in the interest of the public or the ICESCR – yet it has been incorporated need/general interest of the community and into the key regional human rights treaties. was carried out in accordance with appropriate In the European context, the right to property laws.8 The requirement that any encroachment is enshrined in Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 of on property rights be in accordance with the the European Convention on Human Rights ‘appropriate laws’ incorporates both domestic and (ECHR), which provides: relevant international laws. The ACHPR has recognized in its ‘(1) Every natural or legal person is entitled to the jurisprudence that land can constitute property peaceful enjoyment of his possessions. No one shall for the purposes of Article 14 of the African be deprived of his possessions except in the public Charter.9 It has also found that the right to interest and subject to the conditions provided for by property includes the right to have access to one’s law and by the general principles of international property and not to have one’s property invaded law. or encroached on.10 The ACHPR has expressly (2) The preceding provisions shall not, however, recognized that ‘owners have the right to in any way impair the right of a State to enforce undisturbed possession, use and control of their such laws as it deems necessary to control the use of property however they deem fit’.11 property in accordance with the general interest or In the Latin American context, the American to secure the payment of taxes or other contributions Convention on Human Rights (ACHR) or penalties.’ recognizes the right to protection of property, including the right to ‘just compensation’. Jurisprudence before the European Court The ACHR also prohibits usury and other of Human Rights (ECtHR) has established exploitation, which is unique among human

64 Urbanization, minorities and indigenous State of the World’s Minorities peoples: how can the law provide protection? and Indigenous Peoples 2015 rights instruments. Article 21 of the ACHR states others, the rights of members of the indigenous that: communities within the framework of communal property’.13 It stated that possession of the land ‘Everyone has the right to the use and enjoyment of should suffice for indigenous communities his property. The law may subordinate such use and lacking real title to obtain official recognition enjoyment to the interest of society; (2) No one shall of that property.14 In a case concerning the be deprived of his property except upon payment of indigenous Mayagna community against the just compensation, for reasons of public utility or government of Nicaragua, which granted a social interest, and in the cases and according to concession over their communally owned land the forms established by law. (3) Usury and any for commercial development without seeking other form of exploitation of man by man shall be community consent, the Inter-American Court of prohibited by law.’ Human Rights (IACtHR) set out its concept of indigenous property rights, as follows: Indigenous peoples’ rights over ancestral land In relation to indigenous peoples, both ‘Given the characteristics of the instant case, some international and domestic courts have specifications are required on the concept of property recognized that they have a specific form of land in indigenous communities. Among indigenous tenure that creates a particular set of challenges peoples there is a communitarian tradition for communities affected by urbanization regarding a communal form of collective property and/or natural resource extraction. Common of the land, in the sense that ownership of the land difficulties faced by indigenous peoples have is not centered on an individual but rather on the included the lack of ‘formal’ title in their historic group and its Community.’ 15 territories, the failure of domestic legal systems to acknowledge collective property rights, and The point was later reiterated by the IACtHR in the claim of formal title to indigenous land its decision in the case of Yakye Axa, in which it by colonial and post-colonial government found: authorities. In combination, this has led to many cases of displacement from a people’s historic ‘The culture of the members of the indigenous territory, often linked with urbanization. communities directly relates to a specific way of A first step in the protection of such rights in being, seeing, and acting in the world, developed the African context is the acknowledgement that on the basis of their close relationship with their the rights, interests and benefits of indigenous traditional territories and the resources therein, communities in their traditional lands constitute not only because they are their main means of ‘property’ under the African Charter. In this subsistence, but also because they are part of their context, the ACHPR concluded in the Endorois worldview, their religiosity, and therefore, of their decision that the indigenous pastoralist Endorois cultural identity.’ 16 community had collective rights in their ancestral lands around Lake Bogoria: Additionally, in the Moiwana decision, the IACtHR observed that: ‘[T]he State … has a duty to recognize the right to property of members of the Endorois community, ‘The Moiwana community members, a N’djuka within the framework of a communal property tribal people, possess an “all-encompassing system, and establish the mechanisms necessary to relationship” to their traditional lands, and their give domestic legal effect to such right recognized in concept of ownership regarding that territory is the Charter and international law.’ 12 not centered on the individual, but rather on the community as a whole.’ 17 The leading Inter-American human rights case law on the issue of collective property The approach of both the ACHPR and the rights unanimously supports the protection of IACtHR is affirmed by the UN Declaration on property rights ‘in a sense which includes, among the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP),

State of the World’s Minorities Urbanization, minorities and indigenous 65 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 peoples: how can the law provide protection? which in Article 26 provides that: Right: Youths play football on a road that bisects the residential blocks of Lunik IX, a decrepit ‘1. Indigenous peoples have the right to the housing estate in Kosice, Slovakia, almost entirely lands, territories and resources which they have populated by Roma. Panos/Björn Steinz traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired. also extended the obligation to obtain FPIC to 2. Indigenous peoples have the right to own, use, include minorities and other communities where develop and control the lands, territories and preservation of their cultural resources, especially resources that they possess by reason of traditional those associated with their way of life and ownership or other traditional occupation or use, as cultural expression, are at risk.19 well as those which they have otherwise acquired. The ACHPR has also found that forced 3. States shall give legal recognition and protection evictions by their very nature cannot be to these lands, territories and resources. Such deemed to be ‘in accordance with the law’ recognition shall be conducted with due respect to under Article 14 of the African Charter.20 The the customs, traditions and land tenure systems of ‘law’ in this sense refers to both national and the indigenous peoples concerned.’ international law,21 and requires consultation and compensation.22 In reaching this conclusion, the Forced evictions ACHPR relied on the ECtHR’s ruling in Akdivar In its General Comment No. 7, CESCR stated and Others v. Turkey, where the Grand Chamber that: concluded that forced evictions and destruction of the applicants’ houses amounted to a serious ‘Forced eviction and house demolition as a punitive interference with the rights protected under measure are also inconsistent with the norms of Article 8 (which protects the right to private the Covenant … States Parties shall ensure, prior and family life, home and correspondence) and to carrying out any evictions, and particularly Article 1. Protocol No.1 of ECHR.23 those involving large groups, that all feasible alternatives are explored in consultation with the Right to freedom from discrimination affected persons, with a view to avoiding or at least The right to freedom from discrimination minimizing, the need to use force. Legal remedies is a fundamental principle of international or procedures should be provided to those who are human rights treaties, enshrined in a number of affected by eviction orders. States Parties shall also international human rights treaties. These include see to it that all the individuals concerned have a the UDHR (Article 1 and 2), ICCPR (Articles right to adequate compensation for any property, 2, 26 and 27), ICESCR (Article 2), the ECHR both personal and real, which is affected.’ 18 (Article 14 and Protocol 12), the African Charter (Article 2) and ACHR (Article 1). In essence, The legal requirement to seek the meaningful the principle of non-discrimination provides that participation of those affected by evictions minorities and indigenous peoples have a right and – in the case of indigenous peoples – the not to be discriminated against on the basis of, requirement to seek their free, prior and inter alia, race, nationality, ethnic or indigenous informed consent (FPIC), is well-established origin, religion or language. Unfortunately, it in international law (and discussed further is often the case that minorities and indigenous under the section on the right to development). peoples suffer disproportionately high numbers Effective participation in transparent decision of violations of their housing, property and making processes that affect ownership, tenure other rights as a result of institutionalized and use of land is key in ensuring that the rights discrimination and societal prejudice. For of individuals and communities are protected. example, as explained further below, the UN In this respect, states parties should respect Human Rights Committee has found in a the principle of FPIC of indigenous peoples number of cases that illegal eviction, destruction in all matters covered by their specific rights, of a family’s belongings and termination of including in relation to land. The CESCR has property rights violate both Articles 17 and 23 of

66 Urbanization, minorities and indigenous State of the World’s Minorities peoples: how can the law provide protection? and Indigenous Peoples 2015 the ICCPR, as well as Article 2 of the ICCPR, of discrimination, the prohibition of which is which provides for non-discrimination. widely accepted as customary international law According to established case law of and even jus cogens (i.e. a fundamental, binding the ECtHR, ‘a difference of treatment is principle from which no derogation by a state is discriminatory if it has no objective and permitted).27 Therefore, a respondent government reasonable justification, that is, if it does not will bear a very heavy burden when seeking to pursue a legitimate aim or if there is not a establish an objective and reasonable justification reasonable relationship of proportionality for direct racial or ethnic discrimination against a between the means employed and the aim community which, it is well-established, requires sought to be realized’.24 Similarly, the ACHPR special protection. has held that ‘A violation of the principle of non-discrimination arises if: a) equal cases are Roma treated in a different manner; b) a difference Roma28 face an acute crisis in relation to in treatment does not have an objective and extreme levels of social exclusion, of which reasonable justification; and c) if there is no forced evictions are only a symptom (albeit proportionality between the aim sought and the often reaching the severity of the demolition of means employed.’25 their homes). Urbanization of the rural Roma In practice, when it comes to racial or ethnic population throughout Europe, as part of a wider discrimination (which is usually applicable to assimilation as well as deliberate interventions minorities and indigenous peoples), the burden of on the part of local and national authorities, has proof on the government in proving an objective caused untold problems. Previously accustomed and reasonable justification is especially high, to moving between settlements, Roma since it has been classified to be a ‘particularly communities have been allocated municipal invidious kind of discrimination’.26 Direct and apartments and they have faced forced eviction explicit racial discrimination by state authorities from their homes, way of living and livelihoods. is considered among the most egregious types In other cases, where urbanization has resulted in

State of the World’s Minorities Urbanization, minorities and indigenous 67 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 peoples: how can the law provide protection? city development, Roma settlements have been law against such interference or attacks’, while destroyed and they have been settled in locations Article 23 (1) states ‘The family is the natural and far away from any basic infrastructure, schools, fundamental group unit of society and is entitled health and social services. to protection by society and the State.’ The All of this flies in the face of the protections UN Human Rights Committee has found in a afforded to Roma under international law. For number of cases that illegal eviction, destruction example, UN CESCR General Comment No. of a family’s belongings and termination of 7 on the right to adequate housing imposes property rights violate Articles 17 and 23 of the an obligation upon governments to ensure ICCPR, in conjunction with Article 2 ICCPR, that, ‘where evictions do occur, appropriate which provides for non-discrimination.34 measures are taken to ensure that no form of Article 8 of the ECHR provides similar discrimination is involved’.29 The Council of protection, and has frequently been relied on in Europe Commissioner for Human Rights has conjunction with the right to non-discrimination, stated that Articles E and 31 of the revised to protect the situation of the Roma. Article 8 European Social Charter 199630 – which protect states: the right to non-discrimination and the right to housing – will be violated ‘when the state, ‘1. Everyone has the right to respect for his private in evicting persons or destroying their property and family life, his home and his correspondence. appears to single out an ethnic group for more 2. There shall be no interference by a public severe treatment than persons generally’.31 authority with the exercise of this right except such Similarly, the Commissioner has stated ‘Articles as is in accordance with the law and is necessary 8 and 14 of the ECHR will be violated when in a democratic society in the interests of national the state fails to provide adequate remedies for security, public safety or the economic well-being of unlawful destruction of their homes (whether the country, for the prevention of disorder or crime, by private individuals or by agents of the state) for the protection of health or morals, or for the to members of a particular ethnic group.’32 protection of the rights and freedoms of others.’ Indeed, when public authorities have explicitly treated an ethnic group such as Roma differently The ECtHR has specifically applied these in relation to housing, it will be impossible to principles in practice, finding a violation of Articles justify such discrimination unless it is based on 8 and 14 in the case of Moldovan and Others v. positive measures. The ECtHR specifically found, Romania, where destruction of Roma property was in Orsus v. Croatia,33 that ‘as a result of their motivated by the applicants’ Roma origin:35 history, the Roma have become a specific type of disadvantaged group and vulnerable minority ‘The applicants’ Roma ethnicity appears to have … They therefore require special protection.’ been decisive for the length and the result of the Specific case law concerning discrimination domestic proceedings ... repeated discriminatory against Roma is set out below under the section remarks made by the authorities ... determin[ed] the on the right to privacy, home and family life. applicants’ rights under Article 8, when rejecting claims for goods or furnishings, and their blank The right to respect for private and refusal … to award non-pecuniary damages for the family life, and home destruction of the family homes … the decision to The right to respect for private and family reduce the non-pecuniary damages was motivated life, and home, is protected in a number by remarks related directly to the applicants’ ethnic of international and regional human rights specificity.’ 36 instruments. Specifically, Article 17 of the ICCPR provides ‘1. No one shall be subjected As the government had provided no to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his justification for this difference in treatment, the privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to Court found a violation of Articles 14 and 8, unlawful attacks on his honour and reputation; inter alia. 2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the In Yordanova v. Bulgaria,37 a case which

68 Urbanization, minorities and indigenous State of the World’s Minorities peoples: how can the law provide protection? and Indigenous Peoples 2015 concerned a Roma community living in Sofia, 22 of the African Charter on four different Bulgaria, on land owned by the state, but who occasions.42 Of those, the most significant, and had been in residence in very basic conditions recent, is the Endorois decision,43 in which the since the 1960s until the municipal authorities Commission held that Kenya had violated the transferred the title to the land to a private Endorois’ right to development in failing to investor in 2005, the ECtHR similarly found adequately involve them in the development a violation of Article 8. In this case, the fact process on their ancestral lands, and in failing that the applicants were part of a community to ensure the continued improvement of the in which members have developed strong social well-being of the community. The ACHPR, in links was a significant consideration in the reaching this decision, highlighted two important Court’s reasoning. The Court made it clear facets of the right to development: that it is ‘both that such cases should not be treated the same constitutive and instrumental, or useful as both a way as routine removal cases, and that cases means and an end’.44 There is, accordingly, both where a whole community and a long period are under the jurisprudence of the ACHPR and concerned should be treated differently.38 within the scheme envisaged by the DRD, (1) the right to participate in the development process; The right to development and (2) the right to a substantive improvement in The right to development is a corollary of the well-being. right to self-determination.39 The African Charter Article 2(1) of the DRD states the principle is the only human rights treaty which legally that ‘[t]he human person is the central subject of binds states parties to respect the right of peoples development and should be the active participant to development. Article 22 provides: and beneficiary of the right to development’. Further, the right to development, under the ‘1. All peoples shall have the right to their economic, DRD and the African Charter, is a right of social and cultural development with due regard peoples. This is clarified in the DRD when it is to their freedom and identity and in the equal made clear that the right is an ‘inalienable human enjoyment of the common heritage of mankind. right by virtue of which every human person and 2. States shall have the duty, individually or all peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute collectively, to ensure the exercise of the right to to, and enjoy economic, social, cultural and development.’ political development’.45 The scope of the right, then, is not restricted However, the Charter, and by extension the to indigenous peoples but is extended to ‘all African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights peoples’. Additionally, under international law, and the ACHPR, draws inspiration for the the DRD suggests that the right is owed to right to development from the 1986 UN individuals (‘every human person’) as well as General Assembly Declaration on the Right to collective groups of people. Accordingly, under Development (DRD),40 the work of the UN the African Charter, while in order to claim the Independent Expert on Development, the UN benefit of this right it is sufficient that a group is Intergovernmental Working Group on the Right a recognized indigenous community, it is by no to Development, alongside the UN High-Level means necessary. Task Force on the Implementation of the Right Article 2(3) of the DRD notes that the right to Development. Additionally the ongoing work to development includes the ‘active, free and of the United Nations Development Programme meaningful participation in development’. (UNDP) and, in particular, the annual Human Peoples shall experience ‘constant improvement Development Reports provide further interpretive of the well being of the entire population material, as can the constitutions and case law and of all individuals’. Thus, as recognized in of the numerous African countries that have the Endorois decision, it has both procedural incorporated the right to development into their and substantive elements. Fulfilling only one municipal law.41 of these two prongs will not satisfy the right The ACHPR has found violations of Article to development; while violating either will

State of the World’s Minorities Urbanization, minorities and indigenous 69 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 peoples: how can the law provide protection? constitute a violation. Endnotes para. 52. The state, acting at the national level, bears the 12 Endorois, supra note 8, para. primary duty for ensuring the realization of the 1 See further CESCR, 196. General Comment No. 13 IACtHR The Mayagna 46 right to development. As the African Charter 4, The Right to Adequate (Sumo) Awas Tingni makes clear, the state must act individually or Housing (Sixth session, Community v. Nicaragua. 47 1991) (E/1992/23), para. Judgment of August 31, collectively. Further, recognizing the right 8, and CESCR, General 2001. Series C No. 79, to development requires fulfilling five main Comment No. 7, Forced para. 148. Evictions and the Right 14 Ibid., para. 151. criteria. Development must be equitable, non- to Adequate Housing 15 Ibid., para. 149. discriminatory, participatory, accountable and (Sixteenth session, 1997) 16 IACtHR,Yakye Axa (E/1998/22). Indigenous Community transparent. Equity and choice are especially 2 See The Social and v. Paraguay. Merits, important, ‘over-arching theme[s]’ in the right Economic Action Rights Reparations and Costs. 48 Centre (SERAC) and the Judgment of June 17, to development. The income or other benefits Centre for Economic and 2005. Series C No. 125, derived from development must be equally Social Rights (CESR) v. para. 135. distributed.49 Similarly, the UN Task Force on Nigeria (2001) AHRLR 17 IACtHR, Moiwana 60 (ACHPR 2001) Community v. Suriname, the Implementation of the Right to Development Communication 155/96 Preliminary Objections, stated that ‘development had to be grounded in (also known as ‘the Ogoni Merits, Reparations and case’). Costs. Judgment of June sound economic policies that fostered growth 3 See e.g. Sporrong and 15, 2005. Series C No. with equity’.50 Lönnroth v. Sweden, 124, para. 133. Application No. 7151/75, 18 CESCR, General Comment The previous UN Independent Expert on 7152/75, judgment of 23 No. 7, Forced Evictions the right to development, Arjun Sengupta, has September 1982, para. 61. and the Right to Adequate 4 Beyeler v. Italy, Application Housing, supra note 1, paras used the example of housing to illustrate the No. 33202/96, judgment of 12–13. importance of choice and self-determination. 5 January 2000. 19 CESCR, General Comment 5 Saliba v. Malta, No. 21, Right of Everyone to Development is not simply the state providing Application No. 20287/10, Take Part in Cultural Life, housing for particular individuals or peoples; judgment of 22 January para. 55(e); see also UN 2013, para. 37. Human Rights Committee, development is instead about providing peoples 6 Beyeler v. Italy, supra note Angela Poma Poma v. with the ability to choose where to live: ‘The 4, para. 111. Peru, Communication state or any other authority cannot arbitrarily 7 Valkov v. Bulgaria, 1457/2006, 27 March Applications Nos. 2033/04, 2009, which links FPIC decide where an individual should live just 19125/04, 19745/04, to ‘the admissibility because the supplies of such housing are made 19490/04, 19495/04, of measures which 51 19497/04, 24729/04, substantially compromise or available’. 171/05, and 2041/05, interfere with the culturally judgment of 25 October significant economic 2011. activities of a minority or Conclusion 8 Centre for Minority indigenous community’. International law, and regional and international Rights Development and 20 Endorois, supra note 8, para. Minority Rights Group 218. jurisprudence, has played a key role in International on behalf of 21 Ibid., para. 219. establishing standards which states must meet Endorois Welfare Council 22 Ibid., para. 255. v. Kenya (‘Endorois’) 23 Akdivar v. Turkey, when considering urban development. Minorities Communication 276/2003, Application No. 21893/93, and indigenous peoples must be appropriately para. 211. judgment of 16 September 9 Malawi African Association 1996, paras 85–88. consulted in matters which affect their property, and Others v. Mauritania 24 Abdulaziz, Cabales and their land, and their private, home and family (2000) ACHPR, Balkandali v. United life. More importantly, they must be treated Communications 54/91, Kingdom, Application Nos 61/91, 98/93, 164/97– 9214/80, 9474/81, 28 May equally within the development process: they 196/97 and 210/98, para. 1985, para. 72. must not suffer discrimination. Unfortunately, 128; see also Endorois, supra 25 Kenneth Good v. Republic of note 8, para. 187. Botswana (2010) ACHPR, an examination of the situation of the Roma has 10 See Social and Economic Communication 313/05, shown that governments, and indeed societies, Action Rights Centre para. 218. (SERAC) and the Centre for 26 Chapman v. UK, still have far to go where these norms are Economic and Social Rights Application No. 27238/95, concerned. ■ (CESR) v. Nigeria, supra 18 January 2001, para.176 note 2, para. 54; also see (citing Nachova and Endorois, supra note 8, para. Others v. Bulgaria [Grand 190. Chamber], Application 11 Huri-Laws v. Nigeria, No.s 43577/98, 43579/98, (2000) ACHPR, 6 July 2005, para. 145); Communication 225/98, Timishev v. Russia, para. 56;

70 Urbanization, minorities and indigenous State of the World’s Minorities peoples: how can the law provide protection? and Indigenous Peoples 2015 affirmed in Sejdic & Finci elimination; and 3) to make 296/05; Kevin Mgwanga v. Bosnia and Herzegovina, the price of housing accessible Gunme et al. v. Cameroon, para. 43. to those without adequate Communication 266/03; 27 See e.g. International Court resources.’ Democratic Republic of of Justice Namibia Case 31 Recommendation of Congo v. Burundi, Rwanda, 1971, para. 17; Dissenting the Commissioner for Uganda (2003), ACHPR Opinion of Judge Tanaka Human Rights on the Communication 227/99. in the South West Africa implementation of the right 43 Endorois, supra note 8. Cases (Second Phase), ICJ to housing, Strasbourg, 44 Ibid., para. 277. Reports (1966), para. 298; 30 June 2009, CommDH 45 Article 1(1) of the DRD Advisory Opinion 18/2003 (2009) 5, para. 4.2. (emphasis added). of the IACtHR, declaring 32 Ibid. 46 See Article 3 of the DRD. non-discrimination a 33 Orsus and Others v. Croatia, 47 See Article 22(2) of the principle of jus cogens, Application No. 15799/03, ACHPR. because the entire legal 16 March 2010, para. 147. 48 Endorois, supra note 8, para. structure of public order 34 See, for example, Vojnovic 277. rests on it; McCrudden, v. Croatia, UN Human 49 Sengupta, A., Development C., ‘International and Rights Committee, Cooperation and the Right to European norms regarding Communication Development, Boston, MA, national legal remedies 1510/2006, 30 March François-Xavier Bagnoud for racial inequality’, 2009. Center Working Paper No. in S. Fredman (ed.), 35 Application No.s 41138/98 12 (2003). Discrimination and Human and 64320/01; 12 July 50 Review of the Progress in the Rights: The Case of Racism, 2005. Promotion and Impact of Oxford, Oxford University 36 Ibid., paras 139–40. the Right to Development: Press, 2001. 37 Application No. 25466/06; Considerations of the Report 28 Roma are, of course, not 24 April 2012. of the High Level Task Force the only minority group 38 Ibid., para. 121. on the Impact of the Right to suffer in this way: 39 Article 22(2) of the African to Development (2001), many other minorities and Charter. Commission on Human indigenous communities 40 Annex to the UN General Rights (E/CN.4/2005/ (for example, the Dalits) Assembly Resolution WG.18/2), para. 10. have also experienced 41/128 (4 December 51 Sengupta, supra note 49 at similar treatment at 1986) (A/RES/41/128). p. 8. the hands of their Later reaffirmed in the governments and their Vienna Declaration and fellow citizens. However, Programme of Action, unlike Dalits, Roma have adopted by the World been able to challenge this Conference on Human treatment before regional Rights on 25 June 1993 (A/ bodies – including the CONF.157/23), para. 10: ECtHR – providing some ‘The World Conference on interesting jurisprudence Human Rights reaffirms for consideration in this the right to development, chapter. For that reason, as established in the and for that reason alone, Declaration on the Right to jurisprudence involving Development, as a universal Roma has been selected for and inalienable right and an inclusion. integral part of fundamental 29 Supra, note 1, para. 10. human rights. As stated in 30 Article E states: the Declaration on the Right ‘The enjoyment of the rights to Development, the human set forth in this Charter person is the central subject of shall be secured without development.’ discrimination on any 41 Both Ghana and Uganda ground such as race, colour, have included the concept sex, language, religion, as a principle of national political or other opinion, policy. The Constitutions national extraction or social of Benin, the Central origin, health, association African Republic, the with a national minority, Democratic Republic of birth or other status.’ Congo, Ethiopia, Malawi Article 31 provides: and Senegal also contain ‘With a view to ensuring a justiciable right to the effective exercise of the development. right to housing, the Parties 42 The Endorois decision, undertake to take measures supra note 8; Sudan Human designed: 1) to promote access Rights Organization & to housing of an adequate Centre on Housing Rights standard; 2) to prevent and Evictions (COHRE) and reduce homelessness v. Sudan (2009) ACHPR with a view to its gradual Communications 279/03–

State of the World’s Minorities Urbanization, minorities and indigenous 71 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 peoples: how can the law provide protection? TUNISIA MOROCCO

ALGERIA LIBYA Western EGYPT Sahara

MAURITANIA MALI NIGER ERITREA SENEGAL THE GAMBI A CHAD SUDAN GUINEA-BISSAU BURKINA DJIBOUTI FASO GUINEA BENIN NIGERIA SIERRA TOGO ETHIOPIA LEONE CÔTE CENTRAL D’IVOIRE GHANA SOUTH SUDAN LIBERIA AFRICAN REP.

CAMEROON SOMALIA

UGANDA SAO TOME EQUAT. AND PRINCIPE GUINEA REP. OF KENYA GABON THE CONGO RWANDA DEM. REP. BURUNDI OF THE CONGO INDIAN TANZANIA OCEAN

ANGOLA MALAWI ATL ANTIC ZAMBIA

OCEAN MOZAMBIQUE ZIMBABWE MADAGASCAR

NAMIBIA BOTSWANA

SWAZILAND

LESOTHO

SOUTH AFRICA

AfricaInga Thiemann, Paige Wilhite Jennings and Laura A. Young Right: An Anuak woman works on her family’s banana plantation in the village of Karmi, East in Ethopia’s Gambella Province. The Anuak community were relocated to the site as part of the Government ‘villagization’ program. Panos/ Africa Robin Hammond Conflict and climate change have for many and the years had a disproportionate impact on minorities and indigenous peoples in East Africa. As these issues continue to cause population displacements Horn in the region, minorities and indigenous peoples find themselves forced to migrate to urban Laura A. Young areas for survival. These types of population displacements often create vulnerable female- onflict over land and natural resources headed households in urban and peri-urban areas. continued to dominate the landscape East African indigenous peoples, who consist C for minorities and indigenous peoples mainly of pastoralists and hunter-gatherer groups, in East Africa during 2014. Major issues included can find the transition to urban life particularly large-scale protests in Ethiopia related to the challenging. Forced into environments where expansion of Addis Ababa, the hearing of the their traditional livelihoods are unavailable, first indigenous rights case at the African Court they adopt a multitude of coping strategies. As on Human and Peoples’ Rights on Ogiek land described in a study by UN-Habitat, some of rights in Kenya, and continuing disputes over these strategies ‘include the commoditization of the rights of communities across the region to certain aspects of their culture such as performing benefit from the exploitation of natural resources traditional dances for the entertainment of in their territories. The failure of East African tourists, selling traditional handcraft, herbs and governments to effectively implement legal medicinal plants…Women engage in beadwork and policy frameworks that could substantially and in making and selling handicrafts as well as enhance the situation of minority and indigenous in selling medicinal herbs.’ Despite these coping peoples remains a significant challenge strategies, poverty and inequality remain defining throughout the region. For instance, the Kenyan characteristics of East Africa’s urban areas, government’s inability to date to pass required whether in large capital cities or in smaller urban legislation on community land and evictions or areas. When this pattern of inequality intersects to operationalize the Constitution’s provisions with the consistent marginalization of minority on affirmative action in relation to minority and indigenous communities, one finds minority communities reflects the slow rate of progress on groups in urban areas at the extreme end of the these types of issues. inequality scale. Urbanization in East Africa is a critical issue; it is one of the fastest urbanizing regions in the Ethiopia world, with a projected urban growth of 5.35 per Minority and indigenous communities in cent between 2010 and 2020. Between 1960 and Ethiopia include Afar, and indigenous Anuak, 2010, the population living in cities increased Oromo, Somalis and many other ethnic groups. from 6 million to more than 77 million. This Muslims also are a significant religious minority rapid change in East Africa’s landscape is having in the predominantly Coptic Christian nation. important impacts on economics, climate, Despite a federalist constitutional structure that health, conflict, culture and gender roles, as well provides important autonomy and cultural rights as almost every other aspect of daily life in the for Ethiopia’s diverse communities, many of region. It is also having significant impacts on Ethiopia’s minorities and indigenous peoples minorities and indigenous peoples. continue to be marginalized. Repeated reports

74 Africa State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 of human rights violations as a result of the of hundreds of thousands of indigenous people Ethiopian government’s development strategy who have lived in the Lower Omo region for in the Lower Omo Valley and the Gambella led centuries. Despite significant concerns about the the US Congress to take action through its 2014 social and environmental impact of the dam, Appropriations Act. The legislation specifies particularly on pastoralist communities, the that funds for development cannot be used Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation reported to support activities that directly or indirectly at the end of the year that the project was 89 per involve forced evictions, and that the use of funds cent complete. shall be subject to a process of prior consultation Reports indicate that Majengir hunter- with affected communities. While this was a gatherers have also been the victims of land significant victory for communities in the Lower loss and increasing violence in relation to plans Omo Valley and the Gambella, the impact of for large-scale coffee production, including these provisions on the government’s policies the detention of Majengir leaders in 2014. remains to be seen. Evidence from satellite imagery indicates that The creation of large-scale agricultural development projects in the Lower Omo Valley plantations in the Gambella region continued have significantly reduced grazing lands for the in 2014. Indigenous communities in Ethiopia’s multiple pastoralist communities who live in Gambella region have been in conflict with the the region. These changes in land use patterns government over plans to convert thousands of have led to increased conflict in the region. For hectares into large-scale agricultural plantations. example, indigenous Suri pastoralists have come Anuak communities took action through the into conflict with neighbouring communities and World Bank’s Inspection Panel to protect with the government as a result of being accused their rights to land and culture in the face of of trespassing on traditional grazing lands that large-scale land dispossession. Controversies were converted into a palm oil plantation. The over the development of the Gibe III dam also Ethiopian government has initiated a process continued during the year. The dam threatens of small-scale urbanization, known as sefara, to to damage the local environment and livelihoods induce or coerce the non-sedentary Suri into

State of the World’s Minorities Africa 75 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 giving up their traditional pastoralist lifestyle and Oromo language is officially used for education, settling in small towns. business and public service. Should the towns Similarly, the government’s controversial use be absorbed into Addis Ababa, they would fall of ‘villagization’ has continued for a number under the jurisdiction of the federal government of years and involved the planned relocation and, among other changes, the official language of the majority of Gambella region’s rural would change to Amharic. The announcement residents to officially designated settlements. of the central government’s plans to expand the The process has been widely criticized by human boundaries of Addis Ababa provoked protests by rights groups, who have reported evictions, Oromo students during the year. As with past violence, intimidation and sexual assault by protests by other Ethiopian minority groups, police and military enforcing the policy. Though the government reportedly used excessive force, justified by authorities as a means to provide including beatings of protesters, arbitrary arrests communities located in underpopulated areas and detentions which led to the deaths of dozens with better access to basic services and livelihood of students. opportunities, the relocation sites have in practice often proved inhospitable, with much of the Kenya promised development and infrastructure failing Land rights continued to be a major issue for to materialize. In some instances, according minority and indigenous communities in Kenya to previous research by Human Rights Watch during 2014. In January, thousands of Sengwer (HRW), Anuak families have been forcibly were forcibly removed from Embobut forest, in relocated from urban areas to government the western part of the country, and their houses villages with limited services or infrastructure, torched by armed members of the Kenyan Forest undermining access to essential services such as Service. This was in direct violation of a 2013 education. The organization expressed concern High Court injunction prohibiting evictions that the underlying motive in these cases was to of the community. The government justified release valuable land for private investment. its actions against members of the indigenous Ethiopia, though largely rural, is urbanizing community, who have been labelled as ‘squatters’ rapidly. Addis Ababa – the capital and home to despite their long-standing ancestral claims, as a the offices of the African Union – is projected necessary measure to protect local water supplies to grow by more than 60 per cent between 2010 and biodiversity. The territory lies within and 2025. The city reportedly has the highest the World Bank-funded National Resource slum incidence in the world, with poor access Management Project (NRMP), a multi-year to basic services even for those living outside the programme designed to strengthen environmental slums. This is placing increasing pressure on the conservation in the Cherangany Hills. However, surrounding Oromia region, particularly with the the NRMP has been accused of failing to address proposed implementation of the government’s indigenous land rights issues, as well as moving Addis Adaba Integrated Development Master the boundaries of the Cherangany forest reserves Plan. The plan to expand Addis Ababa would so that Sengwer homes were relocated without bring multiple towns in the surrounding Oromia consultation. Following a complaint by the region under its jurisdiction. Sengwer community in 2013, the World Bank’s However, the Ethiopian Oromo community, Inspection Panel launched an investigation and the largest ethnic group in the country, has long concluded, in a report leaked to the media, that been in conflict with the central government. the NRMP had failed to follow basic safeguards The conflict has deep historical roots in the and had neglected to involve the indigenous displacement of Oromos from their traditional community. Nevertheless, the World Bank territory, which is now home to Addis Ababa, concluded that despite these issues the NRMP and in Ethiopia’s constitutionally established was not linked to the evictions. The displacement federal structure. Currently, towns in the of Sengwer continued into early 2015, with Oromo region fall under the administration ongoing evictions and house burning by Kenyan of the Oromo regional authority, and the Forest Service guards.

76 Africa State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Right: An elder Endorois woman in a small town in Kenya’s Rift Valley. The Endorois are fighting to achieve implementation of the 2010 African Commission decision granting them rights to Lake Bogoria. Minority Rights Group/Rebecca Marlin

The ongoing land rights case brought by the Ogiek hunter-gatherer community was heard before the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in November 2014. The case was referred to the Court in 2012 by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. MRG has represented the Ogiek community in their litigation at the regional level since the case began with a Communication at the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights in 2009. The Ogiek are trying to achieve a permanent resolution to their decades-long struggle for recognition of their rights to inhabit their traditional territory in the Mau forest. A judgment in the case is expected in 2015. The Endorois community continued to advocate for implementation of a 2010 decision of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights that ruled that the government must restitute their ancestral land, compensate them for the eviction and loss of access to their land, and pay royalties for developments which occurred on it. The government in 2014 established a Task Force to undertake to increased land speculation along the entire implementation of the decision. The Task corridor, which stretches through territories that Force will be addressing restitution of the have been inhabited by pastoralists and hunter- land to the Endorois, compensation for losses gatherer communities for centuries. The port resulting from their eviction and benefit-sharing component of the project is being built in Lamu, of royalties derived from lucrative bioenzymes a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to and rubies found on the land. The Task Force’s indigenous hunter-gatherer communities, fishing mandate provides that it may ‘solicit, receive and communities and several pastoralist groups. The consider views from members of the public and first stages of construction began in 2014 amid other interest groups’, but it does not require substantial concerns over the environmental, consultation with the Endorois community, nor health, and livelihood impacts of the massive is there any Endorois representative on the Task changes, although the project continues to be Force. challenged by litigation from multiple parties. The multi-country Lamu Port, South Sudan, Though around three-quarters of the country’s Ethiopia Transport (LAPSSET) Corridor population still reside in rural areas, Kenya is continued to move ahead in 2014. The massive one of the fastest urbanizing countries in the project is designed to bring investment, world. Nairobi, the capital, is projected to grow infrastructure and in some cases the creation of by almost 80 per cent between 2010 and 2025. entire new cities along a corridor in northern It currently hosts more than 200 informal Kenya that has historically been ignored from settlements, also known as urban slums, where a development perspective. It has already led living conditions are among the worst in Africa

State of the World’s Minorities Africa 77 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 because population densities reach up to 26,000 notorious slums through successive invasions people per square kilometre. High population and land grabbing. After Kenya’s independence, density, poverty and lack of services have the Nubian community also effectively became combined with a volatile political environment stateless because the government refused to where neighbourhoods are strongly politicized recognize them as citizens, although most had along tribal lines. Certain Kenyan minority been born in Kenya and any ties with Sudan communities, including Asians, Nubians and had been severed decades earlier. After decades Somalis, have significant urban populations and of struggle to receive recognition of their claim are particularly affected by this trend of rapid and to Kenyan citizenship as well as title to their largely unmanaged growth. Maasai indigenous to land in Kibera, conflict over land titles erupted the area, in particular, have suffered displacement again in 2014. The Nubians claim that the land from their land over the last century as Nairobi allotted to them in Kibera during colonial rule has steadily expanded. Farmers and developers was originally more than 4,000 acres. A proposal have seized large swathes of their grazing lands, by the current government to issue titles to the leading to the erosion of traditional livelihoods as Nubian community led to riots and the title pastoralism has become increasingly untenable. handover was cancelled at the last minute. Part of the conflict over land in many of Another area with a large minority population Kenya’s informal settlements, as well as in is Eastleigh, where a large proportion of Nairobi’s rural areas inhabited by Kenya’s indigenous Somali population resides. The district has communities, is the lack of an effective legislative repeatedly been a target in the wake of security regime controlling land tenure and the manner incidents associated with the militant group in which evictions are to be carried out when al-Shabaab, including two attacks in Mombasa people occupy land informally. The Community and Nairobi in March 2014. Following these Land Bill and the Evictions and Resettlement incidents, the Kenyan government initiated Bill were introduced in parliament in 2014, ‘Operation Usalama Watch’, which led to the but remain stalled because of their controversial round-up and detention of more than 4,000 nature and lack of effective public participation. Somalis in a stadium on the outskirts of Nairobi. Forced evictions and the proliferation of Reports of extortion, inhumane detention informal settlements remain significant issues conditions, sexual assaults, arbitrary arrest, as well in Kenya’s other major cities, such as Mombasa as the summary deportation of Somalis found and Kisumu. Kenya’s indigenous coastal without identity papers, were widespread during communities, broadly known as the Mijikenda, the operation. often can only access land as squatters or through As with previous security crackdowns, the the informal market as tenants because of the focus was concentrated primarily in Eastleigh, historical and legal complexities of land titling at with the interior minister announcing on 5 April the coast, as well as continual land grabbing. This 2014 that 6,000 police were to be deployed in situation leads to ongoing evictions as land values the area to round up foreign nationals. Even along Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast continue to before the second attack took place in a busy increase. area of Eastleigh on 31 March, killing six people, In Nairobi, one of the most well-known the government had already announced plans informal settlements is Kibera. Though to relocate urban refugees to camps outside historically it was Maasai grazing land, the area Nairobi, such as Dabaab. This encampment was ceded to the British colonial government in policy has been promoted by the government the 1904 Maasai Agreements and later designated for a number of years, particularly in the wake as a settlement for the Nubian community, of violent incidents, despite a 2013 court ruling who are descendants of Sudanese members of that condemned it as illegal. Previous anti-terror the King’s African Rifles who served in Uganda operations, such as the 2011 security crackdown, and Kenya. Previously an agricultural and have specifically targeted Eastleigh and its Somali residential settlement for the Nubians, Kibera residents. Buildings in the area, particularly has been reduced to one of the world’s most those near the airport, have been demolished as

78 Africa State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 to escape frequent outbreaks of violence Case study by Rebecca Marlin as a result of cattle-rustling carried out by neighbouring communities. Some Endorois youth, frustrated by their Urban migration marginalized status, also leave in the hope of securing greater recognition within Kenyan and the loss of society. One Endorois attending law school in Nairobi discussed the numerous traditional culture challenges facing young Endorois, such as ongoing government repression, among Endorois exclusion from local job recruitment, leadership problems and their continued youth in Kenya stigmatization. He explained that these factors ‘have caused the youth to move away from Endorois land in order to disassociate Indigenous Endorois had inhabited Lake from the community and be given greater Bogoria for centuries when, in the 1970s, consideration by Kenyan leaders’. the Kenyan government forcibly removed Migration to urban areas has produced them from their ancestral land. Their eviction benefits and challenges for Endorois brought to an end a unique way of life rich families. On the positive side, it has given with culture and tradition, and they have been young Endorois access to higher education advocating for the rightful return of their and frequently the skills they gain may land ever since. Despite a 2010 ruling by the be used to improve the lives of their African Commission on Human and Peoples’ community as well. Endorois who find Rights in their favour, secured with MRG’s employment in cities are also able to send support, the government has yet to comply. some of their wages home to their families, In October 2014, MRG spent three weeks where they are desperately needed. visiting the areas near Lake Bogoria where the At the same time, Endorois who move community is now based, and interviewed to larger cities report that they face nearly 500 Endorois about their lives. Many discrimination based on their minority Endorois described how, while living at Lake status and often are only able to find Bogoria, they engaged in a variety of cultural employment in non-permanent or contract- and religious activities, such as worshipping at based jobs, usually in private security or the graves of their ancestors, collecting herbs domestic work. Endorois employed in for medicinal purposes and practising initiation this way are rarely given time off by their ceremonies. As pastoralists, they followed the employers to visit their families, who often natural grazing patterns of their livestock, and can only be reached after a long journey maintained beehives to collect honey. through remote and potentially dangerous In the 40 years since their displacement, areas. The result is that many young however, the Endorois have been struggling Endorois end up not returning home for to maintain their traditions, while living in extended periods, and find themselves marginal areas with extremely limited access to increasingly out of touch with day-to-day health care, basic infrastructure and education. life within the Endorois community. As a result, younger generations have made Endorois tradition is passed down from efforts to better their lives by heading to cities elders to youth, with frequent interaction such as Eldoret, Nakuru and Nairobi. Their between the two groups. With more and reasons for moving are varied: some are in more from the younger generation leaving search of higher education, others are looking their rural communities, however, this for employment, while many are also seeking chain has been broken. Almost all Endorois

State of the World’s Minorities Africa 79 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 surveyed, both elders and youth, reported Right: Makeshift houses of Gaboye families in a that they felt the younger generation village in Hargeisa, Somali. The Gaboye minority were losing their culture. One Endorois are among the most vulnerable in Somalia. woman remarked that it was sad to see so Somaliska Fred/Andreas Ragnarsson many Endorois leaving at a young age for cities, because ‘this is the time when the potential security threats. younger generation is expected to learn how Kenya also has a significant Asian minority, ceremonies are conducted. Generations to primarily Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims of Indian come will lose the unique Endorois culture origin, who are largely based in the country’s and livelihood as they are continuously major urban centres. Though they have long exposed to urban culture.’ Endorois also played an important role in the country’s find that it is frequently those who might economy, the perceived wealth of the community become Endorois leaders who are most has also been a source of resentment among other likely to leave. ‘The community is affected groups. These tensions were brought into focus when the youth move out, leaving them during the year in Kisumu, Kenya’s third largest without energetic and visionary people,’ city, when the minority Sikh community erected said one Endorois man. ‘Those with ideas a statue to celebrate 100 years of settlement in do not share them with the community and the city. However, angry responses from some the community is left behind.’ prominent local Christian preachers led to Endorois are therefore struggling to violence, hate speech and the vandalization of the develop a way to maintain their traditions statue. Ultimately, the Sikh community decided in the face of the strong draw of the to remove the statue after attempts to negotiate cities, but many feel defeated. A majority on the matter failed to resolve the conflict, of those surveyed believed that the only though restoration work was subsequently way to ensure Endorois youth remained undertaken on the statue. The next month, in the community was to regain access the Sikh community was nevertheless able to to their territory at Lake Bogoria, where celebrate its centenary without serious incident, they could fully reinstate their traditions with local leaders celebrating its contribution to and offer a more attractive future to the the city’s history. next generation. Despite the government’s obligation to restore their land, return Somalia remains a distant reality for Kenya’s Despite continuing international intervention Endorois, who must now struggle with the and the presence of more than 20,000 African loss not only of their culture, livelihoods Union troops in Somalia, political instability and traditions, but their youth as well. ■ increased in 2014 and attacks by the militant group al-Shabaab continued inside Somalia and throughout the East Africa region. Attacks late in 2014 along the Somali–Kenyan border and on the African Union’s main military base in Mogadishu highlighted the continuing and significant threat from al-Shabaab. With increasing instability inside Somalia, minority groups such as Bantu and Banadiri continue to face vulnerability and exclusion. Other vulnerable groups include occupational minorities or clans that are associated with specific trades, such as Gaboye, Tumal and Yibrow, who work as blacksmiths, carpenters, tanners, barbers and in other trades. The importance of the clan governance system

80 Africa State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 in the different regions of Somalia is reflected in ensuring that residence in specific neighbourhoods lower levels of political representation. In South- is controlled by clan affiliation. Urban areas, Central Somalia, for example, though minorities especially in conflict-affected countries such are estimated to make up anything between a as Somalia, often present very high risks for fifth and a third of the total Somali population, women, especially women who may be outside the parliament’s 4.5 power-sharing formula the protection regime of a dominant clan. The provides equal political representation to the clan networks dominating residential patterns in four major clans while leaving only a half share Mogadishu also extend to the displaced people’s for the rest of the Somali population. However, settlements around the city. Accordingly, those the limited reach of central authorities in many who fall outside the clan structures, specifically areas enhances the importance of clan-based minority groups, often cannot access basic services security structures and governance through xeer, provided for displaced people in the camps, such the complex system of traditional customary as water, food and health care. law from which many minority groups are Clan politics in urban areas can be especially sidelined. This exclusion from the dominant clan intense as dominant groups monopolize local structure, or membership in a weaker clan, leaves political structures. In Mogadishu, for instance, minority groups more vulnerable to property- municipal government positions are occupied grabbing, physical attacks, killings and general almost exclusively by Hawiye. The common discrimination. Research by MRG during 2014 perception among clan members that Mogadishu in Somalia found that clan-based hierarchies and surrounding areas, as territory traditionally continued to enable widespread sexual violence inhabited by Hawiye, belong solely to their clan and other rights abuses against minorities, has left them reluctant to share land and other particularly women. resources with other communities, despite the In Mogadishu, for example, urbanization fact that, as the capital, it now accommodates a patterns have become dominated by clans, wide variety of groups.

State of the World’s Minorities Africa 81 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 excluded from livelihood opportunities by Case study by Michelle Minc majority groups. Women tend to work in informal sectors such as domestic work, where they are frequently subjected to Minorities on gender-based violence or denied payment. In these harsh conditions one of the coping the margins of strategies employed by minority households is child labour, with the youngest family Mogadishu members sent out at an early age to earn money as herders, shoe shiners or street vendors. Mogadishu, one of the oldest cities in Sub- With limited employment opportunities, Saharan Africa, has undergone tremendous many families living in informal settlements population growth over the last century. This rely on hand-outs from international and has been accompanied by the development local donors. Yet, in line with other forms of informal settlements, or obbosibo, which of discrimination perpetrated against have sprung up across the city with little minorities, humanitarian aid is systematically or no planning. As far back as the 1960s, diverted from those who need it most. donor-financed and government-led initiatives The informal settlements are often run by attempted to address the issue through the powerbrokers who administer the camps; construction of affordable housing. These these so called ‘gatekeepers’, comprising efforts were ultimately unable to keep up with local land-owners, government officials and the influx of migrants to the city, however, businessmen, are drawn exclusively from and today many of its inhabitants live in majority clans. Together they monopolize congested conditions without access to basic control over those migrating to the city, housing materials or public services. Despite requisitioning public and private property its troubles, Mogadishu continues to attract to house displaced communities – often large numbers of new arrivals, with an annual minorities – in return for monetary or population increase of almost 9 per cent. other forms of payment. In this context, the Though no precise figures are available, mismanagement of humanitarian assistance evidence suggests that minority groups make continues to fuel the power of gatekeepers up a disproportionate part of the population in the overcrowded and unprotected of the overcrowded and unhygienic obbosibo settlements. that run through the city. More often than Today, Mogadishu continues to grapple not, minority populations have ended up in with the issue of obbosibo. But instead of Mogadishu after being displaced by conflict, constructing alternative affordable housing hunger or land grabbing elsewhere, usually or attempting to tackle the unsafe living southern Somalia. Yet their lives in the conditions in settlements, the government capital’s informal settlements continue to be has embarked on a campaign of forcible plagued by insecurity, sexual violence and evictions. Between January and December discrimination, making it almost impossible 2014, over 32,500 individuals were for them to make ends meet. Furthermore, forcibly evicted from public and private the forcible appropriation of their land by land and buildings in Mogadishu. While members of dominant clans makes returning no disaggregated statistics are available to home an unfeasible option. identify the proportion of minority groups Minority women and youth living in among the victims, the vast majority (over obbosibo are particularly vulnerable as many 90 per cent) of evictees were IDPs, who lack connections and extended family support. heavily originate from minority groups. As a result, they often find themselves Other IDPs remain at imminent risk of

82 Africa State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 forced evictions. Most recently, in March South Sudan 2015, Somali state security forces forcibly The conflict in South Sudan continued evicted an estimated 21,000 IDPs from throughout 2014, despite repeated attempts at informal camps in the Kahda district of brokering a lasting peace agreement between Mogadishu, with security forces destroying the warring factions. The conflict has subsumed shelters and beating those resisting orders and exacerbated ongoing conflicts between to vacate. No adequate notification, ethnic minorities and the national government compensation or resettlement option is and army, primarily controlled by the largely provided to the communities displaced. Nuer and Dinka ethnic leaders. This has been These evictions reflect a broader particularly the case in Jonglei State, where context where decisions over land, conflict has been a consistent feature of life over housing and other issues are routinely the past several decades. By the end of the year, made by dominant groups – in this the UN reported that tens of thousands had been case, Mogadishu’s majority-dominated killed and 1.9 million people displaced by the local authorities – without any form of conflict. consultation with those communities, Jonglei is home to multiple ethnic usually minorities, most affected. communities and sub-groups, including Anuak, Despite Mogadishu’s rich and diverse Dinka, Jiye, Kachipo, Murle and Nuer groups. population, power continues to be Bor town, an urban centre and the capital narrowly concentrated with majority clan of Jonglei State, is particularly multi-ethnic, members. This has serious implications including foreign nationals who live in the town for the city’s future. Without a concerted to conduct business. Bor was hard-hit during effort to recognize and integrate them, the early days of the fighting. The UN Mission its marginalized minority population will in South Sudan reported that South Sudanese remain homeless, hungry and exposed, minorities such as Anuak, Murle and Shilluk, as moving from one informal settlement to well as foreigners from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya the next – a situation that will not only and Uganda, appeared to be specifically targeted. further entrench their secondary status in By the end of 2014, various parts of Jonglei Somalia, but also perpetuate the sad legacy State were still being contested by government of Mogadishu’s obbosibo for generations to forces, opposition forces and an ethnic militia. come. ■ An August 2014 report noted that Jonglei State had the highest number of displaced people and the highest food insecurity rate in South Sudan. There is substantial concern that as the rainy season comes to an end in 2015, extensive fighting will erupt again. The national conflict between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar has exacerbated long-standing tensions between communities over land rights, lack of community-centred development and violent rivalries that have developed over centuries. Research conducted by MRG in 2014 highlighted the underlying grievances among minority communities in Jonglei, including lack of access to water, conflicts over dry- season grazing areas, violent cattle raids and the manipulation of vulnerable populations by local politicians. The national conflict has worsened these underlying problems, given that many

State of the World’s Minorities Africa 83 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 development projects have been halted and Right: A Batwa girl stands overlooking the forest public assets such as schools, medical facilities area where her community lived before being and water access points have been attacked evicted, Kisoro, Uganda, 2014. Emma Eastwood/ or destroyed. Though the South Sudan peace Minority Rights Goup process continued throughout 2014, it has largely focused on the national-level conflict between government as an interim measure and that their Kiir and Machar to the exclusion of many of the constitutionally protected community land rights other fighting groups that have become part and are under threat. parcel of the conflict. Concerns have been raised that this strategy cannot lead to lasting peace Uganda and will not address many of the concerns of Conflict over land and natural resources remained minority communities in the country. a defining feature of life in Uganda for minorities Urban growth in South Sudan has in recent and indigenous peoples in 2014. In July, the years been accelerated by large-scale displacement. Rwenzori region of Western Uganda erupted In Yei, for example, previous research has into conflict, affecting multiple communities in highlighted how increasing pressure on land Kasese, Bundibugyo and Ntoroko districts. These and the return of the town’s Kakwa inhabitants areas are home to, among others, the pastoralist around the time of the country’s independence in Basongora, and in recent years have witnessed 2011 exacerbated tensions with the largely Dinka renewed violence. These outbreaks have reignited displaced. More recently, however, major urban long-standing conflicts over political power and centres have been devastated and depopulated land rights between pastoralists and agricultural by renewed conflict. In Bor, for example, after communities in the region. The region is also the town was occupied by opposition forces experiencing rapid population growth which is with support from thousands of Nuer militias in contributing to the scarcity of available land and December 2013, the largely Dinka residents were natural resources for the diverse communities targeted and forced to flee. The UN estimated that inhabit the area. Advocacy groups, including that in Bor town alone 5–10 per cent of housing, MRG, urged the Ugandan government to address as well as the central market, had been destroyed the long-standing root causes of conflict in the during the early fighting. After changing hands region. a number of times, the town was recaptured Batwa communities in Uganda continued by government forces in January 2014. There to experience violations of their rights in were subsequent reports of repeated attacks on 2014. According to reports from the United displaced Nuer based in the UN-managed camp Organization for Batwa Development in Uganda near Bor by government soldiers. While some of (UOBDU), Batwa houses were burned to the the country’s large displaced population has been ground in Kisoro in June 2014. The incident, able to return to their home towns, many remain which led to the destruction of 13 homes and in a limbo. to many Batwa fleeing their residences, was an Despite the conflict, plans for a new national outbreak of a long-standing conflict between capital of South Sudan remain on the table. Batwa and a neighbouring community. On a This has come in part because of objections by positive note however, in Kabaale, members of the Bari community who are the traditional the Batwa community were able to purchase land inhabitants of Juba, the current capital. Bari have for settlement through the assistance of UOBDU. for several years expressed concerns about Juba’s Land will be held by the Batwa as a community rapid expansion and the resultant land grabbing and will support enhanced development for the and absorption of Bari villages. The population community in the area. of Juba has doubled since the end of the war for Free, prior and informed consent in relation to independence in 2005. Bari community leaders mining in the Karamoja region continues to be have petitioned the government to speed up the a concern. MRG reported on this issue in 2011, relocation of the capital to a new site, noting highlighting the environmental concerns and that they agreed to Juba becoming the seat of the human rights violations against local populations

84 Africa State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 associated with mineral exploration in the area. Nubian population, reside in poorly serviced and A 2014 HRW report again documented the unsanitary slums. Acholi Quarter in Kampala, issue, making clear that little progress has been for example, is largely populated by formerly made in relation to the rights of communities rural Acholi from Northern Uganda, uprooted in the region. Indeed, in recent years, the by years of conflict and now caught in a situation extractive industry in Uganda has undergone of prolonged displacement. Though some sense significant growth, without attendant monitoring of a community and identity has persisted and regulation to ensure that the interests of among residents, the area is characterized by sub- communities are protected. This has exacerbated standard housing, poor environmental health and the difficulties experienced by the agro-pastoralist limited livelihood opportunities. Karamajong people living in the region, During the past several years, Uganda has including climate change, land rights issues and embarked on an extensive process of policy violent disarmament operations by government development around land, housing and urban forces. development, with a draft National Land Policy The poverty and lack of opportunities in the now approved but not yet officially gazetted as region has pushed some Karamajong to migrate of the end of 2014. The policy acknowledges the to urban areas such as Kampala, where they role that conflict, instability and rural poverty typically face exploitation, discrimination and have played in driving urban migration, as well as periodic round-ups by security forces. Many the prevalence of slum dwellings in urban areas. end up begging for their survival, particularly It also recognizes the particular vulnerability of Karamajong women and children, who are marginalized groups such as women, children especially vulnerable to exploitation. There is and IDPs, committing the government to also evidence in recent years that issues such ‘ensure that both women and men, including as alcohol abuse have become more common children, enjoy equal rights and opportunities among urban Karamajong migrants. Other with regard to access to affordable urban services urban minority groups, such as Uganda’s without discrimination’ and to ‘put in place

State of the World’s Minorities Africa 85 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 measures to address the issues of internally Right: ‘The forest used to be for the Ba’aka displaced persons.’ Despite these commitments, but not anymore. We would walk in the the description of such strategies and measures forest according to the seasons but now we’re is vague and contains no detail in relation to key afraid.’ say the Ba’aka of Cameroon. Survival populations such as minorities or indigenous International peoples. As policy development moves forward, the reality of such commitments will be seen in in countries with pre-existing tensions between implementation. ‘indigenous’ and ‘settler’ populations. In some situations, competition for scarce resources or resentment of the success of certain migrant communities can exacerbate inter-ethnic tensions. West and West Africa’s urban centres are concentrated along its low-lying coastline and are vulnerable to the impact of climate change, particularly Central rising sea levels, with densely populated slums populated by the most marginalized groups especially vulnerable. In the Sahel, meanwhile, Africa desertification is pushing both farming and pastoralist populations south, heightening Paige Wilhite Jennings tensions over land, water and other resources, and stimulating urban migration among rural The year 2014 saw increasing sectarian conflict communities. Conflict-induced displacement, in the Central African Republic (CAR) and often arising from ethnic tensions, has led Nigeria, with cross-border attacks spreading strife to significant urban growth accompanied by into neighbouring countries. In the Democratic a decline in living conditions and a rise in Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Mali, some unemployment. The poorest live in informal progress towards peace at the start of the year was settlements on the periphery of urban centres, followed by ongoing violence in certain areas, in conditions where, given the region’s diverse causing continued insecurity and displacement. ethnic make-up, differences between groups can West Africa, particularly Guinea, Liberia and be easily exploited. Sierra Leone, faced a devastating outbreak of the Ebola virus which decimated health services and brought travel, trade, agriculture and other West Africa production to a near halt. While many of the countries in West and Cameroon Central Africa remain largely rural, both regions In 2014 Cameroon’s northern region faced an are urbanizing rapidly and struggling to keep increasing threat from Boko Haram, an armed pace with this growth: the overwhelming extremist group based in Nigeria that aims to majority of West Africa’s urban population, set up an Islamic state. Despite joint military for instance, is believed to be living in slums. efforts between Cameroon and Nigeria to Migration from particular rural areas often over subdue Boko Haram, it increased cross-border time encourages other community members to operations in Cameroon’s rural and impoverished relocate, particularly as remittances can raise far north, attacking and shelling groupings of hopes of increased wages in cities. In some Nigerian refugees and restricting humanitarian circumstances this can contribute to the creation aid efforts. It also targeted Cameroonian villages, of ethnically based migrant neighbourhoods churches and security forces, killing, wounding within urban centres. In responding to these or displacing minority Christians and majority ‘pull’ factors, however, migrants can encounter Muslims alike. Some of those displaced sought discrimination and resentment from the refuge in regional towns such as Kolofata established or dominant population, particularly and Mora, or in the regional capital Maroua,

86 Africa State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 but as Boko Haram encroached further into majority Muslim ones. In some areas conflict has Cameroon’s territory, others reportedly went broken out with local residents over resources, further south, out of danger, to Yaoundéô. By such as access to health services and shelter. late 2014 scores of schools had been closed in Food supplies have been stretched past capacity, response to cross-border attacks and kidnappings, causing hardship for locals and refugees alike, and the school buildings occupied by those and fuelling competition and resentment between fleeing Boko Haram. Community leaders them. Cattle-herding Peuhl (also known as reported that some young Cameroonian Muslims Mbororo) refugees – targeted in the CAR for had been coerced into joining Boko Haram their perceived wealth and livestock – have also or reportedly recruited by the offer of a cash struggled to locate adequate grazing land for their payment upon joining, a powerful incentive in cattle, at times resulting in disputes over grazing the poor region. land and other resources with local farmers, who February saw the beginning of a mass return to are largely Christian. east Cameroon of Cameroonian Muslim migrants Among Cameroon’s indigenous peoples, who had been living in the CAR until violence reports continued of the displacement of Ba’aka, at the hands of armed Christian and animist traditional forest-dwelling hunter-gatherers, self-defence ‘anti-balaka’ (‘anti-machete’) militias by logging and other development activities. forced them to flee the country. In addition, large Many have been forced to move to villages and numbers of largely Muslim CAR refugees fled roadside settlements elsewhere, where they face to Cameroon. During 2014, more than 187,000 exclusion, poverty and related problems ranging CAR refugees fled to neighbouring countries. from malnutrition to alcoholism. In 2014, some By the end of the year, UNHCR was using Ba’aka were reportedly denied access to their planning estimates for approximately 210,000 ancestral lands and suffered abuse at the hands CAR refugees in Cameroon alone. Many took of security forces deployed to curb poaching and refuge in towns and villages somewhat inside enforce conservation norms. Cameroon, away from the border, to avoid Cameroonian Mbororo pastoralists, believed attack. By doing so they transformed a swathe to make up 12 per cent of the population, at of formerly majority Christian settlements into times conflicted with sedentary farmers, ranchers,

State of the World’s Minorities Africa 87 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 agro-industrial businesses and newly established quota system to maintain stability by ensuring an national parks over issues around land use. In ethnic and regional balance in state institutions. April, Rita Izsák and James Anaya, the UN Following his death in 1993, dominant political Special Rapporteur on minority issues and the actors – predominantly southern Christians – then UN Special Rapporteur on indigenous developed the political concept of ‘ivorité’, giving peoples’ rights, expressed concern at the reported precedence to what they described as ‘native’ as eviction of Mbororo families from their ancestral opposed to ‘foreign’ citizens. This discourse was lands in western Cameroon, in the context of used to disenfranchise ‘northerners’, the majority a long-standing land dispute with the Catholic of them Muslim, for instance by calling their University in Bamenda. An estimated 300 people nationality – and thus their fitness to stand for had been made homeless. The university claimed elections – into question. that it had provided compensation, whereas the These issues culminated during the 2010 community stated that it had been misled and elections, when Laurent Gbagbo, a southerner, would never have agreed to leave their homes. mobilized xenophobic sentiment against his Cameroon has urbanized rapidly over the northern opponent Alassane Ouattara. Ouattara, last three decades, in part due to drought and an Ivorian national whose mother was from famine. Men from the Mbororo community, Burkina Faso, had previously been barred as for instance, have been forced by drought to a ‘foreigner’ from running for office until the abandon pastoralism and search for work in Constitution was revised following the country’s urban centres, leaving their families behind. 2002 civil war. Following Ouattara’s victory, Climate change has led to the encroachment Gbagbo refused to concede and the country of invasive plant species, also limiting pasture descended into armed conflict. Though Ouattara lands. This has in turn led to a decrease in milk was ultimately able to secure power in 2011 after production, traditionally a source of income for defeating Gbagbo militarily, the conflict served to Mbororo women; without that extra money, further reinforce the country’s divisions. Mbororo women have become more dependent In September 2014, almost three years on men for support. These trends have disrupted after its formation, the Dialogue, Truth and family structures, damaged family cohesion, and Reconciliation Commission (CDVR) began increased the risk of violence against women as public testimony regarding nearly a decade well as exposure to HIV/AIDS, among other of political violence, including the 2010–11 impacts. More recently, too, conflict has also conflict. Eighty people, including both victims driven displacement and migration to urban and perpetrators, contributed testimony during areas, with cross-border attacks by Boko Haram three weeks of public hearings; however, the lack forcing many to flee rural areas for urban centres. of television broadcasting and limited media In eastern Cameroon, similarly, refugees from coverage diminished their impact. In addition, CAR have swelled the population of local towns, the commission reportedly heard testimony from at times raising tensions with residents and up to 65,000 people; however, dissatisfaction concerns about security. with its progress, capability and impact in promoting reconciliation remained. One issue Côte d’Ivoire affecting its credibility was the naming of a For several decades after independence in former prime minister – a political opponent of 1960, Côte d’Ivoire became the most common Gbagbo and former adviser to Ouattara – Charles destination for West African migrants due to Konan Banny, as its chair. perceptions of its wealth and stability. Many Meanwhile, some of those accused of human of them settled in urban areas, particularly the rights abuses against Ouattara supporters during economic capital Abidjan. Extensive immigration the conflict faced trial. Laurent Gbagbo’s trial led to some resentment and insecurity among the before the International Criminal Court (ICC) pre-existing population, however. Long-standing in The Hague is set to begin in July 2015. In post-independence president Félix Houphouët- March, the former leader of his ‘Young Patriots’ Boigny’s administrations practised an informal militia, Charles Blé Goudé, was sent before the

88 Africa State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 ICC and he now faces four charges of crimes supporters of Guéré ethnicity, have since against humanity. The trial of Simone Gbagbo returned home to find their houses and land and another 82 of her husband’s supporters occupied by Ouattara supporters – a situation opened in Abidjan in December, with the former that could lay the foundation for further conflict first lady receiving a 20-year prison sentence in in future. March 2015. Four years on from the conflict, however, no Ouattara partisans have been Mauritania brought before the courts, despite domestic and In Mauritania the Haratine minority, known as international findings that both sides committed ‘Black Moors’, were enslaved by the dominant abuses. This imbalance continued to undermine Arab Berber population over centuries in a national reconciliation and public trust in the system of hereditary slavery. Though slavery justice system. has been banned in Mauritania several times, The failure of authorities to disarm and most recently in 2007, the law has not been disband armed groups on both sides, and to enforced and in reality the practice persists. In rehabilitate and reintegrate former combatants, 2014, the Special Rapporteur on contemporary has contributed to many marginalized youth forms of racism, Mutuma Ruteere, reported that joining armed gangs. This has led to serious an estimated 50 per cent of Haratines face de security concerns in areas of Abidjan. Though facto slavery, including as domestic servants and some have been integrated into the security bonded labourers. In November, the Walk Free forces, problems persist. In November, for Foundation also reported that Mauritania had instance, former combatants demonstrated to the highest proportion of slaves to population in demand back pay and benefits that had been the world. promised to them. Evidence that the underlying In 2013 the government set up an agency problems of ethnic tensions were still unresolved (‘Tadamoun’) to fight poverty and the legacy came in March 2014 when Gbagbo’s party, the of slavery. However, its functionality and Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), accused Ouattara’s effectiveness to date have been questioned by government of manipulating the country’s some observers, who have expressed doubts census to bolster his support. These ethnic and about its credibility and efficiency. NGOs in political tensions may flare again in the run-up to particular continue to press for the ability to presidential elections set for October 2015. bring complaints themselves on behalf of victims, More than half (53 per cent) of Côte arguing that this presents a more credible option d’Ivoire’s population now live in urban areas, a for those who have suffered slavery. In March proportion that is expected to continue to rise 2014, the government formally adopted a road for decades to come. The rise in urbanization map for the implementation of UN anti-slavery has helped to fuel ethnic conflict, exacerbating recommendations. Critics expressed concern tension and resentment between groups over at the lack of civil society involvement in the access to resources, political influence and other road map framework, which they say places the issues. The impacts of this rapid growth have process solely under state control. They point also been felt outside urban areas, with Prime to the role of the authorities in maintaining the Minister Daniel Kablan Duncan reporting in practice of slavery in the past, as well as to more October 2014 that more than three-quarters recent reports of official complicity in these of the country’s forests had disappeared in the abuses, such as a December 2014 complaint last 50 years due to increasing urbanization and against family members of Lemina Mint El the spread of agriculture. This has heightened Ghotob Ould Momma, the serving government competition for land, particularly in western minister for social affairs concerning children and Côte d’Ivoire, exacerbating communal tensions the family. between ‘native’ land-owners and those perceived Haratines, whether slaves or free, face by them as migrants or immigrants. Some of ongoing discrimination and marginalization those displaced from the west during the post- across Mauritanian society. In April 2014, anti- electoral conflict of 2010–11, primarily Gbagbo discrimination activists held a march in the

State of the World’s Minorities Africa 89 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Left: Biram Dah Abeid, a Haratine anti-slavery activist, was arrested in November 2014. Emiliano Granado

Mauritania faces perennial drought and food insecurity, exacerbated by climate change and depletion of natural resources. The World Food Programme estimates that between 20 and 30 per cent of the population suffers from high food insecurity. These factors have contributed to increasing urbanization, with around three-fifths of the country’s population now living in towns and cities, particularly the capital of Nouakchott. In times of drought, even nomadic groups have tended to congregate outside urban centres. In some families, men migrate to urban centres alone in search of work, sending remittances back to women and children left behind to farm increasingly unproductive land. The separation has a detrimental effect on family well-being and cohesion, with reports suggesting that divorce and abandonment rates have risen in some communities. For Haratine slaves, urban migration has long offered the possibility of anonymity and a new start away from the master and his family. Urban areas have provided a relatively safe space for escaped slaves, where they face less risk of capital Nouakchott to mark the first anniversary recapture, and Nouakchott in particular now of the 2013 Haratine Manifesto, which called hosts a number of NGOs that are able to provide for equality and fulfilment of a broad spectrum social, moral and legal support for former slaves. of political, economic and social rights. In However, Haratines are disproportionately presidential elections in June, eventually won concentrated in the city’s most deprived areas, by the incumbent, slavery was also highlighted with little access to sanitation or basic services. as an issue. The second-running candidate, Residents do not have title to the land, and their with 8.9 per cent of the vote, was long-standing existence is precarious. Furthermore, they still anti-slavery activist and head of the civil society face ongoing social discrimination. Newly freed group Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement slaves, with little education or life skills training, (IRA), Biram Dah Abeid. However, Abeid was most often end up in low-paid, unskilled and arrested in November 2014 with at least seven vulnerable positions. For women this includes, others, including IRA members, in the context of for instance, work as market sellers, domestic a peaceful campaign against slavery and in favour workers for relatives of their former masters or of agrarian reform. International legal experts sex workers. Access to education for Haratine expressed grave concerns about their access to due children is also limited, with the city mayor process. In January 2015 Abeid and two others reportedly informing the Special Rapporteur on were tried on charges of belonging to an illegal contemporary forms of racism during his visit organization, leading an unauthorized rally and in September 2013 that around 80 per cent of violence against the police. They were convicted Haratine children were not in school, partly and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. Police because of issues surrounding their lack of legal used tear gas and batons to disperse protesters registration. As a result, their marginalization is against the verdict. being replicated among the younger generation.

90 Africa State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 intervened in January 2013, expelling the Case study by Joana Dabaj militants from the city. Though this has restored a measure of stability, the legacy of the occupation and the divisions it created have persisted. In particular, the city’s Arab Cultural heritage and Tuareg minorities were subjected to reprisals by other residents who accused them as a vehicle of sympathizing with Ansar Dine. Besides looting of shops and homes, many were for peace in reportedly forced to flee the city. However, an organization set up in the wake of the Timbuktu conflict, the Timbuktu Renaissance Action Group, seeks to rebuild social cohesion by reviving what the city came close to losing during its occupation – Timbuktu’s rich and The fabled ‘city of 333 Saints’, Timbuktu, multi-faceted culture. is located in the republic of Mali at the edge The planned cultural revival will of the Sahara desert and near the Niger incorporate music festivals, documentary River. Founded in the 5th century, it was films, preservation and exhibition of the long regarded as a centre for the diffusion manuscripts, as well as the creation of a of Islam through West Africa and a city of cultural centre in Timbuktu to share them. trade, where manuscripts and books were A prime aim is to return to Timbuktu the sold for more money than merchandise. By ‘Festival au Désert’, once a magnet for 1988, when Timbuktu was designated as a musicians and enthusiasts from all over the World Heritage Site for its holy places and world who came to enjoy a range of different their essential role in the spread of Islam in art forms, including traditional Tuareg Africa, much of the ancient city still stood as music. Though at present the festival is still a testament to the city’s golden age. Though in exile, efforts to bring it back are ongoing. many of its monuments were in urgent need Other organizations, such as UNESCO, are of conservation, its mosques, mausoleums and also supporting heritage restoration, with a holy places nevertheless offered clear proof of number of shrines in the process of being the city’s rich history. rebuilt – beginning with three shrines of Having survived for centuries, however, saints with different ethnicities to symbolize Timbuktu received a devastating blow in Mali’s diversity. 2012 when it fell under the control of Ansar The need to protect cultural heritage in Dine, an extremist group who at that time the world we live in is more important than controlled most of northern Mali. Militants ever, particularly as armed groups increasingly set about destroying the city’s mosque, target sites of spiritual or historic significance mausoleums, shrines and holy statues in a with the specific aim of creating dissent. move described by the ICC as a war crime. By contrast, restoring Timbuktu’s cultural It represented an assault on everything that heritage will encourage conciliation and Timbuktu represented, including the values of promote a shared sense of belonging while cultural exchange and peaceful cohabitation. protecting the many distinct identities of its Irreplaceable manuscripts, covering geography, population. ■ history and religion, were burned and music forbidden, in a country renowned for its rich musical traditions. The occupation of Timbuktu only came to an end when French and Malian forces

State of the World’s Minorities Africa 91 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Nigeria sell them ‘in the market’ or ‘marry them off’. Nigeria is extremely diverse, with hundreds HRW has estimated that, since 2009, Boko of ethnic groups and even more languages Haram has abducted over 500 women and girls, governed through a federal system of 36 separate targeted for being students or Christian, with states, each with their own ethnic and religious victims then coerced into converting to the composition. Though this has contributed group’s radical version of Islam. In November, to the country’s rich cultural life, it has also a suicide bomb attack staged during assembly at times been the source of tensions between at a boys’ school in Potiskum killed almost 50 different groups over power and control of local students and wounded nearly 80. resources. Nigeria’s practice, at the state level, Communal violence also continued elsewhere. of giving groups ‘indigenous’ or ‘native’ to each Around Jos, Plateau State, in the Middle Belt, region preferential treatment over ‘settler’ or violence continued between ‘indigene’ farmers of ‘immigrant’ groups – many of whom may have the Christian Berom group and Fulani Muslim been based for two generations in the areas – has pastoralists considered ‘settlers’, with more than at times contributed to inequality, competition 1,000 people killed in the first few months of and conflict between ethnicities. The country’s 2014. Elsewhere, suspected Fulani attackers killed presidential, parliamentary and state elections, more than 100 people in three largely Christian slated for March and April 2015, saw President villages in central Kaduna State in March. Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian southerner, The indigenous Ogoni people of the Niger defeated by a strong opposition that brought to Delta continued to urge the government to act power Muhammadu Buhari, a former military on the findings of a UNEP (UN Environmental leader and Muslim northerner. Programme) environmental assessment report A key issue in the election was the ongoing into the impact of Shell oil spills on their lands in campaign of violence perpetrated by the armed 2008 and 2009. The UNEP report was released group Boko Haram. The group is responsible in 2011, but the devastation caused by the spills for the deaths of thousands of civilians since remains, endangering the living conditions launching an armed insurrection in 2009 from and livelihoods of residents of small villages its base in the city of Maiduguri in north-eastern and towns such as Yenagoa. The damage to Nigeria. In August 2014, the group declared an surrounding agricultural land, and other stresses Islamic state in the areas of north-east Nigeria brought on by the urbanization of the region then under its control. While Boko Haram related to the oil industry, has forced many has targeted Christians, a minority in Nigeria’s Ogoni to migrate in search of work, further largely Muslim north-east, the bulk of its victims disrupting the traditional culture and cohesion of have reportedly been fellow Muslims. Boko the group. Haram is known for targeted attacks on moderate Nigeria’s population is relatively urbanized, Muslims whose views conflict with their own. with around half the population now based in In 2014 Boko Haram continued its attacks towns or cities. Lagos, with over 11 million on soft targets, often in urban centres, including inhabitants in 2011, is now Africa’s most bus stations, schools, churches, mosques and populated city. With roughly three-quarters of markets, as well as continuing to target moderate the country’s industrial base, as well as the bulk Muslim politicians and clerics. It also staged of its financial and commercial resources, it is attacks outside the northern states most affected, now the main destination for rural migrants including a bomb that killed 75 people in the in search of employment. Unsurprisingly, capital Abuja in April. The most high-profile it is also the Nigerian city most affected by incident during the year, however, was the unplanned, unregulated growth. Though the abduction by militants of 276 girls at gunpoint capital concentrates many of the country’s ethnic from their secondary school in the north-eastern groups, other sources indicate that this is not village of Chibok, Borno State. In a video an accurate image. Some describe the centre as released by the group, its leader reportedly largely populated (and controlled) by ‘native’ referred to the girls as ‘slaves’ and threatened to Lagos-dwellers, while the slums and shanty

92 Africa State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 towns on the periphery are largely made up of a law establishing a Truth and Reconciliation migrants from other regions, at times grouped in Commission (TRC) in April. The TRC is ethnically oriented neighbourhoods. While Lagos mandated to investigate past human rights abuses State itself now offers a relatively open system carried out during the country’s various episodes of registration to all residents, regardless of their of inter-ethnic violence between its Hutu ethnicity or place of origin, in many urban majority and Tutsi minority since independence. areas elsewhere inequalities between relatively Its commissioners include six Hutus, four Tutsis privileged ‘indigenes’ and the ‘settler’ populations and one Twa. They were selected and sworn in are sharply evident, in areas such as land rights, to their positions in December. Critics noted service access and other benefits. As pressure on that the government had disregarded some of land increases with rapid population growth and the recommendations of the public consultation migration, these disparities have the potential to process, with implications for the credibility create further conflict if unaddressed. of the TRC, the involvement of civil society organizations and its accessibility to victims of all ethnic groups and political affiliations. Central Africa A court enquiry into the massacre of more than 150 Tutsi refugees, primarily women and Burundi children from South Kivu, DRC, at the Gatumba Conflict around land, sharpened by population UNHCR site in Burundi ten years ago, opened growth and the scarcity of arable land, continued on 1 December. Responsibility for the attack was in Burundi during 2014. The government claimed by the largely Hutu rebel group National established a Land Commission on 31 December Liberation Forces (Forces nationales de libération, 2013, with a special court to deal with land issues FNL). In 2014, Burundi’s army reportedly subsequently established in April. These measures clashed several times with the FNL in South were perceived by some as potentially prioritizing Kivu. the interests of repatriated citizens, primarily Burundi’s population is still largely rural, with members of the Hutu majority, with the risk of only one in ten people living in urban areas. creating further friction with the Tutsi minority. Burundi is highly vulnerable to natural hazards: Tensions have been further heightened by the capital Bujumbura, on the shores of a lake upcoming presidential elections, set for June surrounded by steep hills, faced severe flooding 2015. Observers have called for an official and mudslides following heavy rains in February investigation into claims that the military had 2014. At least 68 people were killed and 20,000 supplied arms to the youth wing of the ruling displaced, including residents of the city’s party, the Hutu-dominated National Council precarious shanty towns, home to many poor for the Defence of Democracy-Forces (CNDD- and marginalized groups including returning FDD), which has been accused of political refugees from DRC previously displaced by the violence, intimidation and even killings of country’s ethnic conflict. The government has opposition supporters. These warnings came attempted to provide vulnerable urban residents, within a broader climate of repression against including landless, displaced or returning groups, perceived government opponents. Following a with secure housing through the establishment one-day mass trial in March that failed to respect of planned ‘peace villages’ that include a mix of defendants’ rights to due process, 48 people, Hutu, Tutsi and Twa residents to promote social mainly activists from one opposition party, harmony and inter-ethnic interaction. Some of were given sentences ranging from two years to these settlements are located on Bujumbura’s life imprisonment. Some had been arrested in outskirts. While they face a number of challenges, clashes with police, others while jogging; the they represent Burundi’s ambition towards authorities claimed that the latter were planning ethnic integration – an important development to converge and stage an unauthorized political for a country where, during the conflictive demonstration. 1990s, many neighbourhoods in Bujumbura Meanwhile, the National Assembly passed divided along ethnic lines, with residents driving

State of the World’s Minorities Africa 93 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Above: Bangui Muslim women and children recruitment of children and mass displacement. crowd the floor of a Catholic Church in Boali, In December 2013, on the eve of the arrival of Central African Republic, 2014. The priest gave a French force sent to quell the violence, armed them sanctuary from Christian vigillante groups Christian and animist self-defence ‘anti-balaka’ seeking to attack and kill Muslims in response to (‘anti-machete’) militia, with some support from the 2013 Seleka rebellion. Panos/Sven Torfinn soldiers of the defeated army, took the offensive. They staged revenge attacks in Bangui, not only out neighbours of the opposing ethnicity on suspected rebels but also indiscriminately on and other, ethnically mixed neighbourhoods the local Muslim population, perceived due to saw violent combat between Tutsi and Hutu their religion and language as sympathizing with militias. According to a 2013 study, the the insurgency. record of the peace villages is mixed, with at In January 2014, Seleka leader Michel Djotodia least some inhabitants facing social exclusion ceded power under international pressure. and experiencing tensions with surrounding Catherine Samba-Panza, a Christian who had communities. been appointed mayor of Bangui by Djotodia, was elected president of the interim government. Central African Republic The French force disarmed some Seleka fighters, In 2013, a loose coalition (Seleka) of largely who then withdrew from the south and west of Muslim insurgent groups, angered by what they the country, regrouping in the north and east. perceived as the marginalization and exclusion Anti-balaka forces took advantage of its retreat to of northern Muslims from the benefits of CAR’s conduct further attacks on Muslim communities. vast resource wealth, advanced south, dislodging Muslim foreign nationals and many from François Bozizé’s government in March. Seleka CAR’s previously well-established Muslim forces were accused of egregious abuses against minority fled for their lives. Despite its roots in the mainly Christian civilian population in political and economic issues, the conflict took their path, including massacres, sexual violence, on an increasingly sectarian tone, with abuses

94 Africa State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 and reprisal attacks escalating and spreading themselves responsible for attacks on Christians, throughout the country. As the then UN High often in revenge for violence against their own Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay community. In any event, according to HRW, condemned the television broadcasting of hate by the end of 2014, Peuhl made up a very large speech against Muslims by anti-balaka militia, majority of the inhabitants in almost all of the the latter moved from staging revenge attacks to CAR refugee camps in Cameroon. what some described as a deliberate campaign to CAR’s Muslims, who had made up about 15 clear the country of all Muslims, either through per cent of the national population, were divided killings or forced displacement. between pastoral farmers and herders, living The presence of African Union (AU), French mainly in the country’s north-east, and a largely and subsequently European Union troops was urban merchant class based in Bangui and other not enough to stop the violence. Humanitarian provincial towns such as Bria, a centre of the workers and international troops themselves diamond trade. Particularly in urban areas, it was came increasingly under attack. In some noted that anti-balaka and communal violence instances, Chadian and other soldiers among against Muslims was fuelled not just by sectarian the AU peacekeepers were accused of targeted feeling but also by political grievances, economic violations against suspected anti-balaka. Entire opportunism and resentment against wealthier neighbourhoods of Bangui were emptied of Muslims. Muslim Arab traders were particularly Muslims, as were towns in western CAR that vulnerable, as their perceived wealth and relative had been home to thousands of Muslims, with control over the gold and diamond trades spread columns of evacuating civilians deliberately anger among poorer communities. Their homes attacked by anti-balaka fighters. Anti-balaka and places of business were typically methodically were also reported to prey increasingly on non- looted before being destroyed or, at times, Muslims, particularly among the displaced occupied by Christians. By mid-year, a reported populations. Some abuses and retaliatory violence 80 per cent of Bangui’s Muslims had fled. In against Christian communities by Seleka during other areas, the destruction of Muslim homes and after their retreat were also reported. As the after looting by anti-balaka may be intended to year went on, splits were reported within both ensure that Muslims cannot return to the area: Seleka and anti-balaka forces, adding an intra- that is, as part of a concerted effort to segregate communal element to some of the violence. and cement control over the territory. In July, Seleka and anti-balaka leaders signed a An early exception to the widespread sectarian ceasefire, along with CAR’s Christian archbishop violence was the central town of Bambari. As and leading imam, both strong advocates of violence spread elsewhere, Christian and Muslim tolerance. However, no agreement was reached leaders worked together to keep the peace in on disarmament, and clashes continued. the mixed town, including through messages A new UN force was deployed to replace the of tolerance on local radio. However, the peace AU force in September 2014. However, it was had collapsed by the end of May when Bambari unable to prevent ongoing violence, as all armed became part of an unofficial front line between groups targeted civilians who they believed the warring sides, with retaliatory killings supported opposing sides. While much of the carried out by both. The presence of French violence was following the Seleka onslaught and peacekeepers in the town may have reduced its subsequent collapse, some of it was reportedly but could not altogether prevent the violence. rooted in long-standing tensions between farmers Attacks by Seleka and anti-balaka forces reported and pastoralists, including the nomadic Muslim in and around the city continued: in early July, Peuhl (Fulani) minority, who in the current for instance, Seleka reportedly attacked displaced climate were perceived as supporting Seleka. Past people sheltering in Bambari’s cathedral, killing instances of encroachment onto farmland as well more than 26 people and wounding others. By as crop damage by pastoralists’ herds added to the end of the year, only a fraction of Bambari’s the more immediate resentments that drove the 60,000 residents remained in the town, living in anti-balaka violence. Moreover, some Peuhl were dire circumstances.

State of the World’s Minorities Africa 95 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 By December, over 187,000 refugees, primarily Right: Deforestation is a primary threat to the Muslims, had fled the country in 2014 alone, survival of Twa in the Democratic Republic bringing the total number of CAR refugees in of the Congo, who rely on the forests for their the region to more than 423,000. These figures livelihoods. Jan-Joseph Stok included nearly all of the estimated 130,000 Muslim residents of Bangui. Some Muslims the aim of creating an Islamic state in Uganda, remained, primarily in the east and north; was reportedly pushed across the border into thousands more were isolated in anti-balaka- the DRC in 1995. In the last quarter of the surrounded enclaves across the country, under year, ADF-NALU was believed to have been protection of international troops. Since April, responsible for a series of brutal attacks in Beni transitional authorities had refused to allow in which more than 250 civilians were killed by them to leave the country in order to avoid attackers using knives, hoes and machetes. Tens accomplishing the anti-balaka aim of the ‘ethnic of thousands fled their homes. cleansing’ of the west. Around 430,000 people Inter-ethnic violence persisted elsewhere were reported to be internally displaced at year’s during the year. In February, Hunde and Hutu end. Refugees and internally displaced together ethnically oriented militias in Masisi territory, amounted to nearly one-fifth of the country’s North Kivu, were each accused of carrying out population of 4.5 million. human rights abuses against civilians perceived to support the opposing group, resulting in at least Democratic Republic of the Congo 40 civilian deaths. At the root of the violence At the end of 2014 conflict in eastern DRC, is control over land: Hunde leaders claim with at present no fewer than 54 different armed customary right to it, which has created tensions groups, had caused roughly 430,000 people to with Hutu residents. flee to neighbouring countries and left some 2.7 In June at least 30 people, mostly from million more internally displaced. the Bafuliro ethnic group, were killed in an attack on an outdoor church service and nearby North and South Kivu provinces buildings in the village of Mutarule, South Kivu. After the UN Intervention Brigade and DRC Bafuliro had been engaged in a conflict over troops dislodged a largely ethnic Tutsi armed cattle theft and local power with members of group, M23, in 2013, the focus turned to the the Banyamulenge Tutsi and Barundi ethnicities Hutu-dominated Forces Démocratiques de living nearby. The head of the UN mission to Libération du Rwanda (FDLR), under UN Congo (MONUSCO) apologized for his troops’ sanctions for abuses including ethnically based failure to intervene despite being repeatedly killings in Rwanda and the DRC. Some FDLR alerted to the attack. The roots of the Bafuliro– fighters were among the perpetrators of the 1994 Barundi conflict date back to colonial times, in genocide in Rwanda. In July, an international an ongoing struggle over land and leadership in meeting of ministers of defence set a six-month the Ruzizi plain. timeframe for the voluntary surrender of the FDLR. It publicly agreed to demobilize, but Katanga province by year’s end had made no serious effort to do Despite its mineral wealth, the population of so. Humanitarian staff expressed concern at resource-rich Katanga suffers from widespread the potential for harm to civilians during any poverty, weak state services and the impact of offensive against the FDLR as the group, unlike diseases such as cholera. In this context, land and M23, does not set up discrete camps but rather inequalities create serious tensions that regularly lives among the local population. Another UN/ erupt into violence. In the Tanganyika district DRC military operation, in January 2014 in the of Katanga, violence between indigenous hunter- Beni region of North Kivu against the Ugandan- gatherer Twa inhabitants and ethnic Luba, led Islamist armed group Alliance of Democratic a Bantu group, displaced more than 70,000 Forces-NALU (ADF-NALU), had caused mass people during the year, primarily indigenous civilian displacement. ADF-NALU, formed with Twa. Some Luba accuse Twa of supporting the

96 Africa State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 armed forces in their fight against the (largely in the capital, dubbed Cité du Fleuve, contrast Luba) secessionist Mai Mai militia groups known markedly with the situation of Kinshasa’s urban as Kata Katanga. The struggle is also rooted poor, struggling to survive through the informal in social inequalities between the historically economy within unofficial settlements on the marginalized Twa and the more privileged ethnic urban periphery. Kinshasa is ethnically diverse, group, as well as in competition for land and and has seen tensions between residents seen resources. as ‘native’ and those perceived as migrants. In In July 2014, a proposal for a law on the Kinshasa this has been heightened by the fact rights of indigenous peoples was submitted that long-time dictator Mobutu Sese Seko was to the DRC legislature for consideration. It is succeeded in 1997 by Laurent Kabila, the head of hoped that this will address key issues facing a largely Tutsi-led military movement that ousted indigenous hunter-gatherer communities such as Hutu refugees and militia from camps in eastern Twa, including discrimination but also specific DRC where they had fled following the Rwandan government policies such as those around forestry genocide. Opposition to his presidency, and that limit their ability to exercise their traditional that of his son Joseph, who was elected after his livelihoods and land rights. assassination, has at times taken an ethnic slant as More than a third of the DRC’s population ethnicity becomes increasingly politicized. is now urban and this proportion is projected Many communities in conflict-affected areas to exceed 50 per cent by 2040, with many have been forced to relocate to cities such as concentrated in Kinshasa, Africa’s third largest Goma, where they have ended up in a state city. Plans for a luxury billion-dollar development of protracted displacement in overcrowded on two reclaimed islands on the Congo River settlements on the urban periphery. Residents in

State of the World’s Minorities Africa 97 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 has taken important social measures such as Case study by Paige Wilhite Jennings those promoting gender equity. The impact of some legal and judicial steps, however, has been mixed. While community-based trials Promoting (gacaca) and other platforms have dealt with thousands of cases against alleged génocidaires, peace through claims of RPF abuses have generally not been investigated. New measures banning sustainable urban identification on ethnic grounds in favour of a common national identity have effectively development in denied the indigenous Batwa their right to their own identity and culture, and have Kigali prevented positive measures to redress the inequalities they clearly face. In this context, programmes such as the ‘Bye Bye Nyakatsi’ project, aimed at April 2014 saw the 20th anniversary of the improving housing by replacing traditional genocide in which an estimated 800,000 thatched roof houses with iron-roofed ones, people – three-quarters of the Rwanda’s Tutsi were found to disproportionately affect the minority, as well as moderates from the Hutu indigenous Batwa minority due to their majority – were killed in 100 days. While this frequent use of traditional building methods, small landlocked country’s population density, in the short term appearing to leave many the highest in Africa, may have contributed without shelter. Finally, laws prohibiting to social tensions, ethnic differences had long genocide ideology, genocide denial and been manipulated and exploited for political sectarianism have in practice been used to purposes in Rwanda. Belgian colonial policies limit fundamental freedoms and to punish favoured the Tutsis until independence in dissent. 1962, when the Hutu majority began to Mass returns of former refugees, alongside dominate. In the run-up to April 1994, Hutu rural–urban displacement due in part to extremists from the political class, the security fears of ongoing insecurity as a result of forces and the main political party’s armed the actions on Rwandese territory of armed militia used radio broadcasts from Kigali to groups based in the DRC, for instance, have incite ethnic hatred, playing on Hutu fears led to one of the world’s fastest urbanization of a Tutsi uprising and coercing ordinary rates: Rwanda’s urban population grew Hutus into taking part. Though orchestrated from 385,000 in 1990 to almost 2.5 million from the capital, the genocidal campaign today. To cope with pressure on land, the took advantage of the hierarchical structures government has developed a national land use of social organization that permeated the plan and framework for land registration and countryside to reach throughout the country. management. Meanwhile the authorities have The slaughter was only ended by the embraced urbanization as a means of achieving advance from Uganda of the Rwandan their goal of making Rwanda a middle-income Patriotic Front (RPF), made up of significant country by doubling the country’s urban numbers of Tutsi refugees. By July the RPF share of the population, currently around 18 had defeated the Rwandan army, forcing per cent, to 35 per cent by 2020. According hundreds of thousands of Hutus, including to President Kagame, urbanization is ‘part génocidaires, to flee. and parcel of our unity and reconciliation Over the last 20 years Rwanda has made efforts’. An ambitious Master Plan with great strides in rebuilding its devastated design input from the US and Singapore is institutions, infrastructure and services, and in place for Kigali, which in 2008 became

98 Africa State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 the first city in Africa to be awarded the these areas typically struggle with limited basic UN-Habitat Scroll of Honour Award. Six services such as water or sanitation, chronic smaller cities have been identified as poles economic insecurity and an elevated risk of of growth. The Rwanda Housing Authority violence or sexual assault by armed militias. A is elaborating Local Development Plans 2014 profile by the Norwegian Refugee Council for each of the country’s 30 districts, with of displaced populations in Goma found that sustainable settlements organized around a third of those surveyed intended to stay in pre-planned infrastructure. the city, while others who wished to return Critics say, however, that Rwanda’s were often unable to do so because their land urban development to date has benefited its had been forcibly seized – effectively leaving upper and middle classes to the detriment them in a state of indefinite displacement. The of its poor. In Kigali, where half of the situation of displaced populations in Goma and urban population lives, authorities have other urban centres in conflict-affected regions systematically removed informal settlers of DRC may therefore represent a long-term from public land to make way for approved challenge that will need to be addressed through works. It is unclear where they have gone; effective and integrated urban policies to ensure poor families have been increasingly priced their protection and prevent regular outbreaks of out of urban property as high demand has violence. raised prices. In order to profit all Rwandese, Rwanda’s urban development efforts must meet the needs of its poor for Southern low-income housing and sources of work: otherwise, the new Kigali risks becoming an elite city, with no place or Africa use for low-income Rwandese. For this, however, the authorities must listen, not Inga Thiemann just to the international developers and experts who have recently been advising Namibia it on urbanization, but also to the most The year 2014 was an election year in marginalized of its people – even when Namibia, with the South West Africa People’s their views contradict official plans for Organization (SWAPO) Prime Minister Hage the future. For ultimately, in the words Geingob taking 86.7 per cent of all declared of the Special Rapporteur on the rights votes and SWAPO maintaining its two-thirds to freedom of peaceful assembly and of majority. Urbanization was a key topic in the association, Maina Kiai, ‘a society without election campaign, as the government plans to room for critical voices speaking freely spend US$4.1 billion on urban housing. Though and peacefully is unsustainable’. Inclusive about a quarter of Namibians live in informal growth for all in Kigali is therefore crucial urban settlements, Namibia has been praised in ensuring that Rwanda continues to move for its progressive approach to combatting its forwards from the tragedy of the genocide housing crisis and its pro-poor urban strategies, towards lasting peace and stability. ■ including significant financial support for self- help grassroots movements and saving groups. However, the specific needs of minority groups are not always catered for in Namibia, despite a number of government initiatives. According to Namibia’s Fourth National Development Plan 2012/20 to 2016/17, the government aims to eradicate extreme poverty, especially in households of ‘certain language groups’

State of the World’s Minorities Africa 99 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 previously excluded from the Namibian social Right: Crowds of people gathered across South protection system despite experiencing extreme Africa to mourn the death, and celebrate the life, deprivation. Nonetheless, San remain Namibia’s of Nelson Mandela, December 2013. REUTERS/ most disadvantaged group, ranking far lower than Mark Wessels the rest of the population with regard to almost all development indicators due to decades of remote areas. discrimination. Physical, social and legal constraints mean Since 2005, a dedicated government state development programmes do not benefit programme, the San Development Programme, all Namibians to the same degree, and rural– exists in the Office of the Prime Minister. urban inequalities could further exacerbate these However, government officials often demonstrate disparities. As many minority and indigenous prejudice and lack of understanding for the communities still live in conservation areas, San. Despite the concerns raised by the UN forests and national parks, they typically gain less Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous from government initiatives to combat poverty peoples, James Anaya, in 2013, there has been no and improve access to health care, as these tend improvement in the political representation of to be focused on the urban poor. Consequently, Himba and San, as a third of their leaders have though the government’s plan to invest in still not been recognized as official traditional urban housing is welcome, it is important that leaders and remain excluded from decision it is balanced with targeted rural development making processes at local and national level. to ensure that the situation of San and other In 2014, there was not a single San member of marginalized groups in these areas also improves. parliament and just one San regional council In recent decades, having previously lived member. almost exclusively in rural areas, a significant Though the only San regional councillor proportion of San have resettled in camps or on is a woman, in general gender inequality is a the edge of townships due to their lack of access growing problem among the San community. to land and the decline in available employment One reason for this is that the community has on commercial farms. With few resources or been increasingly influenced by the hierarchical skills applicable to the urban labour market, their structures within wider Namibian society, where situation is especially vulnerable. Many urban men are typically placed above women. Feminist San face serious food insecurity and limited organizations such as the Women’s Leadership prospects of formal employment, with most Centre, founded by Elizabeth Khaxas, aim to engaging in odd jobs to survive. Even among build feminist politics based on indigenous other low-income residents, previous research has cultures in Namibia. The group works with suggested that San are still far poorer than other women from the Khwe community in north- squatters. eastern Namibia to build their leadership and to But while these issues must be addressed with educate them on their rights as both women and inclusive urban poverty reduction measures, indigenous people. efforts should also focus on rural issues such Namibian women achieved a victory in 2014 as agriculture to reduce unemployment – a with the Namibian Supreme Court condemning major driver of migration to urban areas. Other the forced sterilization of three HIV-positive strategies, such as livelihood diversification women and acknowledging their lack of and training opportunities for San agricultural consent. Their case is considered a precedent workers on commercial farms, will also help for many more HIV-positive women who have provide them with a broader set of skills that been forcibly sterilized. The ruling could have allow them either to remain in their community particular relevance for minority women, as the or integrate with greater ease into urban labour HIV-infection risk is higher among minority markets. communities due to a lack of public health campaigns in minority languages and insufficient South Africa outreach to minority communities living in The year 2014 started as a year of mourning

100 Africa State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 after the death of Nelson Mandela in December white South Africans, who make up less than 10 2013. Politically, the first half of the year was per cent of the population. The ANC, despite dominated by the general election on 7 May. committing after the end of apartheid to ensuring The African National Congress (ANC) remained a significant proportion of land would be in power with a 62.2 per cent share of the votes, redistributed, has so far failed to achieve this. The down from 65.9 per cent, with the Democratic EFF’s leader, Julius Malema – a controversial Alliance (DA) increasing its share to 22.2 figure who has two convictions for hate speech per cent and the newly established Economic and who was expelled from the ANC Youth Freedom Fighters (EFF) gaining 6.4 per cent of League in 2012 – has strongly criticized the the votes. current system and called for the expropriation According to an IPSOS survey conducted of farms owned by white South Africans without shortly before the election, less than half (47 compensation. per cent) of the population believe that the In June, the ANC signed an amendment to government has the country’s interests at heart, the 1994 Restitution of Land Rights Bill into with even lower levels among white (17 per cent) law, allowing those who failed to file claims in and coloured (23 per cent) citizens. 1998 to still do so now. The bill has received Land rights and distribution remain unresolved mixed responses, as many claims may contest and contentious issues in South Africa. The large existing claims filed pre-1998 and create a further majority of the country’s land is still owned by backlog. A separate policy is also planned which

State of the World’s Minorities Africa 101 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 could benefit the Khoi and San communities by structures of white-dominated towns and black- allowing them, in some instances, to lodge claims dominated townships on the outskirts of those for land dispossessed pre-1913. These changes towns have somewhat broken up. Nonetheless, are intended to also include heritage sites, which subsequent surveys suggest that a large might benefit other ethnic groups, such as Zulu, proportion of the urban black population is still who have made claims for certain areas which concentrated in these townships on the urban belonged to former Zulu kingdoms. periphery, where issues such as unemployment, The land rights of women from the Muslim violence and sexual assault are still evident. minority are also likely to improve following Despite attempts to counter the ghettoization of the legal recognition of Muslim marriages for these areas – for example, through government the first time in South Africa in May 2014. investment in public transport in townships – Though issues remain about the lack of inclusion spatial segregation persists. While middle-class of women in the negotiations and the apparent blacks have migrated in recent years to formerly absence of females among the more than 100 white neighbourhoods, the majority of the officially appointed marriage officers, the decision country’s black urban poor remain concentrated represents a milestone for the country’s Muslim in the townships. Though explicit exclusion of community. Previously, Muslim marriages had blacks is rare and South Africa’s social division no status in South African law, meaning that is now in many ways informed by class, the women could have no legal rights in the event of disproportionate poverty levels among the black divorce or the death of their spouses. In August, population mean that in practice this separation shortly after the change in law, a landmark case still has strong racial dimensions. In Cape Town, in South Africa reversed the eviction of a Muslim for example, reports suggest that many of the woman following her divorce. The eviction had city’s black population still feel excluded and originally been considered legal, as she had been unwelcome in the centre and other upmarket married in a religious ceremony only and the title neighbourhoods. deed to her home was in her husband’s name. The physical and social legacy of apartheid Twenty years after the abolition of apartheid urban planning has contributed to ongoing in 1994, South Africa continues to struggle with problems of crime, delinquency and its legacy of racial division. These issues came unemployment, particularly among urban youth. to the fore in July when South Africa’s Human Issues such as housing, reinforced by xenophobia, Rights Commission found a public school in have also led to growing frictions between South Bloemfontein guilty of hate speech towards Africans and migrant communities from countries coloured and black pupils. The teachers were such as Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique. accused of racially abusing the students and These tensions culminated in the violent outbreak telling them to go back to the black schools in in Alexandra township in Johannesburg in April their townships – the second such incident in 2015, killing seven people and injuring many Bloemfontein within a year. others, making it the country’s worst outbreak Though South Africa has undergone significant of xenophobic violence since 2008. The ongoing transformation in the last two decades, including violence has caused the military to step in, while rapid urbanization, the country’s history of racial some migrant countries of origin have arranged segregation continues to shape its development. for their citizens to return home. A speech by Despite the ANC’s pledge in 1994 to provide Zulu chief King Goodwill Zwelithini the previous adequate housing to its citizens, the government’s month calling for foreigners to ‘pack their bags housing programme has been outstripped by the and go home’ was blamed for triggering the pace of urban migration and reached a backlog violence, though Zwelithini claimed that his in 2013 of 2.1 million planned free housing comments had been taken out of context. units for the poor. As a result, a significant proportion of urban residents still face poor living Zimbabwe conditions, with around a third based in slums. Following the 2013 amendment to the Since the end of apartheid, some of the old Zimbabwean Constitution, several minority

102 Africa State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 languages are now officially recognized. However, be taught at their schools and be promoted there has been little progress on the promotion in line with the new Constitution. Kalanga of minority languages since former Minister representative Pax Nkomo also questioned the of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture David imposition of Ndebele chiefs on Kalanga people Coltart ended his term in office in August in seven districts of Matabeleland South and 2013. He claimed that any incoming minister called on the new Zimbabwean government to would have to honour the language policies in ‘give Kalanga language affirmative action so we place, but also stated that it was ‘too early to can liberate our culture which was suppressed’. say whether the new government will have the Both San and Kalanga, as well as other linguistic political will to promote minority languages’. In minorities in Zimbabwe, need government May 2014, former Matabeleland South governor assistance to maintain their languages. Angeline Masuku called for greater promotion of Zimbabwe faces acute urban challenges, traditional Zimbabwean languages over English, including inadequate water and sanitation, arguing that knowledge of other languages resulting in diarrhoea, typhoid and other health spoken in their regions could help reduce risks, particularly in its large informal settlements. tribalism. Her concern was particularly with The government, however, has not only failed regard to the lack of knowledge among some to address the problems of corruption and Matabeleland residents of Ndebele. exclusion that have contributed to these issues, The San community has also criticized the but has worsened the situation of many poor government for failing to understand their and vulnerable communities through aggressive culture and traditions, as the Constitution policies of eviction and slum clearance, such refers to their language as Khoisan, whereas as the so-called Operation Murambatsvina the correct name of the language is Tshwao. – literally, ‘Drive Out Rubbish’ – in which Tshwao is under particular risk of extinction, as approximately 700,000 residents were forcibly some sources suggest that there are little more displaced in a ‘clean-up’ exercise a decade ago, than a dozen people left who speak the language with foreign nationals particularly targeted. fluently, with the rest of the San community A key objective of the crackdown was to speaking a diluted version. One of the issues force residents of informal settlements to highlighted by San leaders is the fact that the ‘return’ to rural areas. In Matabeleland, where few San children who are able to attend school many urban residents were forcibly resettled, are taught in Ndebele, and as a result many are the legacy of the clearance has contributed to increasingly separated from their own culture. increasing diasporisation as a result. While the Attempts to introduce a Tshwao curriculum are Zimbabwean government is threatening further made more difficult by the lack of orthography demolitions in several areas, it has generally and phonology for the language. Tshwao failed to provide alternative housing to those it has no written records and is currently not has displaced. This is particularly true for the systematically passed from one generation to the already poor and marginalized in Zimbabwean next. Additionally, the vocabulary reflects the San society, which includes migrant communities community’s traditional way of life in the bush, and minorities who have migrated to cities. and therefore lacks terminology for many aspects Protecting marginalized rural communities while of contemporary living. Researchers working improving the living conditions of the urban on preserving Tshwao and making it usable populations is one of the main challenges facing for younger generations of San have requested Zimbabwe. A government-supported initiative, support from the Education Ministry to enable Training for Rural Economic Development, was them to travel to Botswana and Namibia for launched in 2014 with the aim of reducing rural– learning visits to other San communities. urban migration by providing more livelihood Other minorities are equally struggling for opportunities in local communities. ■ the promotion of their languages. Kalanga representatives have argued that SeTswana, the language they speak at home, should also

State of the World’s Minorities Africa 103 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 costs of basic items for entire households, such Case study by Inga Thiemann as food, clothing and education-related expenses. However, many San households experience debt to the extent that most of the pension is spent on The San in settling household debts on the day of the pay- out, leaving very little to survive on for the next southern Africa month and resulting in further borrowing. Rural San often have difficulties accessing government – adjusting to pensions and other support schemes, as they lack identification documents or funds to travel to urbanization as a towns to register. ‘Veldfood’, a variety of fruits, roots, wild first people vegetables and worms gathered from uncultivated lands, remains a significant contributor to the San household diet, where possible. Gathering such food is both a cultural practice and a way Southern African countries have urbanized rapidly in the last few decades, with significant impacts on San indigenous populations in the entire region. Urbanization has not only threatened access to land among rural communities but also in areas where some measure of urbanization has taken place, while the government has failed to provide San residents with skills, education or other assets. Very few have been able to find secure and well remunerated work in towns and cities, while many continue to face severe discrimination. In Namibia, the San’s quality of life declined post-independence due to land redistribution and incidents of expulsion from their traditional grazing lands. They faced increasing obstacles to their hunter-gatherer culture, as most land was distributed among other ethnic groups. Post-independence, many San ended up seeking new livelihoods in nearby towns or migrating to communal areas occupied by other groups, for example in the Omaheke Region. Many San households rely on food donations both from the Namibian government and NGOs, as well as state pensions as livelihood strategies. In many cases a basic government pension is the main source of household income. The Namibian Household Income and Expenditure Survey of 2009/10 found that 20.1 per cent of Khoisan speakers were relying on this as their main source of income. The San use the pension money to cover the

104 Africa State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 of supplementing insufficient and irregular access to water, as well as issues of wastewater food supplies. However, limitations on San from neighbouring communities spilling into access to land have restricted their ability to their ‘veld’. Irregular sanitation servicing of gather ‘veldfood’. This is particularly true for the communities’ dry toilets not only leads San in settlements and on resettlement farms to increased risk of disease, but also forces on commercial land, in urban areas with access many community members to defecate in the only to small areas of land or on communal plots open, further contaminating one of the San’s shared with cattle farmers from other ethnic vital food sources and undermining a key groups. opportunity for them to maintain deep-rooted The South African example of the San cultural practices despite urbanization. ■ community at the Plantfontein farm shows that urbanization can have negative effects on the Below: The traditional lifestyles of the San community, despite their access to the ‘veld’. in Botswana, Namibia and across other parts This community, consisting of San belonging of Southern Africa are constantly under to the !Xun and Khwe groups, lives under threat from modernization programmes. difficult sanitary conditions, with unstable AinoTuominen

State of the World’s Minorities Africa 105 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Alaska (US)

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SOUTH CHILE URUGUAY PACIFIC ARGENTINA Americas Maurice Bryan

AmericasMariah Grant, Alfredo Gutierrez Carrizo, Janet Oropeza Eng and Carolyn Stephens In Canada, though the proportion is lower than the national average, the majority of the North country’s indigenous population are based in towns or cities and now comprise the fastest growing segment of the urban population. America Their experience of urbanization is characterized by widespread exclusion in access to housing, Mariah Grant employment and a range of other areas, a reality that has not only contributed to the recruitment vents in North America during 2014 of some indigenous youth into criminal gangs but were dominated by protests in the United also the disproportionate rate of sexual violence E States against the killings of two African suffered by indigenous girls and women in urban Americans, Michael Brown and Eric Garner, areas. This issue drew national attention during by police. Both incidents were interpreted by the year following the murder of 15-year-old Tina demonstrators as reflecting institutionalized Fontaine in August and the subsequent attempted racism within the police force, provoking broader murder of 16-year-old Rinelle Harper in the city discussion of the inequalities experienced by black of Winnipeg. In Mexico, indigenous women in citizens, particularly in cities. Yet not only are Ciudad Juárez, many of whom have migrated to these shared by other marginalized communities, the city in search of employment, continued to including the country’s indigenous population, face similar levels of sexual violence during the but they also extend into education, health and year. employment. These disparities are especially evident in urban areas, where they are often Canada manifested in pronounced physical, social and According to the most recent census data from economic segregation. 2011, Canada’s indigenous population now exceeds 1.4 million, comprised of First Nations, Below: Navajo women perform a jingle dress dance Métis and Inuit, all of whom have distinct during a powwow at Nakai Hall, Window Rock, ethnic, linguistic and cultural backgrounds and Arizona, USA. Donovan Shortey traditions. Yet these communities also share

108 Americas State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 similarities, including a troubled history of land Despite these successes, significant political rights and jurisdictional violations by corporations divisions led to the sudden resignation of the and the Canadian government, as well as Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National impediments to realizing self-determination and Chief, Shawn Atleo, on 2 May. His resignation political representation. However, a landmark came during a period of discord within the ruling in 2014 set a new precedent for indigenous AFN over the federal government’s proposed land claims and demonstrated the ability of First Nation Education Bill, C-33, which Atleo indigenous communities to successfully defend supported. The bill was announced by the their traditional land titles against state and government in February 2014 with a promised private interests. On 26 June, the Supreme Court C$1.9 billion in new funding for indigenous unanimously ruled on the case, recognizing the education to support reforms aimed at raising the title of the Tsilhqot’in Nation over approximately 40 per cent high school graduation rate among 1,700 square km of land south-west of Williams First Nations on reserves. However, there was Lake, British Columbia. Aboriginal title as significant opposition to the bill for a number of defined by Delgamuukw vs. British Columbia reasons, including a lack of control of curriculum (1997) requires an indigenous people to prove development by First Nations themselves, as that land was occupied by them solely prior to well as hostility among many First Nation chiefs sovereignty, something no group had successfully towards the government of Prime Minister done until this most recent case. In doing so, Stephen Harper. In May the federal government the Tsilhqot’in Nation proved that the British dropped the proposed bill, citing a lack of Columbia provincial government breached their support among AFN leadership. In the months duties to consult them 20 years ago prior to that followed three chiefs, Ghislain Picard, Leon issuing logging licences on Tsilhqot’in Nation Jourdain and Perry Bellegarde, vied to be elected traditional lands. the next AFN National Chief. The ruling therefore has wide implications While Perry Bellegarde was elected on for future development projects planned by the 9 December, concerns were raised over Canadian government over the next decade, the absence of women candidates for the amounting to C$650 billion of investment in leadership role, as well as the organization’s mining, forestry, gas and oil projects, many of ineffectual lobbying of the federal government them to be undertaken on traditional indigenous to address many ongoing issues, including lands. In particular, the creation or extensions legal investigations into the disappearance and of pipelines from the oil sands of Alberta to murder of indigenous women. Though in other areas within Canada or onwards into the February 2014 Amnesty International released United States have been strongly opposed by a statement outlining the critical need not only indigenous communities. While the extension for a government inquiry, but also a National of the Keystone XL pipeline was hotly debated Action Plan to address the severe violence faced and protested against in the United States, other by First Nations, Inuit and Métis women and pipelines such as Enbridge’s proposed C$7 billion girls in Canada, no steps were taken by the Northern Gateway pipeline, which would carry government during the year to do so. oil from Alberta to the coast of British Columbia, For Canada’s Afro-descendant population, has been publicly opposed by First Nations 2014 was also distinguished by attempts since 2010. In the summer of 2014 several First at education reform. The first Africentric Nations from British Columbia launched as programme at a public Canadian high school many as nine legal challenges trying to block the was inaugurated during the 2013/14 academic pipeline and by September the legal case lodged year, with a class of 19 first-year high school by Gitxaala Nation became the first approved for students at east Toronto’s Winston Churchill hearing by the Federal Court of Appeal. As of Collegiate. The programme was initiated amid January 2015, a total of 19 court challenges had controversy, with the initially proposed pilot been filed against the pipeline by various First school, Oakwood Collegiate, rejecting it due to Nations. an outcry from teachers, students and parents

State of the World’s Minorities Americas 109 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 over concerns about segregation and creating Right: Imam Syed Soharwardy pauses while divisions among pupils. Despite this, by February talking to his fellow Muslims during a service 2014 the Africentric programme at Winston against extremism in Calgary, Alberta, 2014. Churchill Collegiate was proving successful. The REUTERS/Todd Korol programme seeks to lower the 40 per cent high school drop-out rate among Toronto’s Afro- among indigenous peoples – as of 2011, 56 descendant youth by providing core subjects per cent of indigenous peoples were living in that draw on African and Caribbean culture and urban areas in Canada, a 7 per cent increase history, and is strongly attuned to the skill levels from 1996. For Canada’s First Nations, Inuit, of individual students. Métis and other indigenous peoples these factors Among Canada’s religious minorities, and not only affect the rates of violence among specifically the country’s Muslim population, women and girls from these groups, but also 2014 saw some positive developments in terms the increasingly urban indigenous population’s of political recognition and freedom of religious ability to access social services as well as expression. Naheed Nenshi became the first quality education, employment and housing. Muslim mayor of a major city not only in Furthermore, urban indigenous peoples now Canada but throughout North America when make up the fastest growing section of Canadian elected as mayor of Calgary in 2010; he was society, predominantly residing in the cities of awarded the prestigious World Mayor prize by Winnipeg, Edmonton, Vancouver, Toronto, the City Mayors Foundation in February 2015. Calgary, Ottawa-Gatineau, Montreal, Saskatoon In addition, the proposed Quebec Charter and Regina. of Secular Values, bill 60, introduced by the In Winnipeg, which is home to the largest Conservative Parti Québécois (PQ) in November number of urban indigenous peoples in Canada, 2013, was dropped by the Liberals following the the first Métis mayor, Brian Bowman, was August 2014 elections when they won control of elected in November 2014. His election was seen the Quebec parliamentarian government from the as an important advance in bridging the growing PQ. The bill had proposed banning government sense of separation between the indigenous and employees from wearing religious symbols at non-indigenous population. This rift was made work. While it would have had implications for clear by a Probe Research survey released in individuals of all religions, concerns were raised October 2014 that revealed that 75 per cent of that it was specifically discriminatory against Winnipeggers surveyed believed ethnic division Muslim women who wear various forms of hijab. was a serious issue within the city. The view Yet despite this victory in defeating a bill that was consistently held by people of different progressives denounced as racist and xenophobic, backgrounds, with 74 per cent of indigenous in January 2015, following the attacks on the peoples and 75 per cent of non-indigenous Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris, an SOM survey peoples in agreement. found that 59 per cent of Quebecers were in One exacerbating factor in this division is favour of reviving the Charter of Secular Values the disproportionate impact of violent crime on and efforts to pass the bill were reignited among some urban indigenous communities, particularly the PQ. in relation to gang membership in Winnipeg. While Canada boasts a land mass totalling However, this is precipitated by a number of nearly 10 million square kilometres, making it factors which influence gang and violent crime the largest country in the Americas by territory, involvement. For the First Nations, Inuit and and the second-largest in the world after Russia, a Métis of Winnipeg and other urban centres, significant majority of that land is uninhabitable discrimination, poverty, cultural alienation, due to extreme climates. As a result, the majority spatial segregation, sub-standard housing and of the population resides in a small proportion decreased access to labour markets have helped of the country and is overwhelmingly urban, push many indigenous youth towards gang with 81 per cent of the population living in affiliation. Yet it is critical to also recognize the metropolitan areas. The proportion is lower gains that have been made by the indigenous

110 Americas State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 population: in Winnipeg, the indigenous middle between 25 and 44 are five times more likely to class is growing rapidly, thanks in part to die from violence than Canadian women of other increased access to better education. ethnicities in the same age group. Nevertheless, the urban exclusion that drives In March 2014, prior to the release of the many into violent gangs has also contributed RCMP report, the Special Committee on to increased rates of violence inflicted against Violence Against Indigenous Women presented indigenous women, which is also strongly their own report, Invisible Women: A Call to associated with their secondary status based on Action, during the 41st Parliament, Second gender and their belonging to a marginalized Session. The report uncovered a number of community. During the year, indigenous significant yet varied factors contributing to community groups were instrumental in the epidemic of disappearances and murders of increasing awareness about the high numbers of indigenous women and girls, with one of the missing and murdered indigenous women and most defining being the deprivation, poor living girls, as part of the Idle No More movement. conditions and discrimination experienced by This was thanks in part to the efforts of the many indigenous people on a routine basis. Native Women’s Association of Canada The report also revealed that 70 per cent of (NAWC) as well as the release of a Royal disappearances and 60 per cent of murders, Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) report in according to available police statistics, occurred in May 2014 which cited 1,017 homicides and 164 urban areas. missing persons cases of indigenous women and While the prevalence of disappearances and girls between 1980 and 2012. Rights groups such murders of indigenous women and girls over as Amnesty International have also questioned the past 30 years was a focal point of public the accuracy of available police statistics and dialogue and local-level action in 2014, for most believe the true figures may be much higher. of the years prior there had been widespread What is certain is that indigenous women are public indifference. Indigenous peoples and disproportionately targeted. According to some women’s rights groups, including the NAWC, estimates, for example, indigenous women aged have advocated for years with little success for

State of the World’s Minorities Americas 111 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 improved prevention initiatives. However, public Right: Demonstrators protest the shooting of apathy has begun to shift and over the last few unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, years a number of individuals, women’s groups Missouri. Brown was shot by a police officer and indigenous rights organizations have worked in August 2014, sparking sometimes violent tirelessly to reduce violence against indigenous protests. Panos/Hossein Fatemi women and girls. It was their efforts that helped ensure the especially targeted for enrolment. In California murder of 15-year-old Tina Fontaine in August, and Connecticut new methods were employed as well as the sexual assault and attempted during the second open enrolment period for murder of 16-year-old Rinelle Harper in health insurance coverage under the ACA at the November, both in Winnipeg, did not go end of 2014 to reach out to Latinos and African unnoticed. Multi-ethnic vigils were held and Americans, particularly young men in urban groups urged local officials to take action. As a areas. In light of this a new strategy was initiated, result, the Police Service’s Community Relations using community newspapers and local media to Unit met with leaders of five of the seven First advertise the benefits of signing up for coverage Nations that fall under Treaty 1 to discuss the through the ACA that would more readily access role indigenous men play in violence against Latino and African American men in urban women, while also identifying indigenous centres. By the end of the year, the proportion leaders who will stand up against gangs. On a of the country’s uninsured population had fallen broader level, Leah Gazan, the president of the from 18 per cent in 2010, when the ACA was Social Planning Council of Winnipeg, started signed into law, to 13.4 per cent. the ‘We Care’ movement to raise awareness of But while a majority of states expanded health violence against indigenous women among all care coverage to this demographic through Winnipeggers. Nevertheless, although local-level Medicaid as part of their implementation of initiatives assisted in initiating dialogues and the Act, 16 states refused to do so, impeding plans of action to address the root causes of the access to health insurance for those most in need violence in Winnipeg and throughout Canada, of coverage. Among them was Texas, where a the national-level response from the Harper highly restrictive anti-abortion law that took government was dismissive of the social factors effect on 1 September has forced many of the at play. Instead, the prime minister negated state’s abortion clinics to close. By the end of the the findings of several federal, provincial and year, only one continued to operate south of San community studies by stating that this issue was Antonio. This specifically hinders Latina women, not a ‘sociological phenomenon’ and needed to who represent a large percentage of those living be addressed through crime-prevention tactics. In along the Texas–Mexico border, from accessing early 2015, however, the UN Committee on the sexual and reproductive health care. Elimination of Discrimination against Women Indigenous land rights continued to be released a report, supported by a statement from threatened by major development projects, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human specifically linked to the extractive and fossil Rights (OHCHR), that found Canada’s lack fuel industries. Throughout 2014 indigenous of action constituted a ‘grave rights violation’ groups in the United States, including the against indigenous women and girls. Ponca Nation and Oglala Lakota, led land rights movements in opposition to a bill that would United States allow the expansion of the Keystone XL pipeline In the first half of the year the early effects of connecting the oil sands in Alberta, Canada to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which seeks Steele City, Nebraska. The bill was subsequently to expand access to affordable and quality vetoed by President Barack Obama in February health insurance, began to be felt across the 2015. United States. Previously uninsured and poor A surge of unaccompanied minors from populations – disproportionately represented by Mexico and Central America arriving in the US minorities of various ethnic backgrounds – were in spring 2014 set off heated debates surrounding

112 Americas State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 the country’s immigration policy, including the repeatedly. In the ensuing weeks, the streets of detention of children. One positive milestone for Ferguson were filled with demonstrators who many of the country’s immigrants was Obama’s believed that Brown’s death reflected widespread announcement at the end of the year of an racial prejudice among law enforcement executive action which would potentially provide personnel. Though there were incidents of amnesty for nearly 4.9 million undocumented looting and arson of local businesses, the response migrants. The Board of Immigration Appeals by police was also criticized as excessive. Within also made a watershed ruling that ‘married a week a state of emergency was declared in the women in Guatemala who are unable to leave suburb and a midnight curfew was enforced. their relationships’ constitute a unique social The demonstrations and violence in Ferguson group who may apply for asylum. Both measures led to ongoing discussions about ethnic profiling attracted strong resistance, and at the beginning and the incidence of homicide by police while of 2015 the Amnesty Bill was put in jeopardy on duty in the United States. This is a particular as Republicans in the House of Representatives problem in its cities, where ethnic minorities sought out means by which to cut the required are often concentrated – in 22 of the country’s funding to the Department of Homeland 100 largest urban areas, they now make up a Security. majority of the population – as evidenced by Yet the event that arguably had the greatest statistics on police stops and street interrogations implications for minority rights during the in New York City. Data collected by the New year, sparking protests and allegations of York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) since 2002 institutionalized racism in the country’s police on the use of ‘stop-and-frisk’ by the New York force, was the shooting death of Michael Brown, Police Department (NYPD) shows that, of those an unarmed 18-year-old African American, by individuals engaged by the NYPD officers, 54 per a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri cent were African American despite them making on 9 August. Although witness testimony is up just 25.5 per cent of the city’s population. conflicting, Brown was described by some Nearly 9 out of 10 of those targeted were as holding his hands up while he was shot completely innocent, a fact corroborated by the

State of the World’s Minorities Americas 113 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 NYPD’s own reports. programmes. While these issues intersect with Research published during the year, drawing some of the inequalities experienced by other on data between 2010 and 2012, revealed that ethnic minorities in urban areas, indigenous African American men and boys are 21 times peoples have experienced discrimination where more likely to be killed by on-duty police officers other ethnic minorities have found opportunities, than their non-Latino white counterparts. In particularly in relation to accessing urban labour 2014 some of these individuals included Akai markets. Gurley, Ezell Ford and Rumain Brisbon, though One contributing factor to the tensions one of the most high-profile incidents was the that arise in urban areas between minority or killing of 43-year-old Eric Garner by an NYPD indigenous communities and law enforcement officer on 17 July in Staten Island, New York. agencies is the involvement of some members The arrest and fatal choking of Garner, who in violent crime, including gang membership. was unarmed, were captured on video and However, this occurs among the complexities quickly spread across the internet. In the video of social, political and economic exclusion Garner can be heard pleading, ‘I can’t breathe’ that fuel criminal behaviour – factors that are 11 times. This plea, along with the hashtag often overlooked in public discussions of urban #BlackLivesMatter, soon became rallying cries violence within minority communities. The of the anti-police brutality and racial equality simplistic and discriminatory representation of movements in the United States. Popular outrage these issues was reflected in comments by former was further inflamed by grand jury rulings New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who stated towards the end of the year that closed criminal in an interview in the wake of Ferguson that proceedings against both officers involved in the ‘93 per cent of blacks are killed by other blacks’ Brown and Garner killings, triggering further and argued that attention should be focused protests in cities across the country. on reducing crime within African American However, though protests during the year communities rather than the killing of Brown by focused almost exclusively on incidents of a white police officer, which Giuliani regarded as police brutality against the African American ‘the significant exception’. population, in recent years indigenous people While Giuliani’s comments were criticized have been killed by law enforcement at nearly by many commentators as harmfully reductive the same rate as African Americans. While and misleading, evidence suggests that crime garnering little to no media attention, indigenous within African American communities is groups utilized the hashtag #NativeLivesMatter disproportionately high, with African Americans to galvanize support within their community being four times more likely to die from and to highlight the disproportionate levels of homicide compared to the national average. police brutality experienced by some of the 5.2 However, in addressing urban violence it is not million indigenous people in the country. As is useful or effective to reinforce the inaccurate the case with African Americans, these incidents notion that members of minority communities occur against a broader backdrop of social form the overwhelming majority of perpetrators. disenfranchisement: 27 per cent of indigenous New research on gang membership is evidence people live below the poverty line nationwide, of this. A joint report from the US Department compared to a national average of 14.3 per cent, of Justice (DoJ) and Department of Health and with more than 70 per cent of indigenous and Human Services (DHHS) reveals that the people now residing in urban areas these high use of law enforcement data creates incorrect poverty rates are now experienced significantly perceptions about the ethnic make-up of gangs. within metropolitan settings. Furthermore, The National Gang Center relies heavily on this indigenous people living in urban areas also data set and in doing so reports that 84 per cent encounter increased impediments to accessing of gang members belong to ethnic minorities. education, employment and health care: for However, when these statistics are combined instance, only about 1 per cent of spending by with self-reporting studies, the demographic of the Indian Health Service is allotted to urban gang membership changes considerably. This is

114 Americas State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 the case in the evaluation of the Gang Resistance predominantly non-Latino white neighbourhoods Education Training (GREAT) programme, compared to those living in segregated minority which indicates that nationally about 25 per cent neighbourhoods. One rationale given for this, of gang members are non-Latino whites. The substantiated by past studies, is that social report further notes that the factors driving gang isolation of minorities living within non-Latino membership should not be simplified in these white neighbourhoods leads to higher incidence terms: ‘most risk factors cut across racial and of poor health. ethnic lines, including the negative consequences Another issue that is especially acute within associated with poverty, immigration, urban areas is educational inequality, with discrimination and social isolation’. new evidence demonstrating continued school The protests against the killings of Brown segregation, particularly within the country’s and Garner were also demonstrations against inner cities. A report from the Department of segregation in the cities of the United Education’s Office for Civil Rights from March States. Demonstrators filled the country’s 2014 identifies that African American and Latino metropolitan freeways as a means to draw students on average have less access to rigorous attention to the historical role they have played educational programmes and are more frequently in dividing urban populations, dating back taught by lower-paid teachers with less experience to 1956 when Congress passed the Interstate Furthermore, African American students are Highway Act. This facilitated the expansion four times as likely and Latino students are of suburban, mostly white and middle-class twice as likely as non-Latino white students to neighbourhoods and assisted in the overall attend schools where one out five teachers do economic growth of the United States. However, not meet all state teaching requirements. The the ramifications within urban areas are still same Department of Education report found that felt today, as freeways frequently divided them ethnic minorities are more likely to be suspended along ethnic lines, isolating majority from or expelled overall, and that African American minority communities. Urban infrastructure, students are three times as likely to be suspended along with other development projects and or expelled compared to their white peers. subsequent housing schemes, helped establish Though the reasons for the increasing segregation spatial segregation. Other factors include the within the schooling system are diverse, there movement of non-Latino white households out are clear indications that school zoning policies of integrated neighbourhoods, self-segregation favour affluent neighbourhoods, leaving minority by minority communities and, more recently, students from poor inner-city areas disadvantaged discriminatory gentrification projects in minority and forced to attend under-resourced schools. neighbourhoods. The movement towards privately funded charter Decades of research has tried to determine schools is also exacerbating unequal access to to what extent spatial segregation impacts on quality education among the country’s youth. minorities in urban areas and issues such as Sub-standard education for poor students educational attainment, social isolation, housing, attending schools in less affluent neighbourhoods, poverty and health. In Chicago, a 2012 joint as is the case for many minority children, report from the Joint Center for Political and has a lifetime effect on their future economic Economic Studies and the Center on Human well-being. Furthermore, limited educational Needs at Virginia Commonwealth University opportunities for minority students have been found that ethnic segregation in the city’s associated with a phenomenon known as the neighbourhoods caused as much as a 33-year ‘school-to-prison pipeline’, particularly as the difference in life expectancy between non-Latino expansion of police officers inside schools has white residents and certain minorities. However, led to increased contact with the criminal justice other recent studies based in Chicago and system. Infractions which were previously dealt elsewhere have suggested that African American with by teachers and school administrators and other non-Latino minorities were more now lead to fines and even incarceration in likely to report poorer health while living in juvenile facilities. This experience has long-term

State of the World’s Minorities Americas 115 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 ramifications, as children and adolescents sent exceptionally hard hit. This was due to a number to juvenile facilities are 37 times more likely of factors, including predatory lending tactics by to be arrested again as adults. Students with banks that saw African Americans and Latinos criminal records are further marginalized in some taking out a disproportionate number of risky school districts through the use of alternative subprime mortgages and high-cost loans. This schools, which segregate them from the general led to massive foreclosures on homes owned student population. The discrimination faced by by minorities, with certain urban areas, such as African American and other ethnic minorities Detroit and Atlanta, particularly devastated. within the school system is borne out in their However, throughout 2014 the effects of the disproportionate incarceration rates in the recession continued to subside. In December country’s prisons, with African Americans unemployment declined to its lowest rate since accounting for 41 per cent of those imprisoned mid-2008, the housing market was bouncing despite making up just 13 per cent of the back and more people in the United States were national population. once again buying homes. Yet the economic Housing in urban areas of the United States recovery did not benefit everyone equally, as has played a long-standing and important role African Americans and Latinos continued to in establishing and maintaining segregation. The face high rates of unemployment and under- 1937 United States Housing Act (USHA) led to employment, as well as foreclosures and large-scale public housing projects nationwide, discrimination in accessing home loans. One which accelerated in the country’s urban centres factor in this unequal recovery is that minorities in the 1950s and 1960s. Ethnic minorities experienced significantly greater losses as a have historically been over-represented among result of the recession: Federal Reserve Data those in public housing within city centres. The shows that from 2010 to 2013 the median USHA housing scheme has also been associated income of minority households fell 9 per cent, with high crime rates and perpetuating cycles compared to 1 per cent for non-Latino whites. of poverty. By the 1990s a number of major Home ownership among minorities during that cities, including Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, same period fell from 50.6 per cent to 47.4 per Philadelphia and New Orleans, began tearing cent, but among non-Latino whites the period down public housing units, replacing them with saw a reduction from 75.3 per cent to 73.9 mixed-income housing. The full impact of this per cent. The decline in home ownership also shift in urban housing is not yet known, and disproportionately harmed minorities, particularly controversy remains over whether it is helping African Americans. One reason is that financial to alleviate segregation or simply pricing low- assets, such as stocks and bonds, have recovered income and working-class families out of their in value quicker than housing, which non-Latino neighbourhoods. white households are more likely to own through In the years prior to the recent housing retirement accounts compared to minority crisis in the United States, a shift in the urban households. Therefore, during the foreclosure demographic took place as African Americans crisis when African Americans and Latinos lost started moving to the suburbs – a product their homes they were also frequently losing their of the demolition of public housing but also main asset and source of savings. a developing African American middle class. Furthermore, in 2014 a new trend in the During this period, owning a home became housing market emerged that is unequally a reality for more and more minorities, with harming certain minority groups, particularly home ownership among African Americans and in urban areas most affected by the recession. Latinos peaking in 2006 at the beginning of the Home equity firms are buying up large numbers recession. However, home ownership throughout of foreclosed houses in these areas and then the country began to stall in 2007 and dropped renting them back out, frequently to African off steadily in 2008 when the housing market Americans and Latinos who lost their homes crashed. Since then, an increasing amount during the crisis. This has, in part, led to what of evidence has shown that minorities were was described by Housing Secretary Shaun

116 Americas State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 bulldozing of entire neighbourhoods. Case study by Mariah Grant What attracts less attention is the array of community-led initiatives under way to revitalize the economy and rebuild local Detroit – areas. However, this process has been slow and far from easy as old barriers, particularly rebuilding the racial discrimination, persist. For Lauren Hood, a life-long resident city from the of Detroit and Community Engagement Manager at Loveland Technology, a bottom up company working on mapping blight in the city and making such data widely accessible, moving forward starts with looking back. Throughout the recent recession in the United ‘When people get to Detroit and they want States, the city of Detroit, Michigan was to work on revitalization efforts’, she says: seen as a cautionary tale of economic boom and bust within the country’s urban centres. ‘they don’t take into account the prior racial Nicknamed Motor City, USA, Detroit was the history – Detroit has always been one of thriving epicentre of the automobile industry the most segregated cities. People need to be from its early days in the 1900s to the 1950s, talking about racism and inequity before when the city boasted 296,000 manufacturing they can start to take different ideas back to jobs. However, by the end of the 1950s the the places where they work and start to do automobile industry began a slow decline, things differently.’ culminating in the 2009 bankruptcy of auto- giants Chrysler and General Motors. With the To help facilitate these dialogues, Hood fall of the industry, among other factors, came runs a racial equity training programme to the economic decline of the city itself. On 18 encourage ‘some critical thinking’, as she July 2013, a bankruptcy petition was formally puts it. filed on behalf of Detroit. During this period of industrial and ‘There’s so much out there about Detroit that economic decline, the population also people just read it and accept it on face value, drastically decreased, dropping 25 per cent but people need to be asking questions and between 2000 and 2010 alone. Yet mass thinking about things and not just accepting migration from the city did not happen equally it because they heard it five different times. among Detroit’s residents. The make-up of People need to do more research, and what the city is unlike that found in the country I’m always hoping for is people leave [the as a whole as ethnic minorities, particularly trainings] with more questions.’ African Americans, make up the overwhelming majority of Detroit’s population. This has Kirk Mayes, another life-long Detroiter become even more evident in the wake of and the CEO of Forgotten Harvest, a non- the recession as a disproportionate number profit formed in 1990 to relieve hunger and of the city’s white residents have left: in the prevent nutritious food waste in the Detroit meantime, the share of ethnic minorities, metropolitan area, emphasizes the role that particularly Latinos, has continued to increase. community programmes can also play in The most visible effects of Detroit’s reducing divisions. In his years working on decline have been pored over repeatedly in various economic and social development media reports across the world, including the projects, including Forgotten Harvest, he dereliction of its housing stock, the shutting has learned that: off of water supplies to certain areas and the

State of the World’s Minorities Americas 117 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 ‘no matter what color we are, no matter what contributing to helping our region heal and we believe, love looks a lot the same, fear looks providing a platform for people around us a lot the same, who you care about as far as to contribute to people who are in the most parents and kids, it looks a lot the same. We need’. And he emphasizes the positive energy focus so much on our differences because our that communities are now creating themselves. differences are what we basically get thrown in front of our face every day for whatever reason ‘Truly, in order to understand what’s happening and not enough about our very basic similarities in Detroit and to get a feel for the vibe of the as human beings’. revitalization, that is very palpable and tangible here – there is a part of the experience that you According to Mayes, Forgotten Harvest just have to feel and witness for yourself.’ plays an important role in breaking down barriers and connecting people of different This is not to say that Detroit does not have backgrounds through their community its problems, including the painful physical volunteer opportunities within their food realities of a city shrinking rapidly from its processing warehouse and community former size. ‘We have a lot of vacant houses,’ farm. Mayes felt that the organization, ‘is says Rico Razo, District 6 manager at the office of Mayor Mike Duggan. This can create serious issues for neighbours as abandoned houses, besides their demoralizing effects, can have health and crime implications. To address the issue, a volunteer group called ‘Operation Detroit Blight Fight’ was set up. Razo highlighted that within his district, which has the highest Hispanic population, the team would spend every Sunday helping seniors with clean-up and boarding up unoccupied houses. At present the group has 100 members and an official kick-off was launched on 31 March 2015 in commemoration of César Chávez Day. Razo recognizes that Detroit’s divisions have not gone away. ‘Some of the areas that may not have demolition dollars, they don’t see houses coming down in their neighbourhoods, they don’t see revitalization happening, they’re still saying we have two cities.’ Nevertheless, though aware of the challenges ahead, he remains cautiously optimistic about the future. ■

Left: Derelict buildings currently being redeveloped by a non-profit organization called Face the Station, who are working to renew the area opposite Michigan Central Station, Detroit, 2014. S. J. Carey

118 Americas State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Donovan as ‘the worst rental affordability Insecurity, poverty and dispossession of crisis that this country has ever known’. In communal land have all contributed to Los Angeles, for example, where Latinos make migration, often forced, to urban areas among up 48.3 per cent of the city’s population, these groups. While cities potentially offer the residents are now experiencing the highest rent possibility of employment, basic services and to income ratio of any city in the country. Yet other benefits, in practice discrimination and within certain neighbourhoods in Los Angeles, violence are frequently recreated in urban areas – community-led initiatives are working to provide meaning that indigenous and minority residents affordable housing as well as social services. The continue to struggle with similar issues of poverty Esperanza Community Housing Corporation and marginalization. (Esperanza) is one such initiative. Established in 1989 to respond to development projects Guatemala that threatened destruction of homes within Guatemala had nearly 16 million inhabitants the Figueroa Corridor neighbourhood, where in 2014. According to official statistics, 70 per cent of residents are Latino with the rest approximately 40 per cent are indigenous; a mix of African Americans, Asians and non- however, according to indigenous peoples’ Latino whites, the organization began providing representatives, the true figure is closer to 60 per affordable housing, health, arts, education and cent. The indigenous community in Guatemala economic development programmes. By the end comprises 22 different peoples, including K’iche’, of 2014 Esperanza had completed nine affordable Kaqchikel, Mam, Q’eqchi’ and Matan, while the housing developments totalling 165 units, and country also has a small community of Garifuna had begun the Mercado La Paloma community people, amounting to less than 1 per cent of the revitalization and entrepreneurship project, population. This makes Guatemala a rich and and initiated the Semillas de Esperanza (‘Seeds culturally diverse country. of Hope’) community garden, all the while During 2014, ongoing aggression against continuing to provide a number of services to the human rights defenders by security forces or local community. paramilitary groups persisted. From January to September 2014, 60 attacks against indigenous and environmental activists defending indigenous lands were reported. The deployment of 20,000 Central military throughout the country to oversee public security in 2014 is expected to exacerbate this volatile situation. The extractive industry model America promoted by the Guatemalan government and the construction of large-scale development Janet Oropeza Eng projects on indigenous lands without community consent has been a source of ongoing disputes Throughout 2014, the situation for Central with resistance movements. These conflicts America’s minorities and indigenous peoples are exacerbated by the fact that the existing continued to be characterized by dispossession of legal mechanisms available for indigenous land, targeted violence and other rights violations communities seeking to defend their rights to by criminal gangs, paramilitary groups and land and to free, prior, and informed consent are security forces. In many cases, these incidents not effective tools for this purpose. are associated with state-sponsored development For example, two large-scale development projects, agri-business and natural resource projects involving a hydroelectric scheme in exploitation, enabled by limited land rights and Margaritas Copón and a dam in Santa Rita were widespread impunity for the perpetrators of these carried out by the government in 2014, despite abuses. As a result, thousands of people belonging the opposition of Q’eqchi’ Mayan people. In to indigenous and Afro-descendant communities the first case, 15,000 Q’eqchi’ Mayans were were displaced during the year across the region. forcibly evicted, even though they voted against

State of the World’s Minorities Americas 119 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Above: Mayan children in San Lucas process which they have long demanded. Tolimán, Guatemala, 2014. Gary Fikes The removal by the Constitutional Court of Attorney General Claudia Paz y Paz the same the construction of it in a binding referendum. month, based on the argument that her term was In the second case, indigenous protests against legally already over, was interpreted by many as the project were violently repressed in August a deliberate effort to undermine ongoing reforms resulting in three Q’eqchi’ Mayan casualties, in to the justice system as she had prosecuted addition to a previous fatality and many people a number of perpetrators and tried to end injured during an earlier attack in April. impunity in Guatemala. Indigenous farmers have also been involved in The systematic marginalization of indigenous increasing conflict over the possession of their communities from the country’s political, social lands. In 2013, the Ministry for Agrarian Issues and economic life, despite representing a large reported that nearly 60 per cent of the land proportion of the population, continues with conflicts’ plaintiffs were indigenous farmers. no meaningful efforts by the government to The justice system and the rule of law also overcome it. The two government agencies encountered important setbacks during 2014. in charge of preventing and addressing ethnic Former president Efraín Ríos Mont’s May 2013 discrimination, namely the Indigenous Women’s conviction for the genocide committed during Public Defender Office and the Presidential the civil war, including the deaths of more than Commission against Racism and Discrimination, 1,700 Ixil Mayans, the displacement of another lack the financial and human resources to 29,000 and numerous other rights abuses, perform their duties. In July, indigenous did not make any progress. A congressional community groups protested throughout resolution passed in May denying that acts of the country to raise awareness about the genocide had occurred during the civil war discrimination that indigenous peoples face. decreased victims’ chances of achieving the justice During 2014, women in Guatemala continued

120 Americas State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 to experience disproportionate levels of violence prior consultation to Entre Mares de Guatemala and marginalization, despite serious reforms S.A., a subsidiary of Canadian mining company to improve laws on equality and violence Goldcorp Inc. prevention. Sexual violence, maternal mortality Guatemala’s long civil war, ongoing conflicts and femicide – Guatemala has one of the highest related to large-scale development or extractive rates of femicide in the world – remain ongoing projects and extreme rural poverty have all issues, along with political representation: as of contributed to the migration of indigenous 2012, less than 10 per cent of elected legislators people from rural to urban areas, mostly to –15in all – were indigenous and, of these, only Guatemala City. This migration has added four were indigenous women. pressure to a metropolitan area that has During 2014 there were also some positive historically lacked proper planning policies, developments for minority and indigenous with a large proportion – over 40 per cent – of communities. These included the investigation the city’s population living in slums or shanty and prosecution of a number of perpetrators, towns. Following this pattern, indigenous people resulting from a collaborative effort on the part migrating to Guatemala City and other urban of the United Nations International Commission areas have established or settled in informal and against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG) and the unplanned urban spaces or shanty towns that lack Attorney General’s Office. In June, two former proper basic public services, such as water and soldiers were arrested in a case concerning the health care, and are often located in dangerous or sexual assaults of 15 Q’eqchi’ Mayan women inaccessible areas. in 1982 in Zarco, followed by the arrest Indigenous people in Guatemala’s urban areas shortly afterwards of three former policemen in experience high levels of discrimination and relation to the 1990 murder of Myrna Mack, exclusion based on their ethnic background, an anthropologist working on and defending dress and language. Since many do not speak indigenous peoples’ rights. Spanish and wear their traditional clothes, There was also progress regarding the redress they are marginalized from the formal labour of thousands of Maya Achi indigenous people market, limiting their opportunities to access and their family members who were either social security and a better income. For example, displaced or massacred over the construction of according to one estimate, 80 per cent of maids the Chixoy dam in the 1980s. Following an Act working in private homes are indigenous. Because passed in 2014 by the US Congress that denied of their concentration in such low-paid jobs, financial aid to Guatemala unless it implemented indigenous families in Guatemala’s urban areas reparations for the people affected by the dam, mobilize all their members, including children, President Otto Pérez Molina publicly apologized to work. to the victims and signed an agreement to execute Though indigenous peoples are under- a reparations plan for the affected indigenous represented and excluded from political life communities. The plan has a budget of US$154 and decision making across the country, million and includes the construction of housing, despite representing at least 40 per cent of infrastructure and other amenities for the affected the population, they do typically have more communities, as well as land restitution. This representation in local government. Nevertheless, case sets a historic precedent for redressing the major political parties and local authorities violations of indigenous peoples’ rights over the continue to exclude indigenous peoples from past decades as well as ongoing land conflicts. their structures and do not uphold their demands Furthermore, in August a local court in Sipicapa and rights. The only existing indigenous political ruled that mining permits and activities are party, Winaq, usually wins only around 3.5 illegal if local communities have not been given per cent of the vote and has limited financial information and are not consulted. This ruling resources. set legal precedents for indigenous movements Guatemala’s urban areas continue to experience upholding their land rights. The case involved high levels of urban violence, which particularly a prospecting permit that was issued without affects indigenous peoples, especially indigenous

State of the World’s Minorities Americas 121 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 women. Urban violence has been shaped by context, human rights organizations and the a long-established pattern of gender violence Ombudsman Office have expressed concern against indigenous women that goes back to the about a military police force deployed in 2014 to Guatemalan civil war, when they were seen as perform security duties. The judiciary is a largely ‘trophies’. Currently, indigenous women are the ineffective channel for accessing justice and recent most targeted victims of human rights violations. legislative reforms have further undermined its Nonetheless, urban spaces can also provide independence. In 2014, a case involving the greater opportunities for indigenous development. killing of murdered four unarmed indigenous In this regard, a study found that human Miskito people, two of them pregnant women, development among indigenous peoples is higher during an operation against drug traffickers, in Guatemala’s urban areas than in rural areas. was dismissed. The families of the victims Since it is likely that many indigenous people appealed the ruling. Violence against women is who are forcibly displaced to urban areas become also widespread, with an estimated 453 women permanently settled in their new locations, as reported to have been killed between January and the government is not helping them secure their November 2014. property nor resettle, inclusive urban planning Journalists and human rights defenders policies that consider and consult indigenous continue to be intimidated or murdered communities are urgently required. This demand without adequate investigations by police and has come from indigenous people themselves. judiciary. Honduras was recently described This was illustrated in 2014 when local Mayan in a report by the NGO Global Witness as communities in Guatemala City opposed the the most dangerous country in the world to construction of a US$60 million Maya Museum be an environmental activist, with 101 deaths of America, arguing that they had not been between 2010 and 2014. Most of these victims consulted about the plan and could be adversely were indigenous and minority representatives affected as the proposed development would defending their lands against the construction demolish a long-established Mayan arts and crafts of large-scale development projects, extractive market, hosting 55 small businesses. industries or agri-businesses. Examples include opposition to the Agua Zarca hydro-dam on Honduras the Gualcarque River; anti-mining resistance in Honduras has reportedly had the highest murder northern Honduras by Tolupán leaders; and the rates in the world for the past several years, Bajo Aguán movement conflict over palm oil sustained by a widespread culture of impunity industries. In all these cases, activists have been and human rights violations. Against a backdrop terrorized or murdered, often with the complicity of violence and insecurity related to gangs, of security forces. drug cartels and land grabs, many communities Nevertheless, there were some positive have been forcibly displaced. For example, in developments during the year. In August, José Mosquitia in north-eastern Honduras, according Arnulfo Jiménez, a former member of the to reports during the year, five indigenous military who committed abuses against the press communities have been forced to abandon and civilians during the coup d’état in 2009, was some or all of their territories after they were sentenced to five years in prison. Congress also appropriated by drug traffickers. Clandestine discussed draft legislation to protect human rights landing strips – surrounded by barbed wire and defenders, environmentalists, journalists and guarded by armed men – have been a particular other groups from intimidation and violence. problem as they block community access to Around 40 per cent of indigenous peoples traditional lands and bring gang violence to and Afro-Hondurans are based in urban areas, previously remote areas. significantly lower than the proportion (60 per The state’s response to this upsurge in cent) of Latinos and mestizos (mixed ethnicity). violence has focused on increasing militarization, Indigenous peoples are spread across different an approach that has contributed to the regions of the country, while Afro-Hondurans deteriorating situation in the country. In this are located, for the most part, along the Atlantic

122 Americas State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 land against development plans by the Case study by Kara Chiuchiarelli Honduran government. Today, tourism development seems likely to have similar effects. Efforts to urbanize Trujillo The Garifuna’s and its surrounding coastal communities threaten the Garifuna’s traditional lifestyle, cultural battle to protect their heritage and identity as a people. Though the unique value of Garifuna culture is widely land from urban recognized – in 2001, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) development declared Garifuna culture one of nineteen Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage in Honduras’ of Humanity – the community is already struggling to preserve its rich heritage in the face ‘Banana Coast’ of entrenched poverty and discrimination. The community now faces a range of other challenges, including climate change, Land rights are an ongoing struggle for Honduras’ environmental vulnerability and HIV/AIDS. Garifuna community, who for decades have faced While Garifuna community members need forced eviction and the sale of titled communal greater access to employment and other lands as their territory has been appropriated for opportunities, these are unlikely to be realized if mining, oil extraction and palm oil cultivation. development is simply imposed on their territory But communities are now being displaced to without their consultation or consent. In this secure access to another resource – their pristine context, empowering local Garifuna is an essential coastline. ‘There is now a process of expulsion step in their fight to protect their ancestral of our people from Honduras,’ according to territory from a form of urbanization that largely one local Garifuna community member. ‘From excludes them. ■ tourism to extraction megaprojects, the initiatives have been imposed without making the necessary consultations. “Model cities” are the latest forms of dispossession that affect us.’ In the early 2000s, the national Honduran government declared a plan to develop a resort in Trujillo, along the lines of Cancún in Mexico, despite the fact that those beaches had been granted as title lands to the Garifuna a century before. This plan has led Canadian developers to buy up land – including land titled to the Garifuna people – in Trujillo for vacation homes and a cruise ship port called ‘Banana Coast’, themed around what the developer has described as the ‘glory days’ of the region’s banana trade in the first half of the twentieth century. This was a period when foreign industries appropriated vast tracts of Honduras land and established considerable control over the area, with little regard for the wishes, traditions and cultures of the local people. Now the community is having to defend its

State of the World’s Minorities Americas 123 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 coast. Both groups, besides facing entrenched discrimination and limited access to essential services, have struggled to defend their lands South in a context where land tenure ownership has not been fully resolved: only about 10 per cent of indigenous peoples, for example, have a America government-accredited land title. Violence, land grabbing and deep poverty in rural areas has Alfredo Gutierrez Carrizo and forced indigenous peoples to migrate from the Carolyn Stephens countryside to cities in search of security and employment. Ahead of the UN World Conference on Migration has posed considerable challenges to Indigenous Peoples (WCIP) in New York in Honduran cities, which lack adequate planning September 2014, the Indigenous Forum of Aba policies or infrastructure to serve this growing Yala – a collection of indigenous organizations population. As a result, many minority and from different countries across South America indigenous migrants have settled in shanty and neighbouring areas – issued a declaration towns or urban belts that lack transportation, highlighting the continued discrimination faced public security or basic services. For example, by indigenous communities and, in particular, there are more than 400 informal settlements the destructive impacts of mining, forestry and located around the capital, Tegucigalpa, in other industries on their development. Among earthquake-prone areas of the city. Minority and other demands, the Aba Yala Declaration indigenous communities in Honduran cities called for ‘the full and effective participation continue to face ethnic discrimination, poverty of indigenous peoples in the evaluation of the and marginalization. In major centres such as post-2015 agenda, based on self-determination, Tegucigalpa or San Pedro Sula, a culture of autonomy and territoriality, free, prior and national unity has long been promoted based informed consent, spirituality, interculturality, on mestizo values – another factor promoting women and youth, reciprocity and solidarity’. discrimination, as it leaves little room for minority The outcome document of the WCIP, which and indigenous expression. Indigenous and Afro- was adopted by the UN General Assembly, Honduran migrants also struggle to access urban included a reaffirmation of the UN Declaration labour markets due to discrimination, with many on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as well as ending up in low-paid or informal employment. the principle of free, prior and informed consent. An added difficulty is that Honduran cities have The outcome document went on to list a series among the highest rates of urban violence in of commitments to strengthen the position of the world, exacerbated by rapid urban growth: indigenous peoples, including the development San Pedro Sula was recently ranked as the most of disaggregated and holistic data on indigenous violent city worldwide outside a conflict zone. well-being ‘to address the situation and needs of Due to their marginalization, minority and indigenous peoples and individuals, in particular indigenous urban residents, particularly women, older persons, women, youth, children and are highly vulnerable. persons with disabilities’.These texts represent Nonetheless, living in urban areas can offer increased recognition of the rights of indigenous opportunities for marginalized groups to access peoples internationally as well as in the region. services and other benefits. For example, in terms While 1 January 2015 also marked the launch of education, a 2011 National Survey of the of the International Decade for People of Perception on Human Development revealed that African Descent, many Afro-Latin communities indigenous peoples and Afro-descendants had still struggle to achieve the same level of higher literacy levels in cities: 94 per cent of those acknowledgement, particularly as they have often in urban areas are able to read and write, with an been invisible in official data sources. In Chile, average of 8.5 years of schooling, compared to 79 for example, Afro-Chileans were not included per cent and 4.3 years in rural areas. as a separate ethnicity on national censuses and

124 Americas State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 other surveys until 2014, when the government play a major role in improving the situation of launched the first ever study on their community these communities even in rural areas as the – an important milestone, given that their efforts impacts of urbanization are increasingly felt even to be included in the 2012 census had been in remote parts of the region. unsuccessful. Both indigenous and Afro-descendant groups, Argentina however, share similar challenges of targeted Historically, Argentina had an extensive and violence, dispossession from communal lands and diverse indigenous civilization. According to the limited access to health, education and livelihood 2010 census – though it was criticized at the opportunities. To varying degrees these factors time by some communities who believed that are driving displacement and migration across the the minority and indigenous populations were region, particularly in Colombia, where ongoing under-represented in the final count – Argentina conflict and insecurity have forcibly uprooted has a population of over 40 million people. The tens of thousands in 2014 alone. This mass 2010 census counted a total of 955,032 people displacement and migration in turn is driving self-defining themselves as indigenous – forming increased urbanization, even from more remote 2.4 per cent of the national population. This communities. was 355,000 more than the estimated number In other cases, while they have not always of self-identified indigenous produced in a received much coverage, indigenous and Afro- special 2004 indigenous survey. This increase in Latin communities have been based in urban self-identification reflects a change in attitudes areas for generations. Though many are resident towards indigeneity, particularly among urban in the region’s megacities, capitals and other young people, who are now more willing to major centres, including many migrants in self-identify as indigenous. There is also better search of education and employment, a large understanding within Argentina of the country’s proportion of the urban population is also strong indigenous roots. Despite the still low based in smaller towns that act as a hub for proportion of people self-defining themselves as isolated communities. These settlements may be indigenous, a 2014 DNA study of the Argentine predominantly inhabited by indigenous or Afro- population for the WCIP found that 56 per Latin communities, often in relatively inaccessible cent of Argentines have at least a measure of locations such as Brazil’s Amazonia region, with indigenous DNA. strong links to the surrounding rural hinterlands A further 150,000 people in the 2010 census – as inhabitants travel back and forth to access the first to measure ethnic minorities as distinct provisions and services. groups – self-identified as Afro-Argentines, less Urbanization can improve the lives of than 1 per cent of the national population. This indigenous and minority populations by group has long been invisible in the country, providing them with better access to essential but there is now an increasing willingness to services such as education. Urban areas have self-identify and a renewed awareness of the even supported the strengthening of identity community’s rich heritage. Argentina’s Afro- among these groups as their concentration in descendant community originated in the slave cities can provide opportunities for activism and trade, a fact that has a bearing on their continued political mobilization. Nevertheless, in practice discrimination today. However, a UNESCO- their experience in cities is often characterized sponsored programme, Sitios de Memoria, by poverty, violence and poor living conditions has been developing a series of sites linked to in low-income settlements. While gaining in the slave route running through Argentina to terms of access to urban services, they also Paraguay and Uruguay. This continues to play struggle to maintain their traditional cultures an important role in raising awareness about and languages in urban contexts. Sustainable the legacy of slavery for the Afro-Argentine and inclusive urban development, then, though community among other Argentines and among often overlooked in general discussions about the an international audience. A New York Times region’s indigenous peoples and minorities, could article, published in September 2014, highlighted

State of the World’s Minorities Americas 125 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Above: Qom man protests in Buenos However, throughout the year communities Aires against alleged repression from the began fencing off their communal territories in government, 2013. Demotix/Lucas Simonazzi response to the national government’s auctioning of large tracts of land to foreign companies for the vivid cultural life and commemorative value oil fracking. Though exploration continued, this of sites like Capilla de los Negros, a chapel built resistance successfully disrupted local operations by freed slaves in 1861. in the short term and brought attention to the Despite enjoying unique cultures and facing ongoing discrimination experienced by Mapuche distinct challenges, both indigenous and Afro- and other indigenous peoples. descendant communities in Argentina continue Though a large proportion of the country’s to struggle against deep-rooted discrimination. wealth and resources is concentrated in urban Yet there is also an increasing capacity to areas such as the capital Buenos Aires, the deep mobilize against injustices and rights abuses. In levels of disadvantage experienced by urban- January 2015, for instance, the widely publicized dwelling indigenous peoples have persisted. Yet death of a Qom child from malnutrition in Buenos Aires and other cities in Argentina have a small town in Chaco prompted widespread also served as centres for self-expression. In April outrage among indigenous communities across 2014, ahead of Argentina’s participation at the Argentina and a potential case against three WCIP in September, a historical act took place ministers of the national government for failure in Buenos Aires: the President of Argentina of duty to the Qom community. Indigenous inaugurated the exhibition Salón de los Pueblos communities have also struggled to defend their Originarios in the national Government House. land rights against increasing agro-industrial In April 2015, too, a crowd of indigenous and extractive industries. The Mapuche people, women marched through the city centre to for example, have repeatedly seen their territory demand improved rights, participation and a bill encroached upon by oil and gas prospectors. of ‘good living’ for women in Argentina.

126 Americas State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 indigenous people in the city. Case study by Vanessa Mazzei Despite their increasing presence in Bolivia’s cities, indigenous communities are not always considered part of the urban Promoting fabric. One issue that has contributed to this situation is the lack of reliable data, creating indigenous significant barriers to developing effective programmes that could make a difference. participation in Consequently, the first phase of the project focused on the collection of quantitative and the Bolivian city qualitative data, culminating in the launch of a book in October 2014. The subsequent of Santa Cruz de distribution of this data among indigenous leaders, government representatives and la Sierra academic institutions has had a very positive impact on the community’s advocacy and coordination. Bolivia has some of the highest levels of A key aspect of indigenous urban poverty in South America, and it also stands communities is their sheer variety, with out as one of the most culturally diverse each group having their own distinct countries in the region with the highest organizational structures, skills, social percentage of indigenous people in Latin connections and ways of occupying America – an estimated 62 per cent of the urban space. Learning about these is key population. Yet indigenous communities have to developing appropriate responses. nevertheless struggled historically to secure Nevertheless, one common factor is that equality. In this regard, constitutional reforms the pursuit of better living conditions drives in 2004 acknowledging the ‘multi-ethnic and much migration to urban areas, as well multicultural’ nature of the republic therefore as the desire to give more visibility to the represented a milestone for the community, indigenous movement. In urban centres there particularly its recognition of their right to are more possibilities of appealing to public full and effective political participation. opinion and institutions, of forming alliances Helping with the implementation of and filing lawsuits. these reforms has been the primary focus It is also very important that indigenous of organizations such as Apoyo Para el communities are able to maintain their Campesino-Indígena del Oriente Boliviano culture and identity in an urban context, (APCOB). In recent years the government, including their organizational forms, specific while encouraging indigenous participation customs, original languages and traditional in civil society in rural areas, has to some crafts, as well as their rights to collectively extent overlooked the phenomenon of rising owned lands. The project therefore also migration to cities. The department where focused on strengthening associations this shortcoming has been most evident is and networks among these communities, that of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, which has the creating a forum for shared dialogue and highest concentration of urban indigenous decision making. This was one of the most inhabitants in the country. This is the main significant milestones of the project, with reason why the city was chosen for the the launch of two major events that were UN Democracy Fund-sponsored project attended by hundreds of people. This helped ‘Nunca Nos Fuimos: We Never Left’, with raise awareness of indigenous peoples’ the aim of promoting greater visibility, issues among a wide range of stakeholders, political participation and representation of including local authorities, government

State of the World’s Minorities Americas 127 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 officials, NGOs, journalists and the general Brazil public. The ongoing challenges experienced by Brazil’s The project also focused on strengthening indigenous peoples were highlighted at the capacity in other areas, with training beginning of 2014 with the publication online of for indigenous leaders on national law, images of one of the country’s few ‘uncontacted’ citizenship and governance. In addition, a communities. The photographs, taken illegally on proposal summarizing the aspirations of the a reconnaissance flight monitoring the intrusion different urban indigenous communities was of criminal groups in the area, provoked developed to be included in the Municipal widespread debate over the protection of these Charter of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. After a communities from outside interference. The consultation between the population and pictures, taken in March, showed indigenous their representatives took place, lawyers inhabitants in a state of fear as the low-lying completed a constitutional review and plane passed by. finalized the document. Other activities Though a significant portion of the country’s include awareness-raising initiatives among indigenous population are now urban, the the general population about the challenges majority still reside in rural areas and are these communities experience, including the often vulnerable to the effects of urbanization, distribution of a documentary and a touring particularly when Brazil’s cities develop against photographic exhibition, ‘Being Indigenous a backdrop of unregulated or illegal land in the City’, that has received around 15,000 encroachment and resource exploitation. Their visitors. Forums, websites and active social location in often remote and undeveloped areas networking have also been implemented to rich in forestry and minerals has placed them engage younger generations. at particular risk of logging, mining and other An important date for APCOB and the activities. The Awá people have been especially urban indigenous people of Santa Cruz de affected by displacement from their ancestral la Sierra will be August 2015, when the land by illegal loggers settling forcibly in the Autonomy Commission of the City Council area. While the government has been slow to will submit the Municipal Charter, a respond to address their predicament, growing document which will include the indigenous national and international pressure led to the peoples’ proposal. This document will government’s announcement in January that then undergo constitutional review and, if illegal settlers would have to leave the area by approved, will be submitted to referendum. 9 March. This is one of the few documented APCOB’s work played an important role instances of the government stepping in with in influencing political representatives to security forces to prevent resource extraction on include these provisions – an important step indigenous lands. In early 2015, reports again forward for indigenous peoples’ rights in emerged, however, of renewed rights abuse Bolivia’s cities. ■ and violence against Awá associated with illicit logging. Meanwhile, in December, a group of uncontacted Awá were brought out of the forest after having been surrounded by loggers; at the time of going to press one woman had contracted a severe respiratory illness – highlighting the extreme vulnerability of uncontacted communities. Yet often it is government-sponsored megaprojects themselves that are displacing or otherwise affecting local communities, such as the controversial hydroelectric Belo Monte Dam currently being built on the edge of indigenous territory. This development, besides

128 Americas State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Above: Indigenous Guarani Mbyá children in a millions of reais, put a heavy strain on local village in the Vale do Rio Branco, Brazil, 2014. riverways and is unlikely to be much used in Gregory John Smith/Children At Risk Foundation the near future. To make matters worse, the stadium’s interwoven design draws on indigenous undermining the lives of local inhabitants patterns, with little sign of any other more long dependent on the Xingu River, is also meaningful inclusion. Indigenous peoples in encouraging mass migration of labourers into the area took the opportunity to highlight their the region. This rapid urban development and struggle with a government more focused on the indirect effects of sudden, unregulated tourism than indigenous peoples’ rights. investment have reportedly devastated some Indigenous peoples live in every state of Brazil indigenous communities, whose traditional and represent 305 different ethnic groups and livelihoods and organizational structures have 274 indigenous languages. The north and north- been threatened by these changes. east of Brazil have the largest populations of The year 2014 was also an important one indigenous peoples, and some towns and small for Brazil as it hosted the FIFA World Cup. cities in Amazonas, Roraima and Rio Negro are This event, amid high-profile construction in largely populated by indigenous displaced people cities across the country, shone a spotlight on or migrants, who live in basic conditions and the struggle of indigenous peoples to protect experience urban poverty in all its aspects of poor their lands from unsustainable uncontrolled access to water and sanitation, violence, and development. In particular, attention focused women being forced into the sex trade. on the stadium in Manaus, built in the Amazon In this context, displaced indigenous rainforest. The stadium drew heavy criticism communities may end up struggling to integrate from all sides because its construction cost while maintaining their traditional cultures,

State of the World’s Minorities Americas 129 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 particularly in larger cities such as Rio de Janeiro, of extreme violence, police and state security where a large proportion of the thousands of forces frequently resort to the use of lethal force indigenous residents are concentrated in the in an effort to curb the violence. The ANCDCA favelas. In some cases, residents may also find accused police of disproportionately targeting themselves increasingly alienated from their home young Afro-Brazilian men, stating that of the towns as well. Yet much of the urban indigenous 56,000 homicides in 2012, around 30,000 of population is situated in smaller urban areas, those killed were children, 77 per cent of whom including towns in remote regions where strong were Afro-Brazilian. links remain with the rural hinterlands, with Cities can also provide the space and freedom indigenous people travelling back and forth for minority and indigenous communities to from remote areas, and using the towns for engage in cultural expression and activism. provisions and communication. Large numbers of One well-known example of this is the annual indigenous people travel by boat or canoe to the Carnival in Rio, offering a vivid glimpse of Amazonian town of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, the city’s vibrant Afro-Brazilian heritage. The for example, for products they cannot access in February 2015 celebrations, besides showcasing their villages and for services such as health care. the country’s rich traditions of samba and tribal The town is also largely populated by indigenous art, included floats that addressed issues relating people, often displaced from their land by illegal to ethnic discrimination and the fight for and violent loggers. equality. Numerically, Brazil’s Afro-Brazilian population is no longer a minority: for the first time, in Chile the 2010 census peoples self-identifying as Afro-Chileans achieved a significant step forward black or ‘pardo’ (‘brown’ – to denote mixed during the year when, for the first time in the ancestry) exceeded the population of Brazilians country’s history, Chile’s National Institute of self-identifying as white. Yet despite their Statistics (INE) launched its first ever study of sizeable demographic, Afro-Brazilians still the Afro-descendant population in the Arica face major disadvantages and institutionalized region. This will provide a valuable opportunity discrimination. There is massive inequality in to gather information on a community that their access to education and other services, with has never been recognized in Chilean society: many forced to reside in the most dangerous previously, Chile’s Afro-descendant population urban areas. With little opportunity to improve did not have the right to self-identify as their lives, young Afro-Brazilian men in particular Afro-Chileans in the national census as the have been drawn into drug gangs and violence – government had not recognized their ethnicity. an acute issue in a country where, according to Currently estimated by community members to the Mexico-based organization Seguridad, Justicia number around 8,000 people, Afro-Chileans are y Paz, 19 of the 50 most violent cities in the concentrated in urban areas of northern Chile. world are located. Previously, community representatives had Afro-descendant youth have been complained about the barriers that the lack of disproportionately exposed to these threats. properly disaggregated data created in addressing In March 2015, petitioners from Associação their marginalization and discrimination. In Nacional dos Centros de Defesa da Criança e do 2011, John Salgado, representative of the Adolescente (ANCDCA) brought a case before NGO Oro Negro and the Chilean Alliance the Inter-American Commission on Human for Afro-descendant Organizations, described Rights (IACHR), to bring further attention to to the United Nations Office of the High the extraordinary rates of homicide, harassment Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) the and murder experienced by young Brazilians ‘invisibilization’ of their ethnicity, which meant of African descent. Homicide remains the that ‘it is impossible to acknowledge problems … main cause of death among Brazilian youth, [as] you don’t see the people who are suffering particularly affecting young black males living them’. As the Afro-Chilean Alliance’s previous in favelas and urban areas. Faced with situations efforts to include questions on their ethnicity

130 Americas State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Ahead of the football World Cup in Case study by Umamah Basit 2014, the city government announced plans to demolish the building in order to make way for a US$350 million Preserving renovation programme of the stadium. It is pertinent to note that the federal, state indigenous and city governments had evaluated the site beforehand and acknowledged that it holds heritage in Rio historical, architectural and cultural value. Members of the Maracanã community had de Janeiro even hoped that the event would give them the opportunity to showcase their culture and experiences to sports fans visiting Rio de Janeiro has a significant indigenous from around the world. However, despite population, many of whom have been driven numerous protests staged in the early out of their ancestral lands in the Amazon months of 2013, all the families who had due to poverty, deforestation and persecution. been squatting on the site since 2006 were Due to unaffordable housing and lack of forcibly evicted by Brazilian police firing tear state support, these groups have settled gas and rubber bullets. Though occupants in the poorest of urban slums, commonly of the Maracanã were subsequently granted known as ‘favelas’, where they face rampant homes under the city’s social housing scheme, violence, among other threats and challenges. none have been able to return to the ‘sacred Despite increasing marginalization, however, ground’. indigenous communities continue to resist The protests did, however, force the urban influences and display a strong government to halt demolition plans and reluctance to assimilate completely into in January 2014, Rio’s governor, Sérgio mainstream society. Cabral Filho, declared that the building The Aldeia Maracanã movement, which may be transformed into an indigenous came to public prominence in 2013, cultural centre in partnership with the State is a perfect illustration of the ongoing Secretariat of Culture. indigenous struggle to preserve their culture Although the building remains barricaded and way of life in the urban jungle. Aldeia today, members of the Maracanã community Maracanã itself is a multi-ethnic indigenous are hoping to convert the complex into village that stands right next to the iconic Brazil’s first indigenous university, which Maracanã football stadium, in the heart would teach indigenous languages and of Rio de Janeiro. This village was created traditions to people from all parts of the in 2006 when people from 17 indigenous country. More recently, community members communities reoccupied a long-abandoned formed the Aldeia Maracanã Indigenous building that had housed the Museu do Índio Association and an Indigenous Regional (‘Museum of the Indian’) in the latter half Council: both bodies are aimed at developing of the twentieth century. Since reoccupation, and promoting policies for the social and the historical landmark has been associated economic empowerment of indigenous with the celebration of indigenous culture peoples living in Rio de Janeiro. and ideas, serving as a meeting point for In light of ongoing urban renewal projects people from various ethnic groups and walks in preparation for the Olympic Games of life. The compound has also provided 2016, it is difficult to determine the fate accommodation to indigenous people visiting of the Maracanã community. Few would the city for medical care, education and deny, however, that at present the historical business activities. building stands as a symbol of hope and the

State of the World’s Minorities Americas 131 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 continued resilience of indigenous peoples. In other parts of the city too, there are visible signs of indigenous peoples seeking to preserve their traditions and sense of community. In one urban favela, Mare, indigenous groups organize get-togethers on a frequent basis, participating in traditional rituals and storytelling events. While many indigenous people in Brazil’s cities feel they need to hide their identity, especially to obtain employment, an increasing number can be spotted on the streets of Rio wearing traditional attire. For some, this is a way of showing solidarity with the indigenous movement; for others, it is a means of connecting them back to their ancestral homes. Of course, state public policies hugely impact the extent to which indigenous and minority groups are able to maintain their visibility in society. Furthermore, as noted by the Popular Committee for the World Cup and Olympics, Rio de Janeiro, it is fundamental to give marginalized groups the opportunity to participate in discussions and decisions that directly affect them. Nonetheless, it is encouraging to see that members of these indigenous communities are affirming their roots. While it is important to help indigenous migrants adapt to modern urban life, it is equally important to support their efforts to protect their traditions and cultures in their new surroundings. Moreover, it is the strength and scale of the indigenous movement that will ultimately determine the fate of urban indigenous people. Had the indigenous community not shown solidarity during the Maracanã incident, perhaps the building would have been demolished already. ■

Left: Maracanã Aldeia, an urban indigenous village located in the building of the former Museu do Índio in Maracanã, Rio de Janeiro, 2014. Ingrid Cristina Pereira

132 Americas State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 in the national census of 2012 had failed, their remain major issues for indigenous peoples in recognition this time is a significant milestone for Chile, particularly in the south of the country, the community. with protests continuing during the year. Unlike elsewhere in the region, Chile’s Indigenous activists continued to advocate for indigenous population is made up largely the protection of their ancestral lands from of a single people. According to the 2012 unsustainable development projects. In October, census, more than 1.7 million self-identified as Chile’s Supreme Court halted the development indigenous: of these, 88 per cent were Mapuche, of the El Morro gold and copper mine owned followed by Aymara (7 per cent) and other by the Canadian conglomerate, Goldcorp, until smaller groups (5 per cent). As with the Afro- indigenous communities are consulted. And Chilean community, there have been positive on 17 March 2015, representatives from the steps to improve indigenous data. Beginning in Mapuche indigenous people appeared before 2013 and continuing until 2018, Chile Indígena, the IACHR to bring attention to the extractive an initiative of the government’s national activities taking place on their ancestral lands, indigenous body, the Corporación Nacional de and the negative effects they have on their way of Desarrollo Indígena (CONADI), aims to improve life and culture. the quality of life of indigenous peoples in In a July 2014 ruling, the Inter-American Chile, respecting ‘development with identity’ Court of Human Rights found the state guilty and promoting ‘horizontal dialogue’ between of violating the human rights of members of indigenous communities and the government. the Mapuche people. The decision in the case The project began in 2013 and will continue of Norin Catriman et al. vs. the State of Chile until 2018. related to the government’s use of anti-terrorist While they have historically received greater legislation in 2002 and 2003 against indigenous recognition than Afro-Chileans, Chile’s protesters, some of whom received prison indigenous population nevertheless continues sentences at the time. As Jimina Reyes of the to experience discrimination in access to International Federation for Human Rights education and employment. In March 2015, (FIDH) and one of the counsels in the case the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty noted, the Court had concluded that ‘it is illegal and human rights Philip Alston visited Chile to criminalize the Mapuche quests for their and in his end-of-mission statement reported ancestral land’. that the government’s response to the ongoing Earlier in 2014, in response to concerns marginalization of the indigenous population raised by a UN working group, the government ‘has been piecemeal and especially reluctant to committed to the restitution of indigenous lands address the major issues of concern’. Among within two years. Francisco Huenchumilla, other measures, he highlighted the importance of a part-Mapuche politician, was appointed adequate consultation with communities around as Governor of the Araucanía region; he the government’s proposed plan to establish a subsequently apologized on behalf of the Ministry for Indigenous Affairs, as well as the government of President Michelle Bachelet to need to expand their political representation in a the Mapuche people for the dispossession of country where, despite comprising around 10 per land that took place as part of the country’s cent of the population, there is currently not a ‘pacification’ programmes in the nineteenth single indigenous representative in the Congress. century. Indigenous commentators at the time Finally, he drew attention to the domination noted, however, that the government’s proposal of Chile’s agriculture, forestry and mining only specified the Mapuche and land registered industries by certain corporations, calling for with CONADI; which left them wondering these companies to adopt ‘a set of human rights about what would happen to other communities policies that conform, as a minimum, to the and other lands. requirements of the UN’s Guiding Principles on Chile is a highly urbanized South American Business and Human Rights.’ country, with 90 per cent of Chileans now Land rights and access to ancestral territory living in towns and cities. This includes a

State of the World’s Minorities Americas 133 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 significant proportion of Chile’s indigenous between January and September 2014, including peoples. According to the 2012 census, more 2,819 incidents of forced displacement, 10 than 585,000 indigenous people – over a third known homicides and numerous threats, of the country’s total indigenous population – kidnappings and illegal imprisonment. ONIC now live in the greater Santiago metropolitan report that in these multiple violations of human area, where they have formed indigenous rights of indigenous peoples in Colombia the associations, clubs, educational groups and victims have often been traditional authorities, political organizations. Yet many reportedly face indigenous leaders and community members, continued discrimination and sub-standard living threatened by different armed groups, criminal conditions in this context. gangs and security forces. These attacks and threats occur principally in the zones of internal Colombia conflict between the armed groups and the Conflict continues to affect Colombia’s government soldiers, as well as the government indigenous and minority communities soldiers and police abusing indigenous peoples disproportionately. Colombia has a long history during peaceful demonstrations. of armed conflict, involving the military, In June, reports emerged of the forcible opposition forces and paramilitary groups, displacement of Afro-Colombian and indigenous which over decades has caused the deaths or communities in Chocó by criminal groups seizing displacement of hundreds of thousands of control of land, natural resources and drug civilians belonging to minorities or indigenous trafficking routes. It was subsequently estimated peoples. According to the Internal Displacement that more than 2,800 people had been forced to Monitoring Centre (IDMC), 137,200 people flee their homes between May and June. were newly displaced in Colombia during 2014 Indigenous activists continued to protest alone, although that figure is expected to rise against rights abuses and targeted attacks against considerably as more people are registered. their community. On 20 May, indigenous The IDMC, looking back at trends over the peoples across Colombia published a joint previous year, highlighted that the representation manifesto highlighting the threat posed to their of indigenous communities, who comprise survival, the central importance of their territories around 3.4 per cent of the total population, to their cultural traditions, their respect for the account for more than double that proportion environment and the need for sustainable peace among the displaced. Afro-Colombians are in the country. Later in the year, in an attempt to also over-represented; IDMC noted that Afro- halt the mass displacement of indigenous peoples Colombians from four Pacific coast departments from their lands, President Juan Manuel Santos alone accounted for 30 per cent of the total signed Decree 1953 in October to implement number of displaced in 2014. When combined, a special interim system to enable indigenous the indigenous and Afro-Colombian populations communities to administer their territories make up the large majority of displaced persons: until Congress can issue the Organic Law on according to an August 2014 estimate by the UN Territorial Regulation. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Yet both indigenous and Afro-descendant Affairs (OCHA), close to three-quarters of those communities continue to experience severe social displaced earlier that year were Afro-Colombian prejudice. In November, the country’s 2011 anti- or indigenous. In both cases land grabbing, discrimination law was used for the first time conflict and resource exploitation such as mining to convict a local councillor who had described are factors driving this displacement. Afro-Colombians, indigenous peoples and Indigenous peoples are especially vulnerable displaced persons as a ‘cancer’. to violence. In their 2014 report on indigenous The Afro-Colombian community numbers peoples’ rights in Colombia, the national around 4.3 million people, most of whom are organization of indigenous peoples of Colombia based in urban areas. They are the majority (ONIC) recorded 3,193 human rights abuses population in towns in the north-west, and also carried out against indigenous communities live in low-income settlements in the major

134 Americas State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Above: A man in Guarjia, Colombia belonging backdrop of social exclusion and poverty, with an to the Wayuu community, an indigenous unemployment rate of 40 per cent – around four population which is among the most times the average for the country as a whole – marginalized in Colombia. USAID perpetrators have been able to operate with total impunity. Of over 2,000 investigations opened cities, including the capital Bogotá. Widespread on disappearances in the city over the last two displacement from communal lands has decades, reportedly not a single one has led to a contributed to this process. According to one conviction. estimate, more than 70 per cent of Bogotá’s As in other South American contexts, the sizeable Afro-Colombian community were born urban experience has often not been positive outside the city, a proportion that suggests the for the displaced minority indigenous or Afro- significant role that displacement has played in Colombians, but initiatives exist and have the urbanization of Afro-Colombians. succeeded in turning lives around. Since 2011, In this context, reinforced by existing USAID’s Afro-Colombian and Indigenous discrimination, many urban Afro-Colombians Program (ACIP) has supported public– have been exposed to poverty, exclusion and private partnerships between Afro-Colombian physical insecurity. Violence is a common community organizations, local municipalities, problem in other urban areas, too, epitomized by and companies that train ethnic minorities and Buenaventura, a coastal settlement of 400,000 generate economic opportunities for them. As a people, of whom an estimated 84 per cent are result, by 2014 over 5,000 internally displaced Afro-Colombians. It was widely reported in people from marginalized urban areas of Bogotá, the media during the year that this was the Cartagena, Cali and Barranquilla had achieved a most violent city in the country; an HRW measure of stability. ■ report published in March described how the local population were constantly terrorized by criminal gangs and extortion rings. Against a

State of the World’s Minorities Americas 135 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 ARCTIC OCEAN

RUSSIA

JAPAN KAZAKHSTAN NORTH MONGOLIA KOREA UZBEKISTAN SOUTH TURKMENISTAN KOREA KYRGYZSTAN TAJIKISTAN PACIFIC Jammu and AFGHANIS- Kashmir CHINA TAN OCEAN

PAKISTAN TIBET TAIWAN NEPAL BHUTAN BANGLADESH Hong Kong INDIA BURMA LAOS PHILIPPINES THAILAND VIETNAM CAMBODIA Andaman and Nicobar BRUNEI SRI LANKA Islands Bougainville PAPUA NEW MALAYSIA SOLOMON ISLANDS MALDIVES GUINEA SINGAPORE Borneo Sulawesi Wallis and Futuna (FR.) Sumatra INDONESIA TIMOR-LESTE FIJI ISLANDS French Polynesia (FR.) Java New Caledonia (FR.) INDIAN

OCEAN AUSTRALIA

NEW ZEALAND Asia and Oceania Joshua Castellino, Irwin Loy, AsiaMatthew Naumann, Maruscaand Perazzi Oceaniaand Jacqui Zalcberg Michael Caster, Shikha Dilawri, Nicole Girard, Hanna Hindstrom, Matthew Naumann and Jacqui Zalcberg Central Asia has been mixed. In the main, rural– urban migration has occurred in recent decades Central among majority ethnic populations. This was partly a result of previous Soviet policies that had made it difficult for rural residents to move to Asia cities, while encouraging or in some cases forcing migration of specialists to Central Asia from Matthew Naumann more industrialized parts of the Soviet Union. This ensured that in many cities residents who he year 2014 in Central Asia was were ethnic Russians, Ukrainians, Germans and overshadowed by the conflict in Jews – locally known as ‘European ethnicities’ T Ukraine, as well as the economic – were the majority, working as administrators, downturn caused to the regional economy by technical specialists and factory workers, while international sanctions on Russia and the sharp rural areas were predominantly inhabited by the falls in the price of oil. Besides contributing to a titular ethnicity. slowdown in the region’s economies, the conflict Many of these ‘Europeans’ emigrated from also had a significant geopolitical impact across Central Asia in the last years of the Soviet the region as the implications of the Russian Union and in the decades since independence. Federation’s support for ethnic Russians and Urbanization has subsequently been shaped Russian speakers were absorbed. An April 2014 by incomers replacing those who had left the offer by President Vladimir Putin for any fluent urban workforce, driven also by the chronic Russian speaker in the former Soviet Union to become a Russian citizen if they renounced their current citizenship reportedly led to a surge in Below: A group of Uyghur youth pick interest among minority ethnic groups. mulberries near the Baraholka bazaar in The effect of urbanization on minorities in Kazakhstan. Panos/Carolyn Drake

138 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 and endemic poverty that affected many rural sidelined from political decision making. Their areas, particularly in the 1990s. However, some representation at a senior level in politics cities had large ethnic minority populations reportedly remains limited, though Vladimir who were historical residents of the area and did Shkolnik, an ethnic Russian, was reappointed not emigrate at the end of Soviet rule. These as energy minister in August 2014 and their included Osh, Jalalabad and Uzgen in Kyrgyzstan share of seats in Kazakhstan’s lower legislative (with large ethnic Uzbek populations), as well chamber, the Mazhilis, is roughly proportional as Samarkand and Bukhara in Uzbekistan (with to their demographic. This is not necessarily large numbers of ethnic Tajiks). the case for many of Kazakhstan’s non-Russian Resentment against minorities is sometimes minorities, who together make up more than 13 fuelled by registration requirements that are per cent of the population. The UN Committee often still in place in urban areas. These can for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination exclude many city residents from essential public (CERD) had expressed concern earlier in the services and social security, creating a new year about the under-representation of non- group of socially marginalized people who face Kazakh ethnic groups in general in political life discrimination and are vulnerable to harassment and the civil service. One notable exception is by the authorities. In some cases, internal Karim Massimov, an ethnic Uyghur, who was migrants from majority groups may resent the reappointed as prime minister in April 2014. fact that minorities in urban areas, particularly However, some analysts have suggested that his those well established in larger towns and cities, appointment is due in part due to the fact that, have better access to resources such as land or as a member of an ethnic minority, he is not housing – a major source of ethnic tension in seen as a potential successor to the president and certain countries, such as Kyrgyzstan. therefore does not threaten the balance of power among Kazakhstan’s elite. Kazakhstan Kazakhstan has not suffered the large-scale Kazakhstan has a variety of ethnic minorities, ethnic violence that affected its neighbour including Uzbeks (2.9 per cent), Ukrainians Kyrgyzstan, most notably in 2010. Nevertheless, (2.1 per cent), Uyghurs (1.4 per cent) and two people were hospitalized and four detained Tatars (1.3 per cent). The largest of these is the by police after clashes on 27 August in ethnic Russian minority, who make up almost a Qaramurat, a southern village where the majority quarter (23.7 per cent) of the population. Under of residents are ethnic Uzbeks. A group of ethnic Kazakhstan’s Constitution, while Kazakh is the Kazakhs from a nearby village reportedly stormed state language, Russian has equal official status the community, attacking residents and breaking for all levels of administrative and institutional into shops. The interior minister stated that the purposes. However, nationalist groups are now incident was not ethnicity-related, but a news pushing for a more aggressive promotion of blackout in the area, including the blocking of the Kazakh language. Several municipalities mobile phone connections, indicated that the have even taken down Russian-language public authorities feared a possible escalation. A second signs or refused to provide Russian translations incident occurred in another village in southern for official communications, such as court Kazakhstan on 5 February 2015, between Kazakh proceedings. This concern was raised with the and Tajik communities, after the alleged murder Organization for Security and Co-operation of a Kazakh man by a Tajik man in a dispute in Europe’s High Commissioner for National over a greenhouse. Severe security and internet Minorities in June 2014. However, in August restrictions were also imposed following this 2014 President Nursultan Nazarbaev told state incident. broadcaster Khabar Television that he wanted Kazakhstan is continuing its attempts to bring to ensure that any policies promoting the all publicly accessible mosques under the control Kazakh language remained moderate to avoid of the state-backed Muslim Board, thereby encouraging the divisions evident in Ukraine. limiting worshippers’ right to exist as a religious There have been reports of Russians feeling community and exercise their freedom of religion

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 139 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 or belief. All other Muslim communities and Below: Uzbek woman and child in a village in organizations – including Ahmadi Muslim Kyrgystan, 2014. Jonny Duncan congregations as well as mosques catering to specific ethnic communities such as Azerbaijanis, However, there has been limited political Chechens or Uyghurs – are banned. Permission opposition to the Oralman project as it has been to exist is gained via state registration. However, seen as a part of the nation-building process for reportedly even religious communities who try independent Kazakhstan. to register or have registered are in some cases prevented by officials from exercising their Kyrgyzstan freedom of religion or belief. According to the About a quarter of Kyrgyzstan’s 5.6 million NGO Forum 18, by July 12 people had been inhabitants are members of minority ethnic jailed and 45 fined in relation to state restrictions groups. Ethnic Uzbeks make up the most on freedom of worship. These have been used sizeable minority, at roughly 14 per cent of the repeatedly against individuals who have refused population, and primarily live in the southern to fall in line with the government’s policies. In regions of Osh and Jalalabad. The second largest January 2015, Forum 18 reported the case of one ethnic minority is Russians at 8 per cent of the Baptist man in his thirties who, having already population, primarily in the capital Bishkek, and received three fines and a five-day sentence over the surrounding area in the north. Dungans (Han the previous two years, now faced the prospect of Muslims known as Hui in China), Meskhetian his garage being seized. Turks, Tajiks and Uyghurs each make up around Kazakhstan is an increasingly urbanized society, with more than half (55 per cent) of residents now based in urban areas. It has large minority urban populations, particularly ethnic Russians, and Russian is still commonly used as a lingua franca in most cities outside the south and west, including among many ethnic Kazakhs. All road infrastructure, public transport facilities, streets, avenues and other facilities in urban areas are legally required to be marked in both Russian and Kazakh. Kazakhstan’s policy of attracting Oralmans, or ethnic Kazakhs, to immigrate from outside the country has in part been intended to replace the outflow of non-Kazakhs from the country’s cities since independence. By 2012, 860,000 Oralmans were registered in Kazakhstan, making up more than 5 per cent of the population. Many, having initially settled in remote rural areas with poorly paid jobs, have since migrated again to urban centres such as Almaty or Astana in search of better opportunities. Oralmans from countries such as China and Mongolia, who previously had no need to speak Russian, can find it difficult to integrate in the country’s Russian-speaking cities. Reportedly some Kazakh-speaking immigrants consider that Russified urban Kazakhs are not genuine Kazakhs, while some of the urban population resent the privileges enjoyed by Oralmans that they do not enjoy themselves.

140 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 1 per cent, with dozens of other ethnic groups intensified in the summer of 2014, and was also making up smaller proportions. All the seen by some Osh residents to be in retaliation groups remain politically marginalized, though for the shutting off of gas supplies to southern the country has an ethnic German vice-prime Kyrgyzstan by Uzbekistan – an example of how minister and an ethnic Russian minister of international tensions can have a negative effect finance. on minority communities. There is acknowledgement at the national level The judicial response to the 2010 violence has of the need to invest in building inter-ethnic largely targeted members of the ethnic Uzbek harmony, particularly in light of the violence community, even though they comprised the that occurred between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks majority of victims. Courts continue to sentence in June 2010 in southern Kyrgyzstan that left ethnic Uzbek community leaders in absentia several hundred people dead, primarily ethnic for inciting inter-ethnic hatred and organizing Uzbeks. The Concept of Development of National clashes between ethnic Uzbeks and Kyrgyz in Unity and Inter-Ethnic Relations, published by 2010. In November 2014, Kadyrjan Batyrov the government in 2013, has the stated aim of and Inom Abdurasulov, two of these leaders, promoting a common civic identity, developing were given life sentences, while a third, Karamat multilingual education to increase knowledge of Abdullaeva, received a 16-year jail term. This the official Kyrgyz language among all citizens followed the Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court while at the same time fostering language rejection in September of an appeal by Azimjan diversity by ensuring that citizens can preserve Askarov against his conviction for creating and study their native languages without facing mass disturbances, inciting ethnic hatred and language-based discrimination. The Concept complicity in murder. The detention of the has been characterized as a rare achievement by ethnic Uzbek political activist, who prior to his the ‘moderates’ allied to the president against arrest had worked for years documenting police nationalist politicians, who since 2010 have abuses, has been condemned by Human Rights used ethnic politics as a convenient and effective Watch (HRW), Amnesty International and other tool to gain support among ethnic Kyrgyz. rights organizations. Meanwhile, the Department of Ethnic, Religious The government also continued to crack Policies and Interaction with Civil Society in down on minority activists and human rights the President’s Office and the Agency for Inter- organizations during the year. In September, ethnic Relations are attempting to establish an a criminal case was opened against an NGO early warning and conflict-prevention system at a researching minority rights in southern local level. Kyrgyzstan. The complaint, from the Kyrgyz However, progress at a policy level is not National Security Service, alleged that the matched on the ground. Minorities are still research ‘could again ignite inter-ethnic conflict’ excluded from policy discussions relating to inter- and that it was acting in its capacity ‘to prevent ethnic relations, and are inadequately represented intelligence and subversive activities by foreign in state structures and law-enforcement bodies. special services and organizations’. Though This is particularly true of ethnic minorities charges were rejected by the prosecutor in early living in the south, such as Uzbeks and Tajiks. December, the case highlighted the dangers faced In the face of the ethnic discrimination that by human rights activists working on minority was aggravated by the violence in 2010, many issues. Mahamatjan Abdujaparov, another activist members of the ethnic Uzbek community are working on police torture and extortion of ethnic reportedly adopting documents stating they are Uzbeks, was attacked in his office in Jalalabad on ethnically Kyrgyz in an attempt to keep career 4 September. and social opportunities open. In addition, Under Article 10 of the Constitution, Kyrgyz Uzbek-owned small businesses in southern is the state language and Russian is an official Kyrgyzstan continue to face disproportionate language. Russian-language education continues checks by the authorities, sometimes leading to to be relatively popular among all ethnic groups, business closure or disruption. This reportedly including many Kyrgyz. There is a common

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 141 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 perception that Russian-medium schools are 2015 one of these groups, Kyrk Choro, issued stronger, and that the language will be useful to a manifesto calling for foreigners to be allowed users at home and potentially as labour migrants. to stay only in hotels, and for ethnic Uyghur However, in much of the country the number of traders to be barred from the Madina, Bishkek’s Russian-speaking teachers is declining. This has largest clothing market. They also conducted a particular implications in ethnically mixed areas high-profile vigilante raid in which they filmed such as the border province of Batken, where local women who had allegedly been engaged by tensions over disputed territory between the Chinese migrant workers in commercial sex work. Kyrgyz government and neighbouring Tajikistan Kyrk Choro appears to have at least tacit support are ongoing. While residents in this area have for its actions from government bodies, including in the past been able to communicate by using security forces. It is unclear where these groups Russian as a lingua franca, many ethnic Kyrgyz draw most of their supporters from, but most and Tajik children now only speak mutually of their activities have taken place in Bishkek, unintelligible languages in adjacent villages, Kyrgyzstan’s capital and major urban centre. increasing the potential for future disagreements A Uyghur community organization held between the two communities. a congress in October 2014, after several The challenges faced by the country’s Uzbek meetings had reportedly been prohibited in speakers are particularly acute, however. While recent years. HRW has expressed concern that Uzbek had been used relatively widely in Kyrgyz authorities too often target Uyghurs education and local government in areas with with trumped-up terrorism charges, allegedly as high proportions of ethnic Uzbeks, since 2010 a result of pressure from China as bilateral ties the space for Uzbek language in official life have strengthened between the countries. Uyghur has been shrinking. From 2014–15, university community leaders in Kyrgyzstan do not express entrance examinations will only be available support for Uyghur separatism, but some have in Kyrgyz or Russian. This is part of a broader reportedly raised concerns that the lack of a context in which the educational aspirations of Uyghur-language school in the country violates ethnic Uzbeks appear to be reducing. A January their language rights. 2014 report highlighted sharp declines in the The government took a number of steps number of Uzbek students moving on to high during the year to increase its control over school and completing school in Osh city. religious expression, particularly in the case The reasons for dropping out include financial of Ahmadi Muslims, Bahá’i, Hare Krishna, pressures on families, the need for extra income Jehovah’s Witnesses, Protestants and other ‘non- and favouritism in the allocation of the limited traditional’ groups. In January, the government state funds available. Another factor may be the also announced that it would be revising its increasing prevalence of child marriage among Religion Law. Though details of the changes girls from families affected by the 2010 violence. were not confirmed, remarks by the head of the Local experts interviewed by the United Nations State Commission for Religious Affairs (SCRA) Population Fund (UNFPA) suggested that the have suggested that part of the focus would be on increase was linked to rapes committed during state registration of religious organizations. Yet the violence. Meanwhile, the total number of registration for many religious organizations has Uzbek-medium schools has halved in recent been met with official obstruction or denial. For years, from 133 in 2009/10 to 65 in 2013/14. example, the arrest of two Jehovah’s Witnesses in The reduction has been particularly prominent 2013 in Osh (the accused were finally acquitted among urban Uzbeks in the city of Osh, in October 2014, though they remained under which lost two-thirds of its Uzbek-language house arrest for a number of months afterwards schools between 2010 and 2013. Most have while the prosecutor appealed the verdict) was been converted into mixed-medium, Kyrgyz or seen by members as a reprisal for the group Russian-language schools. having recently renewed its application for official There has also been a rise in prominence of registration. The Ahmadi community, who, since Kyrgyz nationalist youth groups. In January being stripped of their registration in 2011 have

142 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 been unable to meet for worship, launched an Urbanization in general, particularly in the appeal at the Supreme Court to appeal against country’s southern cities, has been one of the two previous court refusals of registration. In primary causes of ethnic tension in Kyrgyzstan. July, however, the Supreme Court upheld the In Soviet times, the vast majority of ethnic previous rulings against them. Kyrgyz lived in rural areas, with a wide range of Another recurring issue of religious minority ethnic groups predominant in the cities: discrimination is the difficulty experienced Bishkek (then Frunze) was primarily Russian- by some non-Muslims in the burial of their speaking, after several waves of settlement mainly dead, particularly in rural areas. A number from European parts of the Russian Empire and of incidents were reported during the year of the Soviet Union over a 150-year period, while discrimination in funeral and burial arrangements Osh, Jalalabad and Uzgen cities in the south also for Protestants, with local imams obstructing had long-standing Uzbek-speaking populations. burial of the deceased in village cemeteries. As the Soviet system began to break down in Burial denial has reportedly been supported or the 1980s, living conditions became increasingly overlooked by police on many occasions and has untenable in rural areas, and many ethnic Kyrgyz also been enabled by Article 16 of the Religion moved to the cities. Pressure on land in the cities Law, which contains a provision stipulating led to a number of violent outbreaks in the south that certain aspects of cemetery use shall be in 1990, resulting in several hundred deaths in ‘governed by regulations of local municipalities’. Osh and Uzgen. Many ethnic Kyrgyz formerly An April 2014 draft of the government’s Concept engaged as farmers or nomads in the countryside on State Policy in the Religious Sphere 2014–20 were forced by lack of livelihood or poverty to acknowledged the problem, but failed to move to the cities, where they often struggled highlight the complicity of authorities in failing to establish viable livelihoods for themselves to protect the victims. Though manifesting in the urban economies, where the largely as local prejudice, these incidents reflect the Uzbek mercantile class were dominant. This broader context of state discrimination and have rapid and troubled process of urbanization has not been confined to rural areas, but have also been identified as one of the factors behind the occurred close to the capital, Bishkek. Authorities outbreak of the June 2010 violence. have themselves continued to target religious As many ethnic Kyrgyz rural–urban migrants minorities in Bishkek. During 2014, for example, face overcrowding and sub-standard living repeated inspections were conducted on various conditions, the state’s failure to provide land places of worship in the city, including the Hope or adequate housing has generated acute Baptist Church, which was reportedly visited resentment. At key flashpoints in recent years by state agencies several times and threatened this anger has also been directed towards urban with eviction. The State Property Fund also minority communities, particularly those such attempted to confiscate the property of the as Osh’s Uzbek business owners with property Protestant Church of Jesus Christ by seeking to in the city. Similarly, during previous moments annul the 1999 contract it had previously signed of political instability in the country, minorities with the Church. Some community members have been targeted for their assets. For example, have speculated that the authorities may be after President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was motivated by the high value of the site, situated removed from power in April 2010, Meskhetian in a prime area of Bishkek, and that the land may Turks in the village of Maevka, just outside be earmarked for a private developer. Though Bishkek, were targeted and their homes burned the Economic Court approved the annulment to the ground: the clashes resulted in at least in January 2014, an appeal by the Church five deaths and 28 injured. was granted by Bishkek City Court in April. Land and housing shortages remain unresolved However, the State Property Fund subsequently and continue to affect inter-ethnic relations launched a further action to claim the property in many urban areas. In Osh, for instance, a in the Supreme Court. The case was still number of incidents have flared between ethnic unconcluded at the end of the year. Kyrgyz and Uzbek residents due to the continued

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 143 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 licence for street vendors issued by Bishkek’s Case study by Alisher Khamidov authorities. ‘Police officers usually turn a blind eye to me and other street vendors – they know that we are not a threat to society and that we are Life as a migrant poor folks who are trying to make ends meet.’ She earns about US$200 a month. in Bishkek – ‘I meet a lot of different people, and they always complain and ask for help. There are a Tatar women so many unhappy people, especially women, out there,’ Alya says of the people she meets on tells her story her rounds. ‘Someone’s in big debt, another’s person’s husband left her, a third suffers from domestic abuse.’ On a cold morning in late February, Alya wakes Alya says she gets tired of listening to such up early as usual to prepare a simple breakfast sad stories, because they remind her of her own. of porridge for her and her two-year-old boy, At the age of 18 she married Sunil, an Indian Shurik. Then she takes Shurik to her friend for medical student at Osh State University, and baby-sitting before heading to work. Originally soon had a daughter who became the centre of from Osh, a large city in south Kyrgyzstan, she is their lives. But three years into the marriage, now a street vendor selling cheap Chinese shoes her husband left the country and he stopped in Bishkek, the capital, which has a reputation communicating with her. In the wake of his as a more liberal and ethnically diverse place. departure, on top of her depression, Alya had An ethnic Tatar by origin, 30-year-old Alya has to endure the cultural pressure that comes a full day ahead: she must visit several state- along with being a single parent from the Tatar run hospitals where some of the doctors and minority deserted by a foreign husband. Kyrgyz patients are her customers. She will then have and Uzbek society in Osh frown upon divorcées, to spend the rest of the afternoon selling shoes widows, single mothers and women who marry at her stand, located in a small bazaar in one of foreign men: the common assumption is that a Bishkek’s suburbs. single woman, living on her own, would lead an ‘I really love my job, but it does not provide a immoral life. steady source of income,’ she says. ‘I wish I had With no steady income, Alya was forced to obtained a good quality education that would move in with her mother in a small conservative allow me to have a steady job to support my town near Osh populated mainly by ethnic family.’ Alya has finished secondary school, but Uzbeks. ‘It was one of the toughest periods of her family could not afford to put her through my life,’ Alya says. ‘My family members were college after the collapse of the Soviet Union. often treated like outcasts.’ Ethnic prejudice Unfortunately, her business has not been doing was a major hurdle as ethnic Tatars, who make well. ‘When the business is very slow, I go up a small minority in the town, have long around neighbourhoods and try to sell shoes suffered discrimination by local government on the street to passers-by. This strategy works and residents. So when an opportunity arose sometimes, but at times it leads to problems with to move to Bishkek and work for a company police.’ that operated a casino, Alya gladly accepted Many Tatar, Russian and Uyghur women work the offer. However, her life only got harder as street vendors because they lack connections in Bishkek. She had to work long hours at to the formal business or the public sector, which are mostly dominated by ethnic Kyrgyz men. Like the majority of Bishkek’s street vendors, Right: Inside a busy market bazaar in Bishkek, Alya operates her business without the formal Kyrgyzstan. Neil James Spicer

144 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 the casino while regularly fending off foreign But though this is not an unusual route customers who wanted sexual services from her. in Kyrgyzstan – as many as 500,000 Kyrgyz When a customer attempted to rape her in a citizens are already working in Russia as labour drunken stupor, ‘I knew that I had enough. I migrants – Alya recognizes that it is not the quit that job.’ ultimate solution to her troubles. Some of her But Alya refused to return to her mother’s Russian-speaking friends who have moved town. ‘I didn’t want to be treated like an outcast there in recent years had to struggle for years any more,’ she says. Instead, she began to until they managed to find stable jobs and work as a street vendor selling shoes. Alya now housing. Besides, they also confronted deep has two dreams: to give her children a good racial prejudice and increasing hostility among education, and to move to Russia to escape Russian citizens towards Central Asians, the stigma that she previously experienced in reflected in a rise in the levels of hate crime. her mother’s town. But she acknowledges the Like many other minority members in the chances of realizing these goals are slim. ‘I region, Alya is caught in a limbo between a struggle to make ends meet. The only solution home country that discriminates against her and for me is to leave for Russia and work there a new life in a country where her welcome is because the pay is better there.’ uncertain at best. ■

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 145 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 failure of authorities to provide sufficient State Migration Service of Turkmenistan stopped housing to accommodate the growing population issuing new passports to dual nationals. As a result of rural migrants, many of whom live in the it has become impossible for them to leave the city as squatters. In turn, many ethnic Uzbek country. In May 2014, Turkmenistan officially businessmen have been forced to emigrate from informed the Russian Foreign Ministry that it the country due to financial difficulties in the would terminate the Agreement on 18 May 2015. wake of the 2010 conflict. In June 2014, Amnesty International published an appeal urging the Turkmen authorities to Turkmenistan grant a retrial to Mansur Mingelov, a Baluchi Turkmenistan’s minority groups include the human rights activist who began a hunger Kazakh, Russian and Uzbek minorities, as well strike on 19 May to protest a sentence widely as the ethnic Baluch community, which CERD condemned as unfair. Mingelov had been arrested has drawn particular attention to as being in 2012 and convicted to 22 years in prison for at risk of forced assimilation. Human rights alleged drug and child pornography offences after organizations have also reported children from documenting evidence of police torture against ethnic minorities being denied the opportunity ethnic Baluch. Being in a critical condition, he to study in their own languages due to the steady reportedly ended his hunger strike on 8 June after closure of schools and reduced resources. Some a number of Turkmen officials visited him in the minorities also struggle to secure formal legal Seidi labour camp, and his treatment improved. recognition despite being based long-term in the The day the appeal was published, the president country, creating further difficulties for them issued a statement highlighting the importance when accessing public services and other rights. of upholding the rule of law and subjecting each In September 2014, a local human rights criminal accusation to a thorough review. organization reported on the plight of several Turkmenistan, a largely Sunni Muslim country, thousand ethnic Uzbeks, mainly in the eastern has long been intolerant towards its religious provinces, who for over 20 years had failed to minorities, including Protestants and Jehovah’s obtain passports and become full citizens of Witnesses as well as Shi’a Muslims. In 2014, their own country. Almost 10,000 people from the US State Department added Turkmenistan Dashoguz and Lebap provinces have reportedly to its list of ‘worst religious freedom violators’. requested citizenship without success. Many had Ethnic Turkmen converts to Protestantism and studied in Uzbekistan and graduated there after other Christian denominations are reportedly the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, during the even more likely to be exposed to harassment period when national passports were being issued from the state than those from minority ethnic in Turkmenistan. When they returned, their groups. Some have been arrested for their beliefs, Soviet passports were no longer considered valid. though in October eight prisoners of conscience The organization reported that their children jailed for exercising freedom of religion or and grandchildren had also not been able to belief were released from their incarceration in obtain Turkmen passports. Meanwhile, several a labour camp under presidential amnesty. Six women from Uzbekistan who had married men were conscientious objectors to military service, from Turkmenistan and moved to the country while the other two had been falsely convicted as had reportedly been deported, thus breaking up punishment for their beliefs. families. Those without internal passports have While access to information is in many ways reportedly been deprived of opportunities to find strictly controlled in Turkmenistan, Russian- official employment, leave the country or move speaking urban residents are able to watch news to the capital to earn money. channels broadcast from Russia via satellite Human rights activists have estimated that television. The government has reportedly about 100,000 Turkmenistan nationals of both appeared uncomfortable about coverage of Russian and Turkmen ethnicity also hold Russian the 2014 events in Ukraine, and in April it passports, under a 1993 bilateral Agreement on was reported that access to the broadcasts was Dual Citizenship. However, in autumn 2013 the affected by more interference, poor signals and

146 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Below: A woman from a small Roma community proportion of ethnic Tajiks, as well as native living in a poor district on the outskirts of Tajik speakers who may classify themselves as Bukhara, Uzbekistan. Panos/Tim Dirven ethnic Uzbeks, is much larger than the official figures suggest, particularly in and around the in some cases blackouts. Like other Central cities of Samarkand and Bukhara. Though the Asian countries, Turkmenistan had a large influx law provides for non-discrimination on the basis of Russians and other European ethnicities to of ethnicity and national origin, in practice key its urban areas during the Russian Empire and government and business positions are typically Soviet Union. Most remaining Russians and occupied by ethnic Uzbeks. Members of ethnic Ukrainians live in or near the capital, Ashgabat, minority groups, including larger groups such and other urban centres. While Russians and as Karakalpaks, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Tajiks, Tatars Ukrainians constituted the largest minority and Russians, appear under-represented in the group at the time of independence, their judiciary and the public administration. numbers decreased dramatically in the wake of As in other countries in the region, independence and more recently in 2003, when opportunities for ethnic minorities to study in Russians lost their dual citizenship rights. their native languages have diminished since the fall of the Soviet Union. In February 2014, Uzbekistan CERD expressed concern that insufficient With just under 30 million inhabitants, support was given to the promotion of minority Uzbekistan is Central Asia’s most populous languages, including the Tajik language, and at country. According to official figures, ethnic a decrease in the number of schools providing Uzbeks make up approximately 80 per cent education in minority languages. It also expressed of the country’s population. Russians, Tajiks concern that the authorities do not adequately and Kazakhs each make up a significant support education in minority languages at all proportion of the population, and other levels, including preschool education. At the minority groups include Karakalpaks, Kyrgyz same time, limited remedial Uzbek-language and Tatars. However, some claim that the instruction has meant that many non-native

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 147 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 speakers of Uzbek now face greater academic barriers due to their lower levels of proficiency. Uzbekistan, officially designated a Country of Southeast Particular Concern by the US State Department, continued to persecute and obstruct religious minorities during the year. Besides restrictive Asia registration requirements, prosecution and other forms of harassment, Uzbekistan’s state-sponsored Nicole Girard and Hanna Hindstrom print, online and broadcast media regularly attacks named individuals belonging to certain minority The majority of the population in Southeast Asia faiths, including Protestant Christians and still resides in rural areas, and this is largely true Jehovah’s Witnesses. The victims are not given for its minority and indigenous peoples as well. a right of reply and media staff avoid answering While underdevelopment, closed economies questions about the attacks. Allegations made in and war have slowed Southeast Asia’s urban 2014 include ‘making zombies out of children’, growth until recently, it is now one of the fastest improperly associating with young girls and drug urbanizing regions in the world. The economic dealing. Faith communities believe the purpose of surge as countries have opened up for investment these media attacks was to publicly discredit and and trade has driven significant migration intimidate them. among minorities and indigenous communities Like most of the other Central Asian countries, to urban areas, particularly as many are forced Uzbekistan’s cities have a markedly different to leave rural areas due to declining agricultural ethnic composition than rural areas. Tashkent, employment or are displaced from their land by the capital, has a large Russian and Ukrainian armed conflict or development projects such as population, though this has shrunk rapidly mining. Prospects of better livelihood options since the end of the Soviet Union. There has and access to services also lure indigenous and been large-scale migration from primarily minority communities to cities throughout Uzbek-speaking rural areas to the country’s Southeast Asia, but in many cases the benefits of cities, particularly Tashkent, since independence urban areas have not been equally shared. Many in 1991. However, rural to urban migration face systemic discrimination, inadequate housing remains problematic. The government has used in informal settlements and limited employment a carrot and stick approach to encourage the opportunities, often in informal industries where rural population to remain in the countryside their rights are largely unprotected. and discourage migration to cities, with some Minorities have been the targets of evictions experts suggesting this is because of a fear to make way for infrastructure and high-income of urban unemployment, and the need for housing developments, such as in Cambodia and a rural workforce. Although authorities in Thailand. Other urban minority populations Tashkent do not officially restrict the number have been openly discriminated against, such of temporary residents, administrative problems as religious minorities in Ho Chi Minh City, and prohibitive costs discourage most migrants Vietnam, or violently targeted like the Rohingya from registering. Consequently, many migrants in Sittwe, Burma. None of the states in Southeast face poor working conditions and low pay, with Asia have policies or programmes to specifically little bargaining power to improve their situation. assist minorities and indigenous peoples in urban Meanwhile, the cities of Samarkand and Bukhara areas, but given the increasing trend towards are largely Tajik-speaking, though as most of urbanization, their potential contribution the population of the cities is bilingual and no to diverse, flourishing cities must not be census has been conducted since 1989, the exact underestimated. proportions are not possible to judge. The status of Tajiks is considered precarious, in part due to Burma tensions between the leaderships of Uzbekistan Burma’s democratic transition appeared to stall and Tajikistan. in 2014, with deadly consequences for its ethnic

148 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 and religious minorities. The Burmese army impacts of conflict. escalated its offensive in northern Kachin state, There is growing concern that Burma’s rupturing trust in the ongoing peace negotiations reform process is backsliding as the country and culminating in the deadliest single attack prepares for its first general election in over half against ethnic minority rebels since the start of a century in 2015. A crucial sticking point is the conflict. Meanwhile, a tide of intolerance the undemocratic 2008 Constitution, which towards the country’s Muslim minority surged guarantees 25 per cent of parliamentary seats to as the government pushed for greater legal the military and deprives ethnic nationalities of restrictions on religious freedom. their right to self-determination. The president The Burmese government has struggled to may also hand over executive and judicial secure a nationwide ceasefire with a myriad powers to the military in the event of a national of armed ethnic groups fighting for greater ‘emergency’ – potentially legitimizing a coup. autonomy. Unfortunately, 2014 witnessed The government has also been reluctant to a return to hostilities in several parts of the discuss political grievances with armed ethnic country, including eastern and northern Burma. groups, fuelling scepticism about the future of More than 2,000 civilians were forced from the peace process. their homes in October following clashes near For decades the Burmese military regime the Salween River between the army, known imposed a policy of ‘Burmanization’ on ethnic locally as the Tatmadaw, and the Democratic minorities, an estimated 40 per cent of the Karen Benevolent Army (DKBA) – ending a population, which continues to be felt today. two-year period of relative calm in Karen state. For example Muslims and ethnic Chinese and A report by Karen Rivers Watch accused the Indian citizens struggle to obtain or renew their army of conducting a coordinated campaign to national identity cards, which are needed to gain control of territory near the Salween River, travel freely, attend government schools and where a controversial hydropower dam is being obtain jobs. Some report being overlooked for developed. The following month, the military scholarships or professional opportunities in shelled a rebel cadet training school near the urban centres such as Yangon, because they Kachin independence movement headquarters, are not Buddhist. Ethnic minorities are still killing 23 ethnic fighters and casting a heavy prevented from studying in their own languages, shadow over peace talks. The army later claimed although extracurricular classes have been made it was intended as a ‘warning’. In February available in some areas. In general, the lack of 2015, fresh conflict flared in northern Shan instruction in their native language has meant state between the army and ethnic Chinese that a disproportionate number of minority rebels known as the Kokang. children drop out of school due to language Multiple human rights violations were barriers. However, the government appeared reported in ethnic minority areas, where the to have relaxed these restrictions during the Tatmadaw enjoys broad impunity for its crimes. year with the announcement that instruction of In November, the Women’s League of Burma minority languages would be reintroduced to the (WLB) reported that it had documented 118 classroom. In April, the Mon state parliament cases of sexual violence and rape carried out authorized the teaching of Mon language among by Burmese soldiers since the former military primary school students – the first time a government ostensibly ceded power in the 2010 minority language has been taught in government election. In January 2015, two Kachin teachers schools for decades. were found brutally raped and murdered in Since the end of formal military rule, Burma northern Burma – shining a fresh spotlight on has witnessed the rise of a Buddhist nationalist wartime sexual violence in the country. The army movement, resulting in intermittent bouts of has reportedly since offered money to the families communal violence since 2012 – mostly targeting of the victims. WLB has called for more women the beleaguered Rohingya Muslim minority to be included in the peace process to boost in Arakan state. This violence has spread to a dialogue on sexual violence and other gendered number of Burma’s cities, resulting in religious

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 149 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Below: Women at Thin Taw Li refugee camp, large-scale communal violence, most Mandalay where more than 3,000 Rohingya refugees live in residents refused to participate and locals tried to a Muslim enclave. Panos/Nic Dunlop defuse the situation. Nonetheless, the riots had a crippling impact on the economic lives of the segregation and increased marginalization of non- city’s Muslims, many of whom run family shops Buddhists around the country. Over 140,000 and businesses. Muslims have been expelled from cities in Arakan Mandalay is home to the most prominent state, while thousands more are in isolated leader of Burma’s anti-Muslim movement, a ghetto-like camps outside Sittwe, Rakhine’s monk named Wirathu, who continues to call capital. A fraction of Sittwe’s Muslims – who on Buddhists to boycott Muslim businesses. until the violence comprised almost half of its Unfortunately the government has lent political population – remain in Aung Mingalar, now the support to his activities by tabling a set of divisive city’s only Muslim neighourhood, which they are ‘race protection’ laws to parliament, which seek not allowed to leave. Many shops and businesses to restrict inter-faith marriages and conversions to belonging to Rohingya Muslims in Sittwe have minority faiths. In January 2015, 180 women’s reportedly been destroyed or taken over by and minority rights organizations signed a Buddhists. statement urging the government to withdraw Burma’s Muslim population has also been the legislation. However, by March 2015 the bills targeted in Mandalay, Burma’s second largest on religious conversions and population control city, where an estimated 200,000 Muslims reside. were pushed through both houses of parliament. In July, violence erupted following allegations Other government policies have also been that a Buddhist woman had been raped by a cause for concern. In April, the government two Muslim teashop owners, leading to the reneged on a promise to allow minorities the deaths of two men and many more injured in right to self-identify in the country’s first apparent riots by Buddhist gangs. However, census in over 30 years. Instead, some 1 million unlike previous riots that have escalated into Rohingya were told to register as ‘Bengalis’,

150 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 indicating that they are illegal immigrants from In this context of rapid growth, the city’s Bangladesh, or be excluded. A government property development is being driven by scheme to grant citizenship to Rohingya Muslims wealthy land-owners who have links to the has similarly demanded that they accept the former Burman-dominated military regime and government’s designated ethnic term. In early is likely to involve unsustainable development 2015, some half a million Rohingya Muslims plans. Urban slums are already sprouting at were stripped of their temporary identification a disturbing pace as Rangoon’s impoverished cards and remaining voting rights, spelling workers are squeezed further from the city centre. disaster for the largely stateless community. The Rangoon authorities have come under fire Many analysts suspect the government wants for pushing through a large-scale development to capitalize on religious tensions ahead of plan that will consume thousands of acres of the 2015 poll – a tactic commonly used by farmlands west of the city. At least 40 per cent the former military regime. This view gained of Rangoon’s residents are either ‘poor or very support in November when the US government poor’, according to the UN, while a revised slapped fresh sanctions on former regime analysis by the World Bank suggests that urban hardliner and ruling party MP Aung Thaung poverty is much higher than previously thought for undermining recent economic and political – only four percentage points lower than in reforms in the country. He is widely suspected rural areas. If left unchecked, Burma’s current of supporting Burma’s anti-Muslim movement. urbanization trends could exacerbate existing Wirathu has publicly backed the military-aligned inequalities, including between majority Burmans Union Solidarity and Development Party in and ethnic minorities, unless broader issues of the upcoming elections and cautioned against discrimination are addressed. amending the Constitution to allow opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi to run. Indeed, Cambodia Buddhist nationalists appear to have growing The year 2014 saw the continuation of long influence over public policy. In December, drawn-out trials against top Khmer Rouge leaders opposition member Htin Lin Oo was charged at the UN-backed Extraordinary Chamber in the with ‘insulting’ religion for delivering a speech Courts of Cambodia (ECCC). Marred by reports condemning the misuse of Buddhism. Even of corruption and politicized proceedings, the his party, the National League for Democracy, rulings have come slowly. On 31 July, the second subsequently removed him from his position trial that is part of Case 002 began against Nuon as information officer for the party. In another Chea, known as ‘Brother Number Two’, and worrying case, New Zealander Philip Blackwood former head of state Khieu Samphan, charged was sentenced to two and half years in prison for with genocide and crimes against humanity for defamation of religion after using an image of the the mass execution of 20,000 ethnic Vietnamese Buddha in headphones to promote an event at and between 100,000 and 500,000 Cham his bar in Rangoon. Muslims, who were systematically targeted for Burma is one of the least urbanized countries murder, forced marriages and rape during the in Southeast Asia, with just over a third of the Khmer Rouge regime (1975–9). As the trial population based in cities. This is largely due proceeded, defence lawyers boycotted it and to the fact that Burma’s economy was crippled demanded that the judges be disqualified, a by decades of military misrule and international motion that was overruled: Nuon Chea’s defence sanctions. However, the rate of urbanization is team returned to court, but Khieu Samphan expected to increase substantially over the next instructed his lawyers to continue their boycott. few years, spurred on by the country’s reform By the end of the year the judges claimed they process and an influx of foreign investment. had no choice but to adjourn the case until 2015. In particular, Rangoon’s population of over 7 In regard to the first case that formed part of this million is expected to double by 2040, with second trial, a ruling was handed down in August many migrants from Burma’s rural and ethnic sentencing both men to life in prison for their minority populations likely to relocate. role in the forced evacuation of Phnom Penh and

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 151 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 other urban areas. society organizations released a statement noting Deeply entrenched discrimination against that the current impact assessment underestimates Vietnamese in Cambodia, both Vietnamese the ‘extensive and severe’ potential damage, nationals and ethnic Vietnamese long resident in including to fish stocks and livelihoods, with no the country, continued in 2014. In Phnom Penh, consultation or offer of compensation yet made to opposition party and garment factory protests affected communities. early in the year helped ignite anti-Vietnamese An indigenous Chong community of about sentiment, a traditional tactic of opposition 600 families continued to resist the efforts of groups and political parties in Cambodia. One Chinese Sino-hydro to build a dam on their Vietnamese-owned coffee shop was destroyed ancestral territory in Aveng Valley, one of the last in the protests. In February, a Vietnamese man remaining tracts of primeval forest in Southeast was beaten to death in February by a mob in Asia, situated in the Cardamoms Protected Phnom Penh after he crashed his motorcycle into Forest. While the project has been passed between the back of a car. Racist slurs were reportedly financial backers, with reports that the proposed shouted at the victim before he was killed. dam is not even feasible, the community claims Anti-Vietnamese protests continued, reignited it has not been consulted throughout the process. in June and July when a spokesperson from Villagers worry about the real intentions for the the Vietnamese embassy refuted that parts of land as in February the Cambodian minister for southern Vietnam, also known as Kampuchea mines approved a six-month exploration licence Krom, was under Cambodian control until it was in the area. The following month, over 150 acceded to Vietnam by the French in 1949. The villagers blocked company staff from attempting spokesperson was replaced in September, but in to conduct assessments of the area. October monks led protests and threatened to In July, local human rights organization Adhoc burn the Vietnamese embassy. reported that over 100 ‘ethnic minority activists’ Amid this atmosphere, the Interior Ministry protecting community forests had been detained, announced that it will conduct a census of jailed, intimidated and attacked in the first half of foreigners living in the country. Since then, the year. In January, protests by Kuoy indigenous reports of arrests and raids on businesses with villagers in Preah Vihear province against Chinese suspected Vietnamese workers have increased, and plantation firms resulted in several arrests, by the end of October 399 Vietnamese nationals including staff from the NGO Community Legal had been arrested and over 160 deported. The Education Centre, and forced others into hiding. census was distressing for ethnic Vietnamese, as On 9 August, a march for the International Day many lack identification papers, rendering them of the World’s Indigenous Peoples by 700 Bunong stateless and vulnerable to a host of human rights was blocked by police. abuses. In May the Cambodian government issued Indigenous people continued their struggle a new directive on economic land concessions for ancestral land rights, as large swathes of their (ELCs), calling for improved protections of territory continue to be seized and exploited for community forests and burial sites. While the commercial agriculture and energy projects. The directive was met with scepticism by indigenous UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human rights activists, measures such as these led the Rights Flavia Pansieri, who arrived in Cambodia World Bank to reinitiate loans to the country on an official visit at the end of April, noted that later in the year, which it had officially frozen in more effort must be made to issue communal 2011 due to the Boeung Kak Lake evictions. In land titles to protect these communities from November, the Phnom Penh Post reported that eviction. For example, a group of around 5,000 two preliminary proposals had been approved mostly indigenous people face resettlement to by the World Bank in Kampong Thom, despite accommodate the development of the north- the potential threat of indigenous communities eastern Lower Sesan dam project. Construction being evicted. Complaints against projects on the Chinese and Vietnamese-backed dam was funded by the World Bank had continued set to begin in January 2015. In October, 18 civil throughout 2014: in February, the World Bank

152 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 had agreed to investigate a complaint filed by 17 ancestors have lived in the country for indigenous groups regarding its being implicated generations, are largely urban and occupy low- in deforestation and land grabs. By May, the income settlements in the capital. Their lives are Vietnamese rubber company Hoang Anh Gia Lai insecure as a result of being barred from formal (HAGL), implicated in the case, had suspended citizenship, leaving them with limited access to parts of its operations amid investigations by the education, health care and other benefits normally Bank. associated with cities. Their lack of identity papers While many evictions in Cambodia relate to also prevents them from purchasing land or areas with large amounts of natural resources, housing, and as a result many live in waterways often in isolated rural locations, land rights and other marginal areas where they face fewer violations are also commonplace in Cambodia’s restrictions on residency, including Svay Pak urban areas. Though only a fifth of the population district on the outskirts of Phnom Penh. Without currently reside in towns and cities, urban growth viable alternatives, the sex industry helps support is rapid and continues to be shaped by the legacy these families, as ethnic Vietnamese women are of the Khmer Rouge era. Though major centres over-represented in it. In one study of urban such as Phnom Penh were largely emptied under slums in Phnom Penh from 2006, nearly half communist rule, they were gradually repopulated of Vietnamese families surveyed reportedly sold in the chaotic years following the fall of the a girl child for sex, often a one-time sale of an regime. Lost land records and vacant makeshift underaged girl’s virginity. The study also noted housing shaped Phnom Penh’s expansion, that being a minority Vietnamese in Cambodia allowing residents to set up where they chose is itself a contributing factor to entry into the sex but also laying the foundation, in recent years, trade, given the structural discrimination that for land grabbing and displacement. In this shapes their lives. context, minorities, indigenous peoples and other vulnerable groups have been especially vulnerable Indonesia to displacement due to existing patterns of The year 2014 was punctuated by the election discrimination against them. of President Joko Widodo, a youthful reformist While most of Cambodia’s Cham Muslims and popularly known as Jokowi, after a tense and indigenous peoples still reside in rural areas, they divisive poll in July. Jokowi’s win has been also comprise significant urban communities and celebrated as a victory for democratic reform face a regular threat of eviction. For instance, and religious pluralism in Indonesia after years Phnom Penh’s most publicized case of land of rising intolerance, raising hopes among the grabbing involved eviction of residents around country’s diverse indigenous populations and Boeung Kak Lake, following the government’s other minority groups. Jokowi campaigned reclassification and leasing of the area on a 99- under the national slogan ‘Unity in Diversity’, year commercial contract to private developers. promising to curb escalating religious and ethnic Among the thousands of people evicted were tensions in the Muslim-majority country. entire Muslim Cham neighbourhoods, with Indonesia has experienced a surge in religious families either offered minimal cash compensation intolerance under the 10-year rule of former or given homes in a relocation zone far outside President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, resulting the city, with little access to services or ability in frequent violence against its Ahmadi, Christian to make a living. As they were relocated away and Shi’a minorities. According to the Setara from Al-Serkal mosque, which had served as the Institute, attacks on religious minorities have community’s anchor for gatherings and religious skyrocketed since the government authorized services, their collective sense of community was two decrees restricting the right to worship also undermined. Following its demolition, the freely in 2006 and 2008. This trend continued mosque was replaced with the help of a large in 2014, with hardliners congregating in donation from the United Arab Emirates, yet the April in Bandung, West Java, to form the community itself no longer resides in the area. first ever ‘Anti-Shi’a Alliance’ calling for jihad The ethnic Vietnamese population, whose against the minority, viewed as ‘heretical’ by

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 153 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Below: Indonesian Christians hold candles is drafting a new law to protect religious freedom, during a Christmas mass prayer session at Gelora which will allow all religions to publicly practise Bung Karno stadium in Jakarta, December 2014 their faiths and construct houses of worship. REUTERS/Beawiharta. The new law is expected to replace previous discriminatory legislation, including Indonesia’s extremists. A Shi’a journalist covering the controversial blasphemy law. Over 100 individuals event was reportedly detained, interrogated and have been jailed over the past decade for perceived assaulted by participants. Youdhoyono has been religious offences under this draconian legislation. blamed for forging a political alliance with the Another crucial test for the new president is Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), which has the bitter conflict in resource-rich West Papua relentlessly promoted a narrow and xenophobic province, where ethnic Papuan rebels have fought interpretation of Islam. In January, the MUI for independence from Indonesia for decades. urged police in Yogyakarta, Java, to monitor, Unfortunately, there has been little apparent freeze and disband organizations run by Shi’a progress in achieving a sustainable peace in the Muslims. Ahmadis, who were branded ‘deviant’ region since Jokowi took power, and security by Indonesia’s top clerical body in 2008, also forces continue to perpetrate abuses against the face persistent social ostracism, harassment and indigenous population. In August, a prominent arbitrary closures of their places of worship. separatist activist went missing a day before a Activists have called on President Jokowi, who scheduled visit by then President Yudhoyono. was sworn into office in October, to take a tough His dismembered, bullet-ridden body was stance against extremist groups and their political discovered floating in a sack off the Papuan allies. To his credit, Jokowi has already defended a coast six days later. Foreign media remain largely number of minority politicians, including Christian shut out from West Papua, which requires a Susan Jasmine Zulkifli and Shi’a Jalaluddin special permit to enter. In August, two French Rakhmat, against public outrage over their religious journalists were arrested for reporting on the affiliations. The government has announced that it Papuan separatist movement on tourist visas.

154 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 They were sentenced to two months in prison lands. Jokowi has pledged to improve conditions and later deported. for Indonesia’s 70 million indigenous people, Dozens of peaceful activists were arrested in although his government has yet to implement West Papua in 2014 amid regular reports of the Court’s recommendations. A draft law on arbitrary killings, rapes and violence perpetrated the rights of indigenous peoples has stalled in by the Indonesian army. West Papua’s parliament, facing obstruction from Indonesia’s independence movement is increasingly urban controversial Forestry Ministry, which is and educated, applying non-violent means to currently being investigated by the Corruption further their cause, with a growing number of Eradication Commission (KPK). Jokowi has since youths using social media to campaign against merged the Environment and Forestry ministries the Indonesian occupation. In December, four in an effort to improve sustainable practices, high school students were killed when the although environmental campaigners worry that military and police opened fire on a crowd of this will dilute conservation policies. protesters in the eastern province. Jokowi was Indonesia has one of the highest deforestation roundly criticized for his inefficient response to rates in the entire world, with a new study the incident. This follows anger over his decision suggesting that 840,000 hectares of primary to appoint former military strongman Ryamizard forest were felled in 2012 – twice as much as Ryacudu – notorious for his derisive attitude the historic global leader Brazil. This process has towards human rights defenders in West Papua been accelerated by endemic corruption at the and Aceh provinces – as the new Minister of Forestry Ministry. In March, the former governor Defence. of Indonesia’s Riau province was sentenced to 14 Indonesia’s controversial transmigration years in prison for issuing illegal logging permits programme – an initiative moving people from in central Sumatra, which has already been densely populated to less populated parts of the devastated by the spread of palm oil and paper archipelago to counter rapid urbanization in Java plantations. The former minister of forestry was – has fuelled anger and ethnic friction in West questioned in a separate investigation. Papua. Six decades after this programme was first Rapid deforestation and land confiscations introduced by the Dutch colonial administration, have hastened the speed of urbanization among ethnic Papuans now number less than 50 per indigenous communities in Indonesia. For cent of the population. The programme has led example, Dayaks – a constellation of non- to increased marginalization of the indigenous Muslim peoples in Borneo – are increasingly population. According to the Institute for Policy migrating to bigger cities in search of better Studies, indigenous urban youth in West Papua employment opportunities. Though the are twice as likely as migrants to have little Indonesian government signed an agreement or no formal schooling. Disparities in human with UN-Habitat during the year committing to development between the migrant-dominated the promotion of sustainable urbanization, the urban areas and indigenous-majority interior are government has not made specific plans on how even more pronounced. Indonesia’s myriad minorities and indigenous In May 2014, Indonesia’s Human Rights peoples will be incorporated into this process. Commission (Komnas HAM) launched its In Jakarta, Indonesia’s capital, rapid urban first national inquiry into land rights abuses growth has disproportionately affected certain committed against Indonesia’s indigenous ethnic groups. In particular, indigenous Betawi population. Over 2,000 communities have asked have been historically marginalized by the for investigations, according to the Indigenous government’s urban development projects. As Peoples’ Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN). Jakarta rapidly expanded into a sprawling mega- Activists have called on Jokowi to publicly city, it engulfed Betawi farming villages on its apologize to the country’s indigenous peoples. periphery, turning them into isolated urban This comes one year after a Constitutional settlements. Thousands of Betawis have since Court ruling that invalidated the state’s claim been dislocated from their homes to make way to millions of hectares of customary indigenous for large-scale private or commercial enterprises,

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 155 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 often forced into slum dwellings as land prices survivors who had fled from coastal regions and soar. Their culture and identity has come further urban centres to Aceh’s conflict-torn interior under threat because of an influx of economic and missed out on disaster relief. Banda Aceh migrants to the booming capital. Many Betawis had already been shielded from the worst of the have had to abandon their traditional livelihoods, fighting, even briefly emerging as a democratic such as dairy cows, agriculture or batik space for the educated urban elite to resist production, and minority youths have struggled the Indonesian occupation after the fall of to find work, giving rise to ethnic-based urban Suharto. Five years after the tsunami, all traces gangs and criminal networks. In recent years the of the disaster had been removed from Banda government has employed various strategies to Aceh, while many rural areas lay neglected and promote Betawi culture in Jakarta. For example, abandoned. when Jokowi was governor of Jakarta, he toyed with the idea of using Betawi architecture to Malaysia boost tourism to the city. Another marginalized Malaysia continued to restrict religious freedoms minority in Jakarta is Indonesia’s ethnic Chinese, in 2014, further marginalizing and alienating its who faced acute persecution under military rule non-Sunni Muslim population. Prime Minister and continue to be segregated from other ethnic Najib Razak has been accused of exploiting groups by the legacy of racism and violence religious tensions and pandering to Islamist since an outburst of anti-Chinese riots in 1998. hardliners after suffering major electoral losses However, this year saw the election of an ethnic in the 2013 election. In November, he formally Chinese Christian to the role of governor of abandoned a pledge to revoke a draconian Jakarta. colonial-era Sedition Law that has frequently The Acehnese ethnic minority are known for been used to silence his political opponents, their devout adherence to Islam and their long instead vowing to strengthen its provisions. resistance to external rule. However, the strict The Muslim-majority country has witnessed interpretation of Sunni Islam in Aceh province a surge in blasphemy allegations targeting the has led to at least 20 churches having been closed country’s sizeable Christian minority. Malaysian in the province and 14 minority Islamic sects law imposes a maximum three-year jail having been formally banned, fuelling insecurity sentence for individuals found to have ‘insulted’ among religious minorities. Women in particular religion or published text or imagery deemed have become increasingly marginalized in Aceh, offensive to public ‘morality’. This legislation since it was devastated by the Indian Ocean is disproportionately used to clamp down tsunami in 2004. Men have largely determined on religious minorities. In January, religious the recovery efforts, as well as the terms of the authorities seized hundreds of bibles from a peace deal that ended Aceh’s long-running Christian group because they used the Arabic struggle for self-determination and was reached word ‘Allah’ to refer to God – a practice that was as a direct consequence of the tsunami. The formally banned in 2013. In May, the country peace deal included the application of Sharia was placed on the US government’s Tier-2 law, which has led to an erosion of women’s ‘watch list’ of countries where religious freedoms rights and freedoms in urban spaces. Research are under threat. suggests that these religious gender constraints are Malaysia’s restrictive laws have entrenched more harshly felt in urban areas than rural areas, discrimination against certain Muslim sects, such with women’s dress and behaviour more closely as Shi’a, Ahmadis and Al-Arqam, who are banned monitored – strictures that are felt especially by from spreading their faiths. The Department non-Muslim women. of Islamic Development (JAKIM), under the Aceh’s cities also received a disproportionate Prime Minister’s Office, has broad authority amount of humanitarian aid in the aftermath of to determine what constitutes ‘un-Islamic’ or the 2004 tsunami, aggravating an urban–rural ‘immoral’ behaviour and to penalize individuals divide in socio-economic development. This deemed to be in breach. The body regularly policy had a significant impact on thousands of monitors, harasses and prosecutes members of

156 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 minority Muslim sects for alleged crimes against by the National Human Rights Commission Islam. In March, over a hundred Shi’a, including following a historic inquiry into land rights a four-month-old child, were detained by abuses against indigenous peoples in 2013. authorities for attending a religious ceremony. Instead, he established a separate task force to At the start of the year, the government consider steps moving forward, which has been unveiled plans to establish a Sharia police unit criticized as an effort to dilute the inquiry’s within JAKIM to help enforce Islamic law. provisions. In March, Malaysia rejected a It comes amid growing concern that Sharia suggestion made by Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, courts in Malaysia are seen to favour the Sunni the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of population, especially men. In one notable case, a indigenous peoples, to evaluate its treatment of Hindu woman whose Muslim husband abducted Orang Ulu, comprising 27 indigenous groups on their daughter is facing an uphill battle to regain the island of Sarawak. Orang Ulu, also known as custody of her child because a Sharia court ruled Dayaks, face growing threats to their traditional against her on the basis of her faith. Followers lands from the rapid spread of logging, palm oil of the outlawed Ahmadi faith are fighting back companies and large-scale hydropower dams. against a crackdown on their activities, arguing Many thousands of Orang Ulu have been forcibly that they should not be subjected to interference displaced over the past few years to make way for by religious authorities since they have been a series of controversial mega-dams in Borneo, classified as ‘non-Muslims’ by the government. forming the Sarawak Corridor for Renewable In August, a group of 39 Ahmadis were granted Energy (SCORE). leave by the High Court to pursue a judicial Controversy has centred on Sarawak’s former review application of their arrests. According to Chief Minister, Taib Mahmud, who is the the human rights monitoring group SUARAM, subject of an ongoing investigation by Malaysia’s dozens of indigenous Christians were also Anti-Corruption Commission. Taib stepped tricked into converting to Islam in January, after down in February after 33 years in office, being promised money in exchange for signing although indigenous activists fear he is still cards and reading ‘foreign words’. According to involved behind the scenes. His replacement, SUARAM, responsibility for the case was handed Adenan Satem – Taib’s former brother-in-law by the police to the Sabah State Islamic Affairs and close political ally – has pledged to push Department, which reportedly had presided over ahead with the SCORE project, despite local the ceremony. opposition. In August, a new report by SAVE In this context, Malaysia’s burgeoning Rivers accused the government of threatening intolerance has fuelled the proliferation of and coercing the indigenous populations in hate speech and religious extremism across the Baram, Sarawak, where resistance has flared country, where radical clerics are permitted against the next proposed dam site. The report to preach freely in mosques and through raises fresh concerns about the role of money social media. Indeed the government has a politics in Sarawak. track record of tolerating religious extremism Malaysia has one of the highest levels of among its political support base, while cracking urbanization in Southeast Asia, with around down on dissidents using the controversial three-quarters of its population now residing Sedition Law. In response to this increasingly in cities. In Sarawak, a growing number of oppressive environment, in December a group indigenous youths are migrating to urban centres of civil servants wrote an open letter urging in search of work and educational opportunities. the government to take swift steps to promote This process has largely been driven by Malaysia’s religious harmony and understanding in rapid rate of deforestation, which has eroded the Malaysia. traditional livelihoods and lands of indigenous Issues affecting indigenous communities forest dwellers. Nearly 70 per cent of the continue to be sidelined by the Malaysian highland Kelabit tribe in Sarawak has migrated government. Prime Minister Najib Razak has to urban areas and, according to a 2013 survey, yet to implement the recommendations made the population of Baram dropped from 80,000

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 157 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 open-pit garbage dump in her backyard.‘It Case study by Hanna Hindstrom was however a blessing because after some weeks, we noticed that the open pit was not smelly anymore, and the neighbours stopped Supporting complaining of its stench,’ she says. She then explained to the landlady how vermiculture indigenous works and helped her plant onions, eggplants and cabbage in her back garden using compost. livelihoods in Cacho is now working with the Cordillera Women’s Education and Research Centre Baguio city (CWEARC) to promote vermiculture practices in Baguio. CWEARC is supporting over 100 indigenous women to establish urban vegetable Four years ago, a typhoon struck the northern gardens with the help of recycled waste. The idea Filipino city of Baguio. The storm ruptured is to simultaneously boost the socio-economic the walls of the city’s mounting garbage dump, status of indigenous women while combatting sending hundreds of tonnes of urban waste Baguio’s burgeoning waste problem. The women cascading into the streets. The landslide flattened are all migrants from rural areas who often several houses and killed two young children. struggle to earn their living as street vendors or The tragedy was a wake-up call for Geraldine backyard hog raisers. By working as a collective, Cacho, an Igorot woman and rural farmer who the women harness another indigenous concept, first migrated to Baguio to pursue university known as ubbo or mutually beneficial labour. studies. ‘Why would garbage become a killer? According to the UN, indigenous migrants Why would it become an issue?’ she asked herself make up 60 per cent of the city’s population at the time. and more than half of them live in poverty. Many Igorot migrants are accustomed to the Indigenous women are particularly marginalized practice of ayyew – known as sayang in Filipino and are usually excluded from discussions – an indigenous concept of recycling and reusing about urban planning in Baguio. But now they all forms of waste. For example, biodegradable have a stronger voice in the community. ‘The waste would be transformed into fertilizers using project increased the capacity of indigenous vermiculture, while plastic bottles and old clothes women on project management, leadership, may be recycled into household containers or rugs. economic empowerment, and strengthened As residents dump some 300 tonnes of garbage their organization,’ says Lucille Lumas-i from every day, recycling not only offers a source of CWEARC. livelihood to Baguio’s indigenous population but Even the government has responded also provides the city with an effective form of positively to the project. ‘In communities waste management. ‘Using ayyew as a culture of where practitioners were located, there is a managing waste would lessen garbage and help decrease in the volume of waste being hauled solve the city’s huge garbage problem,’ she says. by the city government,’ added Lumas-i. ‘At ‘As an activist organizer, I knew there has to be the community level, Barangay [ward] officials a way. A mass movement is needed to help solve are very supportive of the project and some the problem, if not eliminate it.’ have adopted the concept in their community After attending a training programme waste management programme.’ Cacho now organized by the NGO Tebtebba, Cacho set has a blooming urban garden, studded with up a vermibed in her kitchen. At first she faced ginger, corn, squash and sweet potatoes. resistance from her landlady, who described the It reminds her of her family’s farm in the compost worms as ‘unsanitary’. She confiscated countryside. ‘The growth was very visible,’ Cacho’s worms and discarded them in a smelly she says, ‘like magic.’ ■

158 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 to 20,000 in a decade. Activists have warned that overwhelmingly Catholic country. The resource- the proliferation of new dams will exacerbate this rich Mindanao province has been engulfed by trend. Hunter-gatherer tribes such as the Penan conflict since the 1970s, amid religious tensions are particularly vulnerable during resettlement and grievances over perceived exploitation by the as they often lack the occupational skills suited central government. to life outside the forest. This has contributed The Philippine Congress is currently to the urbanization of poverty among Sarawak’s considering a new law, known as the Bangsamoro indigenous population, who already form a Basic Law, which would formalize the terms of significant percentage of squatters in cities such the peace agreement, including mechanisms for as Miri. However, the Sarawak government natural resource revenue-sharing and political maintains that new hydropower dams will boost devolution. However, indigenous peoples in rural development and discourage Orang Ulu Mindanao, known collectively as Lumads, have from migrating to cities. expressed concerns about the future of their A large proportion of indigenous peoples from ancestral domains. Some fear the new legislation Peninsular Malaysia, known collectively as the could aggravate land conflicts and erode the Orang Asli, live below the poverty line. Despite rights of indigenous peoples in the southern being protected by Malaysia’s controversial Philippines. There are some 100,000 Lumads Bumiputera laws – which favour the ethnic Malay in the proposed Bangsamoro region, and they and indigenous populations for government jobs consider almost 300,000 hectares of land to be and university opportunities, while entrenching their ancestral domains. Although two Lumads discrimination against Malaysia’s Chinese are included in the commission drafting the and Indian minorities – Orang Asli still face Basic Law, it is unclear how these concerns will discrimination in most aspects of their lives be addressed. Other non-Muslim communities and consistently rank lowest on health and have resisted inclusion in the new Bangsamoro education indicators. According to a recent region, including the Christian-majority city of study, demographic changes and urbanization Zamboanga, which came under siege by armed has worsened the risk of diabetes, hypertension groups in 2013. and obesity among the Orang Asli. This may be A patchwork of other separatist groups, such caused by the rising cost of food in urban areas. as the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) Indigenous activists blamed the government for and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, failing to help indigenous communities adapt to opposed the peace deal and continued to city life. Some Orang Asli report feeling out of launch deadly attacks on the civilian population place in urban areas due to educational and socio- throughout the year, targeting the region’s economic disparities and language barriers. Christian minority in a number of towns and cities. The peace talks have similarly excluded the Philippines MNLF’s founder, Nur Misuari, an influential During 2014 the Philippines made significant figure who led the siege on Zamboanga in 2013. progress towards concluding a 45-year Muslim Mindanao is also haunted by a continuing minority struggle for self-determination that communist insurgency against the government, has claimed over 120,000 lives. In March, the and Lumads often get caught in the middle. Philippine government finalized a historic peace The Philippines also remains one of the deal with the largest Muslim armed group, the world’s deadliest places for human rights Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), paving activists and indigenous community leaders. the way for the creation of an autonomous Many killings have been linked to the military Mindanao region – also known as Bangsamoro – or pro-government militias operating near by 2016. Notably, it was the first time anywhere resource development projects. In March that such a document was signed by a woman as alone, nine people were murdered, including chief negotiator. The Muslim minority, making William Bugatti, a prominent Tuwali activist up roughly 5 per cent of the population, is one of who was gunned down by unknown assailants the poorest and most marginalized groups in the on his way home from work. The Philippine

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 159 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Below: A child mesmerized by people dancing levels of education than the men, are especially and playing the Igorot ‘ganza’ (music and vulnerable to trafficking or exploitative dance with gongs) at the Igorot Park in domestic labour schemes. Baguio City, Philippines during the protest Natural disasters are another major source of against violence against women headed by displacement in the typhoon-prone Philippines. the One Billion Rising women’s group. Indigenous communities were left isolated after Richard Balonglong Typhoon Haiyan hit the southern Philippines in November 2013. According to the NGO army had reportedly identified him as a ‘target Tebtebba, some 1,600 indigenous families are person’ and communist sympathizer in a leaked struggling to survive after losing their homes, military document from 2012. In August, infrastructure and boats used to gather vital three indigenous rights activists were murdered supplies for the community. Indigenous groups within one week, two of whom were involved have been made more vulnerable due to their in disputes with a local palm oil and mining geographical isolation, far away from major company. The Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact urban centres where support services are typically described the ongoing violence against indigenous located. Research suggests that the rapid rate of communities as a ‘systematic attack’ intended urbanization in the Philippines has also made to ‘stifle their opposition and struggle to defend poor and marginalized groups, such as minority their ancestral lands’. and indigenous communities, more susceptible Militarization and clan-based violence are to natural disasters and flooding as they cannot key factors driving rural–urban migration in afford to buy or rent housing in safer places. the southern Philippines, where the influx However, indigenous customs and knowledge of displaced households has placed a heavy have also been recognized as a tool to tackle the burden on the host communities. According effects of climate change in the Philippines. For to UN-Habitat, it has led to increased example, a regional UNESCO-led project has competition for jobs as well as shortages in studied indigenous cultural practices to help housing, health and sanitation in urban areas. policy makers devise better disaster preparedness Young Muslim women, who tend to have lower strategies in coastal areas. The study identified a

160 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 number of traditions that were used to accurately Thailand predict disasters, such as typhoons or tsunamis, Thailand’s fragile democracy suffered a serious and later integrated with scientific approaches. blow during 2014 when its military seized power The study found that indigenous communities from the democratically elected Pheu Thai have developed various ways to strengthen their government on 22 May. The military swiftly houses and store food ahead of disasters, offering established its ruling National Council for useful lessons in strengthening local resilience. Peace and Order (NCPO), led by coup leader Around 35,000 people, mostly from the General Prayuth Chan-ocha, stifling all dissent country’s Muslim minority, remain uprooted by imposing martial law, taking control of the following the siege of Zamboanga in 2013. media and repealing the 2007 Constitution. Thousands have since been subjected to arbitrary By late July, the NCPO had pushed its own relocation, with others reportedly receiving interim Constitution into force. As the year inadequate aid and food supplies. According to drew to a close, Prayuth’s regime had overseen the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre the widespread suppression of dissent and a (IDMC), most of the people who remain crackdown on journalists, political opponents displaced are urban poor who lack formal land- and activists – with a number of policies directly ownership or tenancy rights in their area of affecting Thailand’s minorities and indigenous origin. The repatriation process has been further peoples. hindered by concerns about certain areas deemed Shortly after seizing power the NCPO set unsuitable for returns due to risks of flooding about instituting a series of reforms, including a or renewed violence. The IDMC has called on ‘Return Forest Policy’ in June and a reforestation the government to prioritize housing rights for ‘Master Plan’ two months later, with the goal of displaced communities as part of the resettlement increasing forest cover throughout the country. process. Congress is currently reviewing new Since many of Thailand’s indigenous territories legislation on the rights of IDPs, seen as a crucial are in protected forests, these policies carried step towards protecting vulnerable minorities and the threat of judicial action for the communities indigenous people in the Philippines. The law is living there. In July, three indigenous Pakayaw a revised version of a historic 2013 bill that was Karen families had their lands reclaimed by the controversially vetoed by the president. Royal Forest Department in Thung Pa Ka village, The Philippines is a rapidly urbanizing northern Mae Hong Song province. The move country, with around half of the population followed the arrest of 39 Pakayaw Karen in May now living in cities. Although most indigenous for cutting down trees in the surrounding forest communities, which make up roughly 15 per as timber to build their homes: they now face cent of the population, live in isolated rural imprisonment or fines after they were sentenced areas, a growing number are migrating to cities for encroachment and illegal logging in October. in search of better livelihoods and social services. More land confiscation and evictions continued, Many are driven from their traditional lands many in Isan, the north-eastern Lao-speaking by the expansion of large-scale development region that has faced discrimination from the Thai projects, militarization and tribal conflicts. They administration in Bangkok since its incorporation often face poverty and exclusion as a result of into the modern state of Thailand. Indeed, by their limited formal education and the fact December Prachatai news had reported that that their skills may not be suited to an urban nearly 1,800 families had been affected by the context. In the northern city of Baguio – where order, mostly in the north and north-east, home indigenous people make up over 60 per cent of to large minority and indigenous populations. A the population – it is estimated that some 65 per newly proposed Mining Bill – shot down during cent of indigenous migrants suffer from extreme the previous government – was also revived and poverty. Many of them are migrant women will soon be up for approval by the National working as vendors in the city streets, where they Legislative Assembly, causing concern for are regularly pestered by police as part of the minority communities in mineral-rich areas as the government’s anti-peddling drive. new bill has weakened impact assessments.

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 161 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Conflict between officials and local Malaysia to restart peace talks with the Barisan communities over land and natural resources Revolusi Nasional Melayu Patani (BRN) after has led to the death or disappearance of negotiations stalled in 2013, amid promises numerous activists in recent years. One of the that the south would be free of violence by the most high-profile cases occurred during 2014 end of 2015. Nevertheless, conflict continued when a leading Karen land rights activist, in the region throughout the year, bringing the Porlajee Rakchongcharoen, also known as death toll to more than 6,000 people since 2004, Billy, was reportedly last seen with the chief of with regular killings and bombings, including Kaengkrachan National Park and three park increasing attacks against ‘soft’ targets like officials when he was detained for carrying ‘illegal hospitals. Both the Thai military and separatists honey’ on 17 April. Kaengkrachan Park is the have been responsible for serious human rights largest of Thailand’s national parks and home violations; no members of the security forces to Billy’s indigenous S’gaw Karen community. have been successfully prosecuted, which has led Billy was one of the key witnesses in a lawsuit to a climate of impunity. The separatists have against park officials for burning and looting the particularly targeted teachers and schools; after homes of more than 20 families. The park chief, the killing of three teachers since the beginning Chaiwat Limlikhitaksorn, had already been under of 2014, HRW noted in March that at least 171 investigation for the killing of another Karen teachers had been killed and 300 schools had activist in 2011. He claimed to have released been attacked. In response to ongoing violence, in Billy after his arrest. In July, the provincial November the military bolstered its programme court cleared Chaiwat of involvement in Billy’s of arming civilian ‘volunteers’ with military disappearance, but by December a representative weapons, despite reports emerging two months from the National Human Rights Commission earlier of one such volunteer killing an unarmed (NHRC) publicly stated that their investigation 14-year-old Muslim boy in August, then planting into the case has found that Billy was never a gun in his hand to frame him as an insurgent. released by the officers. Security forces in general have been responsible A community of indigenous Moken ‘sea for numerous human rights abuses in the region: gypsies’ have also been struggling to resist eviction three-quarters of the 134 torture allegations from their ancestral territory, occupying highly reported to the NHRC between 2007 and 2013 prized lands in Phuket whose title deeds are occurred in the south. owned by several businessmen. A lower court The NCPO announced that it had made a ordered the eviction of over 100 people, but deal with neighbouring Burma to repatriate over the Department of Special Investigations has 130,000 refugees who have settled along the found that these lands have been occupied by border over decades of fighting. Most are minority the community for at least 100 years through communities who have reason to doubt guarantees DNA analysis of burial grounds, though they of their safe return. The same applies to the 1,300 lacked any formal title deeds. In November it was Rohingya asylum seekers – an ethno-religious reported that the Justice Ministry had asked the community that is among the most persecuted Department of Lands to revoke the title deeds. on earth – deported back to Burma in February, The year 2014 marked the ten-year anniversary having fled the country due to targeted violence of both the Tak Bai massacre, where at least and mass displacement. This followed shortly after 78 Muslim protesters were killed after being a raid by Thai security forces on illegal ‘human pushed into overcrowded police trucks, and smuggling camps’ located over 500 Rohingya the disappearance of Muslim human rights who had reportedly been held hostage en route lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit. Both were key to other countries. Other migrant groups are also events in the timeline of the Thai state’s conflict vulnerable to deportation, with rumours of a with the separatist movement in the ethnic planned crackdown by the military government on Malay dominated provinces in the south of the Cambodian migrants triggering an exodus of more country: in neither case has justice been served. than 120,000 Cambodians in June. Nevertheless, in December, Prayuth travelled to Many migrants and ethnic minorities in search

162 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 of employment have relocated to urban areas, particularly Bangkok, where Thailand’s economic Case study by Nicole Girard and political activity is mostly concentrated. This has contributed to enduring underdevelopment and a lack of economic opportunity in cities Promoting a more elsewhere in the country, including the Muslim south and the north-east Isan region, despite inclusive tourism periodic attempts to encourage more investment in smaller urban areas, such as the Isan cities of industry for Khon Kaen and Korat. While the capital has been a beacon of opportunity for people all over the Chiang Mai’s hill country, the largest numbers of incomers are Isan, spurred by poor crop fertility, flooding, drought tribes and population pressures. Thailand’s economic boom in the 1970s was largely sustained by the Isan labour force, who still comprise a significant ‘I’m studying Chinese so that I can be a guide proportion of the urban working poor today, for Chinese tourists,’ explains Nahnenuhn, a transiting between Bangkok and their homes. 20-year-old indigenous Karen from Thailand, Remittances form a significant part of Isan ‘I think it’s a good future for me to help family incomes. It has been suggested that this support my family.’ Nahnehuhn comes from experience of urban life in Bangkok has not a small village near Mae Saring and moved only helped create a sense of distinct Isan ethno- to Chiang Mai to study. Like everyone else regional identity but also bolstered their political in the city, she has seen a dramatic rise in the engagement; they form a significant cohort of the number of Chinese tourists to Chiang Mai, modern Red Shirt movement. and the potential economic opportunities this Because of evictions, drought and resettlement has presented for its residents, including the out of natural parks into villages with little land indigenous hill tribes from remote villages. to farm, many of Thailand’s indigenous peoples Chiang Mai is the largest city in are driven to migrate to cities such as Mae Sot, northern Thailand, nestled in the mountain Chiang Mai and Bangkok. Many Karen youth ranges of the Thai highlands, a long-time engage in daily agricultural labour or factory tourist destination for both domestic and work in smaller cities like Ratchaburi, with international tourism. Since the 1960s, Thais some migrating to Bangkok more permanently. have ventured to the so-called ‘Rose of the However, for the more than 100,000 indigenous North’ to experience its cooler climate and people who lack formal Thai citizenship – the indigenous cultures. Trekking and visits to result of complicated and discriminatory hill tribe villages have been cornerstones of registration procedures – movement outside Thailand’s tourist promotion in the north, their areas of residency is illegal. Without legal displaying posters of colourfully dressed status, they are denied access to education and Akha women in the airports of Bangkok and end up concentrated in informal and low-wage featuring them in its 2015 ‘Discover Thailand’ labour in urban or peri-urban areas. A significant marketing campaign. Visitors to the north are proportion of Thailand’s northern indigenous increasing among both Thais and foreigners, women, for example, enter domestic labour or the with the number of tourists from China alone sex trade, mostly in urban areas. Many migrant exceeding 4 million in 2014. So what does workers from surrounding countries, many of this mean for Thailand’s indigenous peoples? whom are minorities in their home countries, When Chiang Mai’s tourism boom first similarly lack legal status, despite ongoing began, the self-sufficiency of Thailand’s government efforts to implement migrant northern indigenous peoples had already worker registration. This makes migration to and been eroded through a series of government residency in cities extremely precarious, and leaves

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 163 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 policies, including the creation of national would receive the majority of the fees, split with protected parks, a ban on traditional swidden guesthouses and tourist agents in the city that sold agriculture and the prohibition of opium the tour packages. production. Supplementary income, through By the early 1990s though, villages were work in the city or village homestays for tourists, starting to tire of this situation. ‘Fees given was therefore a necessity. Though the government for accommodation, food and to guides were had started to issue some national identity cards much lower than ours’, says Thellie, an eco-tour to indigenous residents, many communities coordinator from the Mirror Foundation, an NGO were and still are essentially stateless, with little based in the neighbouring city of Chiang Rai. access to health and education opportunities. Consequently, the opportunities presented ‘There was little interaction with villagers by through tourism, including construction work in guests, and little or no explanation of culture the city on tourism infrastructure, were one of few and traditions. This manifested in ignorance and viable livelihoods options. Many indigenous men insensitive practices by guests, because they were and women also entered the sex trade, a form of uninformed, and the feeling of a zoo-like experience exploitation fuelled by tourism. for both guests and villagers.’ Trekking and homestay tours began to pick up in the 1980s. At this time, indigenous The Mirror Foundation was formed in 1991 communities such as Hmong, Lisu, Akha and and is run by Thais, including indigenous staff, Lahu began to sell their handicrafts and cultural with the aim of running a variety of projects to wares in the Chiang Mai night bazaar or perform support indigenous communities across northern traditional dances at the Chiang Mai Old Thailand, including anti-trafficking campaigns, Cultural Centre. A select number of people from citizenship initiatives, scholarship programmes these groups were moving to the city for these and handicraft livelihoods, among others. Only opportunities due to economic insecurity in their later did they include ecotourism as one of their villages, a need that – together with their lack projects, however. Thellie explains: of Thai language skills – left them vulnerable to exploitation by Thai tourist guides. Homestays ‘Once our other projects were established, there was in villages were initiated by Thai guides, who a realization that the villagers were being exploited

164 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 by unscrupulous tour agents, so the [ecotourism] them vulnerable to traffickers and exploitative project developed as a response to this, but also working conditions. to give employment opportunities to villagers, as However, some minorities have fared well in guides, and homestay families’ . urban areas and successfully resisted attempts to evict or displace their communities. The Unlike many outfits, the Mirror Foundation settlement of the Cham Muslim community places an emphasis on participation. ‘The in the canalside area of Ban Krua, for instance, project was done in coordination with dates back at least 200 years and is an exceptional villagers, and a training programme set up for example of old Bangkok, with wooden stilt those interested in becoming tour guides.’ By houses and fruit trees in the midst of malls and allowing indigenous peoples to play a major highway overpasses. Its continuing strength is role in staffing and decision making, the no accident, however. Starting in the 1980s, organization aims to build their capacity and Bangkok’s transport division was keen to build achieve a broader transformation of the local an expressway through their neighbourhood, tourism industry: with the intention of demolishing houses, evicting residents and destroying their mosque ‘All our guides are from local indigenous groups and cemetery. Residents successfully defied the and licensed by the Tourism Authority of Thailand project with a cohesive campaign of resistance (TAT), and encouraged to work for themselves or and advocacy that has been attributed to the other agents, as well as the Mirror Foundation community’s relative autonomy and the strong – this helps to spread the ethos of our work out Islamic identity tied to the land, empowering into the tour agency community, which hopefully the community to oppose aggressive city realizes that it is more beneficial to them long term planning. While plans for an expressway on-ramp if the villagers are treated fairly, and not exploited.’ were abandoned in 2001, successive attempts continued in 2012, with Ban Krua again uniting The revenue they receive from their ecotours against the urban administration’s plans. goes back into the Mirror Foundation projects, with the goal of being self-sustaining. Vietnam When asked how tourism has affected the Vietnam made international news headlines in villages, Thellie replies: May 2014 after rare large-scale protests broke out across the country against China, sparked by the ‘I think that it is safe to say that tourism has movement of an oil rig into disputed territory in altered the lives of villagers. Not just for those the South China Sea. Initially the Communist communities where tourists visit, but for the government did not attempt to quash the communities where the youth leave to find protests, but it appealed for calm after mobs work, or spouses, within the wide range of areas began to attack perceived Chinese nationals and in the tourism industry. Tourism, along with Chinese-owned factories. Hundreds of factories exposure to the wider society, has the power were attacked in the central provinces and there to improve lives, motivate individuals, and were reports that more than 20 people had been give opportunities which were not previously killed. Over 600 Chinese nationals reportedly fled available; but each also brings with it the ability the country fearing further violence. to destroy, de-motivate and deny opportunities, if In February, Vietnam underwent its second not handled properly.’ ■ Universal Periodic Review, accepting 182 out of 227 recommendations, including those concerning freedom of religion or belief as well Left: A woman from a local hill tribe as non-discrimination for minorities, but rejected prepares food for an ecotourist home stay. key recommendations that would overhaul the Mirror Foundation state of human rights in the country. In addition, after a delay of 21 years, Vietnam submitted its State Report for the UN Committee on

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 165 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The traditional practices. The lawyer of Hoang Van exile Vietnam Committee for Human Rights Sang said that he had been charged for building a condemned the State Report as ‘empty rhetoric’ funeral home to accommodate the new practices, and highlighted the country’s continuing human but also mentioned that the community’s refusal rights violations against much of its population, to accept grain seed and other state development particularly religious and ethnic minorities. initiatives has angered the government. This point was reiterated in July when the UN Arbitrary sentencing and imprisonment on Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or bogus charges is a common tactic to repress those belief, Heiner Bielefeldt, made an official visit to defending the rights of minorities and indigenous the country. Concluding his visit, he expressed peoples, with imprisoned religious freedom concern about serious restrictions on religious defenders often subjected to serious mistreatment, groups and made note of how the government’s including beatings and harassment, while in jail. process of official registration, ostensibly to In August, three human rights defenders were enable people to practise their beliefs freely, ‘is no sentenced to prison in August for ‘causing public guarantee that freedom of religion or belief is fully disorder’ for traffic violations in Dong Thap respected’. province. Bui Thi Minh Hang, Nguyen Thi Thuy A number of incidents during the year also Quynh and Nguyen Van Minh, an independent underlined the ongoing challenges religious Hoa Hao Buddhist, were arrested in February minorities face in practising their faith. On after 21 bloggers and Hoa Hao Buddhist activists 1 January, the head of the Buddhist Youth rode motorbikes to the home of a former political Movement (BYM), Le Cong Cau, was placed prisoner, Nguyen Bac Truyen, and his fiancée, Bui under house arrest in the north central province Thi Kim Phuong, also an independent Hoa Hao of Hue as he attempted to visit the leader of the Buddhist practitioner. Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam (UBCV) A new land law passed in late 2013 came into in Ho Chi Minh City. The UBCV is a banned effect during the year. It will put more conditions religious organization in Vietnam, but authorities and restrictions on how the government reclaims tolerate the related BYM organization for their land for development purposes, in contrast to the social support activities. However, his arrest previous provisions that facilitated indigenous and triggered a series of raids against BYM members, minority land alienation. The law still allows for with 23 people reportedly arrested in Hue in land acquisition for development projects that are subsequent weeks. A Memorial Day service on in the interest of ‘the public and the nation’, but 10 January in Hue was stopped by authorities they must be approved by the prime minister and and over 300 UBCV invitees were intercepted the National Assembly. or threatened. After being expelled from Hue, Land rights remained a serious source of a prominent UBCV monk Thich Chon Tam insecurity during the year, particularly for was also assaulted by plainclothes police in Ho minorities. In the village of Con Dau, near Da Chi Minh on 14 January. The crackdown is Nang city in central Vietnam, the government thought to have come on the heels of UBCV’s expropriated land from Catholic community announcement of a new executive committee. members to give to a resort investor. The UN In March, three Hmong Christians were Special Rapporteur on housing Raquel Rolnik sentenced to prison terms in the north-eastern called it ‘a clear case of land grabbing for the province of Tuyen Quang under Article 258 of benefit of private entrepreneurs and at the expense Vietnam’s penal code, a broad provision used to of local communities’. In October, the Thai prosecute those who ‘infringe upon the interests Ha Redemptorist Church in Dong Da district, of the State’. Hoang Van Sang, Ly Van Dinh and Hanoi, protested the filling of a lake that the Duang Van Tu are part of a group of Hmong church insists belongs to the parish, citing their Christians who advocate for reformed burial increasing membership as the motivation for and wedding practices, said to be less costly and authorities to confiscate their land. less burdensome on families. The government is The majority of Vietnam’s indigenous peoples reportedly forcing the reformists to return to their still reside in rural areas, where poverty levels are

166 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 higher than for their majority Kinh counterparts. Armed conflicts in India and Pakistan in regions According to 2009 government census data, with large minority and indigenous populations only 13 per cent of ‘ethnic minorities’ live in led to mass displacement, while also exacerbating cities, as compared to 32 per cent of ethnic the vulnerability of some communities to targeted Kinh. One contributing factor to the significant attacks. In Sri Lanka, five years after the official developmental gaps between minority and end of the conflict, ethnic and religious tensions majority communities in Vietnam is the broader remain due to the government’s continued failure inequality between cities and the countryside, to provide justice to the families of victims killed with poverty rates two and a half times higher or disappeared during the decades-long conflict. in rural areas. Ethnic minorities are therefore Similarly, Nepal’s post-conflict transition has more likely to be adversely affected by the limited been slow amid concerns that security forces development and lack of opportunities outside responsible for the deaths or disappearance of urban areas. However, Vietnam’s ethnic disparities thousands of Dalits and Madhesis during the far exceed these differences. Over extended civil war will escape punishment. Land grabbing periods, ethnic minorities have fared much more by other communities and state-sponsored poorly than their majority counterparts. In fact, development programmes in customary territories urban poverty levels among ethnic minorities also continue to affect minority and indigenous remain higher than rural poverty levels among populations across the region. majority Kinh. The only positive trend is that Though largely rural, South Asian countries poverty levels among minorities in cities are have been undergoing a profound transformation markedly lower and have continued to fall over in recent years due to urbanization, with cities time, suggesting that further urbanization could across the region expanding at an extraordinary improve outcomes if the process is well managed. pace. This has created significant problems as However, migration among ethnic minorities lack of infrastructure and limited land has led to is less common than among majority Kihn and the growth of slums and informal settlements, tends to be from rural to rural areas, many as often on the periphery of cities. In this context, part of government relocation or sedentarization minority and indigenous urban populations are programmes from previous decades. Nevertheless, especially vulnerable to communal violence, an increasing number of younger minority evictions and exploitative or unsanitary community members are now migrating to the employment, such as manual scavenging. In city, mostly in search of work as labour scouts addition, many communities, such as Pakistan’s have recently advertised heavily in rural areas Shi’a, are increasingly being targeted in urban with large minority populations to engage factory areas. Ensuring the rights and security of these workers, domestic maids and other areas. Lack of groups is an essential element for the long-term opportunity in rural areas is driving urbanization, sustainability and development of the region’s and minorities are disproportionately vulnerable urban areas. to food insecurity, price fluctuations, drought and other natural disasters. Afghanistan In 2014, Afghanistan’s presidential election consumed the country. Marred by allegations of fraud, the months-long electoral process South eventually resulted in a power-sharing agreement between the two leading candidates, Abdullah Abdullah and Ashraf Ghani, who became Asia president. Amid this political uncertainty, civilian casualties reached record levels in 2014. Shikha Dilawri and Nicole Girard Nevertheless, at the end of 2014 NATO formally declared an end to its 13-year combat mission in Minorities and indigenous peoples continued to Afghanistan. This has provoked uncertainty over face persecution across South Asia during 2014. what the end of this phase of foreign intervention

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 167 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 will mean for Afghans, not least for the country’s including the reported abduction of eight Hazara minority populations such as the Hazara, who – in March 2015 on a road between Jaghori as both a sectarian and visible ethnic minority – District and Ghazni City. Also in March 2015, have been targeted by the Taliban. a rare attack was perpetrated on a minority Sufi Tensions surrounding issues of ‘identity’ mosque, viewed as heretical by hardline Sunni in Afghanistan came to the fore during the groups, killing at least six people. Allegations that election, which saw the politicization of identity these recent sectarian attacks may be connected along predominantly ethnic lines. Although to ISIS have stoked fear among many Afghans, Ghani has avoided using his tribal name for and in particular members of the country’s official purposes since his election, during the minority groups. campaign his identity was mobilized in efforts Persistent discrimination against Afghanistan’s to appeal to Afghanistan’s majority Pashtun Hindus and Sikhs also compelled hundreds of voters. Meanwhile, Ghani’s first vice president, members of these dwindling religious groups former Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, to leave Afghanistan during the year, including warned minority Uzbek and Turkmen tribes 35 Sikhs who arrived in the UK in a shipping in Baghlan province they would be considered container in August 2014. While no longer ‘traitors’ if they did not vote for Ghani. However, forced to wear yellow arm-bands to identify the election also provided an opportunity for themselves, as was required under Taliban minorities to challenge Afghanistan’s hierarchical control, members of the Sikh community have political system, with Hazaras playing a reported worsening conditions since 2001. For particularly prominent role in the election – a example, Sikhs continue to suffer verbal and reflection of their improved status over the last physical abuse during funeral cremations – a decade. Although the Hazara vote was split, the practice forbidden in Islam – and, while the majority of voters lent their support to Abdullah Ministry of Education has opened two primary Abdullah – who is of mixed Pashtun and Tajik schools exclusively for Hindu and Sikh students ethnicity but is identified with the latter – and in Kabul and Jalalabad, those not separated who represented a vote for change in the eyes of into designated schools continue to suffer many. Following the parliamentary rejection of a discrimination in the country’s public schools. presidential decree proposing a reserved seat for Local women’s rights organizations have aptly Hindus and Sikhs in December 2013, political pointed out that – to differing extents – all representation of these groups remained limited sides of conflict in Afghanistan have had a role in 2014. However, in a historic appointment, in undermining women’s rights. Nevertheless, in May 2014 the previous Afghan government as Oxfam highlighted in a 2014 report, any selected a representative from the dwindling future peace talks with the Taliban must not Hindu community for the diplomatic rank of undermine those important, if limited, gains ambassador for the first time. that have been made with respect to women’s Although violence along ethnic lines has rights in recent years. As reported by Amnesty greatly reduced since the 2001 toppling of the International in early 2015, women human rights Taliban government, violent attacks continue defenders continue to suffer threats, harassment to be perpetrated against certain groups, and intimidation on a daily basis. Although particularly Hazara. In July 2014, for instance, Ghani nominated three women to join his Taliban stopped a bus travelling to Kabul for cabinet – one more than his predecessor Karzai, Eid, separated Hazara passengers and shot them, but one less than initially promised – high levels killing 15, including three women and a child. of discrimination persist in the country, which More recently, in late February 2015, masked itself puts women appointed in such positions at gunmen kidnapped 31 Hazara men travelling risk. Gender-based discrimination and growing through Zabul province on a major road from religious intolerance intersected in what was Herat to Kabul. Following this kidnapping, described by the newly elected president as a the country has seen a rise in similar attacks heinous attack in March 2015, when a mob on travellers on Afghanistan’s main highways, killed a young woman after she allegedly burned

168 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 a copy of the Qur’an. the development of Hazarajat, which requires In light of persistent insecurity, as well as labour and materials from Kabul to build other factors such as environmental disasters facilities such as schools and clinics. Both these and limited economic and social opportunities, factors have contributed to the high numbers of many minorities have been determined to leave Hazara currently residing in Kabul, with many their homes for more stable environs. Yet, with concentrated in one overcrowded area, Dasht- countries such as Pakistan and Iran taking an e-Barchi. Although life in Kabul has relatively increasingly exclusionary stance towards Afghan improved for Hazara since 2001, they have refugees in 2014, many relocated within the continued to occupy lower-status jobs and have country itself. From January to September the faced harsh discrimination, including in access to UNHCR documented an increase of more facilities and provision of services. than 38,340 internally displaced (IDPs) in Meanwhile, for Kabul’s tiny Sikh population Afghanistan, bringing the total to over 755,011. conditions continue to worsen, their small The majority of these IDPs, as well as Afghan population dwindling to an estimated 300 refugees returning from neighbouring countries, families. Socially ostracized, Sikhs living in Kabul have chosen urban areas as their destinations, reportedly face economic hardship, with many in turn greatly contributing to Afghanistan’s refusing to conduct business with them, but rapid urbanization in recent years. This largely also due to land grabs in areas in which Sikhs unchecked and unplanned growth has meant that have historically resided. In addition to daily the majority of residents in and around Kabul are economic and social discrimination – sometimes based in informal settlements or slums. Kabul is manifesting as physical and verbal abuse – now the fifth fastest growing city in the world. freedom to practise their religion has also been Minorities have been among the many Afghans curtailed. Kabul was once home to eight Sikh contributing to this process of urbanization places of worship or gurdwaras, but only one which has, in certain ways, changed the face remains today. of the country. Although, broadly speaking, Members of Afghanistan’s Kuchi minority – Afghanistan’s ethnic groups continue to occupy a diverse nomadic community representing a geographically distinct regions, with Pashtuns in variety of tribal and ethno-political affiliations southern and eastern areas, Tajiks occupying the – who have more recently adopted a sedentary north-west and north-east, Turkmen and Uzbeks lifestyle on the periphery of major cities have in the north, and Hazara living predominantly in similarly faced discrimination. Urban Kuchis the centre, the movement of diverse populations have typically lacked access to ‘serviced’ areas of to urban areas has complicated this picture. the city and have instead lived on the outskirts, In slums in and around Kabul, Pashtuns as often occupying infertile land or, as has been well as minorities such as Hazara, Tajiks and the case near Kandahar, permanently residing in Uzbeks from across the country live among one refugee camps. These shabby living conditions another. Yet while this diversity has encouraged have not only disadvantaged those living in such cooperation and coexistence in certain locales, settlements, but have also fuelled increasingly structures of exclusion and discrimination have widespread negative perceptions of Kuchis, also been reproduced in urban areas. further undermining their social status within For Hazara, the journey to Kabul from Afghanistan. Hazarajat in the centre of the country has proven dangerous. The main roadway between the two Bangladesh areas – dubbed ‘Death Road’ – has been the The year in Bangladesh began with national site of kidnappings and other deadly Taliban elections on 5 January. Tensions in both the attacks on Hazara in recent years. As a result, build-up to and aftermath of the elections, having successfully arrived in Kabul, Hazara described by HRW as ‘the most violent in the have often been unable or afraid to return to country’s history’, led to widespread attacks their previous homes. This violence on the main against minorities, particularly Hindus, who roadway has further isolated and thereby stalled have regularly been targeted for their traditional

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 169 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 support of the secular ruling Awami League. by certain groups to seize land from minorities These elections were especially tense, as the and indigenous peoples. Indigenous peoples opposition coalition led by the Bangladesh of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), known Nationalist Party (BNP) boycotted the vote and collectively as Jumma or Pahari peoples, have attempted to prevent others from voting. Polling seen much of their lands settled by majority stations were attacked and minorities particularly Muslim Bengalis, causing continued outbreaks targeted, with hundreds of Hindu homes, shops of violence between communities, despite a 1997 and temples burned and ransacked, especially in Peace Accord securing their land rights. In June, northern and south-western districts. Christians over 250 Chakma and Tripuri people reportedly were targeted as well. abandoned their homes and fled to the Indian Both the Awami League and police blamed the border at Tripura after clashes with Bengali BNP, their coalition partner Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) settlers. In December, around 50 indigenous and their supporters for the violence, though the people in Rangamati district had their homes BNP itself denied any involvement. The Chair razed by Bengali settlers in apparent retribution of the National Human Rights Commission for the destruction of the latter’s pineapple and also accused the government of failing in its teak saplings. While the Peace Accord called for responsibility to prevent attacks on Hindus. the demilitarization of the CHT, the area remains Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said measures highly militarized. State security forces have been would be taken to see justice in these cases, while accused of conducting attacks against Jumma the prime minister’s law affairs officer said that communities, not intervening in incidents of special tribunals would be set up to prosecute communal violence and facilitating the influx of offenders under the Terrorism Prevention Muslim settlers. Act. An independent judicial commission was Despite implementing legislation such as formed in 2009 to investigate election violence the Land Commission Act of 2001, no cases towards minorities in 2001, but none of its of land disputes have yet been solved by the recommendations have since been implemented. commission and land encroachment continues. The ruling Awami League came to power in Follow-up legislation has been drafted under the 2009 on a platform that included war crimes CHT Land Disputes Resolution Commission tribunals for atrocities committed during the Act (Amendment) but, though approved by 1971 War of Independence, including those the cabinet in June 2013, it had yet to be connected with violence, mass killings and implemented at the end of 2014. The Peace conversions of Hindus and other minorities. Accord was further eroded during the year The trials have been highly politicized, further when bills passed on 23 November changed polarizing a society already divided between the composition of district councils in three support for the BNP and Awami League, with indigenous areas – Rangamati, Khagrachari and many JI leaders convicted for their alleged Bandarban – from five to eleven members, with involvement in the abuses. The trials have been three non-indigenous unelected members. The criticized for falling far short of international Accord stipulates that the council members must fair trial standards. In 2014, JI leaders continued be elected, but the government has instead hand- to be tried for genocide and crimes against picked the council members. Indigenous civil humanity: in December A.T.M. Azharul Islam, society groups demonstrated in Dhaka against the assistant secretary general of JI, was sentenced to bills, calling for their immediate withdrawal. death on 30 December for the killing of 1,400 Sexual violence against indigenous women Hindus near Jharuarbeel on 17 April 1971. in the CHT has been endemic in recent JI organized nationwide protests in response, years, perpetrated by state security forces and, though these were on a much smaller scale than increasingly, by Bengali settlers. Rapes and the demonstrations organized in 2013 against the murders of indigenous women and girls have court rulings, when numerous Hindu temples and been used to terrorize the whole community, homes were attacked. helping to clear the land for more settlers. This This unstable climate has also been exploited trend continued during the year, with 15 cases

170 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 of violence against indigenous women in CHT urban slum dwellers. Many live in what are reported between January and April 2014 alone, called ‘sweeper colonies’ as most Dalits here are including eight incidents of rape and two murders traditionally employed as manual scavengers after rape. The perpetrators of these abuses are or waste collectors. Discriminated against seldom, if ever, prosecuted. throughout society, it is difficult to find more Bangladesh continued its attempts to squeeze skilled employment for the educated few, as out its Rohingya refugees and asylum seekers. their housing address on their CVs quickly Between 200,000 and 500,000 Rohingyas, a reveals who they are. Whole colonies have faced persecuted Burmese ethno-religious minority multiple evictions over the course of decades, who are considered to be Bangladeshi by Burmese moving between abandoned hospitals and authorities, are currently living in Bangladesh factories after being displaced by ‘rehabilitation’ in squalid conditions in camps or informal or urban beautification. An anti-discrimination settlements in urban areas. In February, the law has long been advocated for in Bangladesh, Bangladeshi government announced a ‘new but stalled again in parliament this year. Though strategy’ to address the situation of Rohingya, but there is a paucity of data available on their neglected to make any details public. In March, situation, in May 2014 a seminar organized plans were released to document, temporarily by Dalit activists highlighted the water and house and then repatriate all Rohingya. In sanitation crisis facing their communities – a September, after discussions with Burma over the huge health risk given the city’s vulnerability to formation of a joint committee for repatriation, it flooding, exacerbated by climate change. Dhaka’s was announced that over 2,000 Rohingya would poorest communities are typically located in the be repatriated. In November, the government most flood-prone areas of the capital, including revealed plans to move 30,000 officially Dalit settlements such as the Agargaon Sweeper documented refugees to an undisclosed location, Colony, where residents live in a series of causing further concern among Rohingyas in the cramped shelters built on stilts to protect them country. from the floodwater. Bangladesh’s Bihari minority – Urdu-speaking Muslims who migrated from Bihar and West India Bengal during India’s partition – have long been National parliamentary elections in 2014 saw discriminated against for their perceived alliance the victory of Narendra Modi and the Hindu with Pakistan during the independence war. nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Many lack formal citizenship and are therefore May. Modi has been criticized for his role in stateless. Today, about 300,000 Biharis live in 70 the 2002 Gujarat anti-Muslim riots, when he shanty towns that were initially temporary relief was chief minister of the state, and is accused of camps. The largest settlement, ‘Geneva Camp’, complicity in failing to halt the killings. Although has 25,000 residents: it is estimated that only 5 an investigation backed by the Supreme Court per cent have formal education. As ownership of found no prosecutable evidence against him, the settlements is uncertain and land prices have his close associates faced charges. His candidacy risen sharply, these areas have become increasingly was supported by Rashtriya Swayamsevak attractive for investors. Many apparent incidents Sangh (RSS), a right-wing Hindu organization of communal violence against Biharis are that has continued to support a campaign intended to displace them from their land. On of forced conversion against the Muslim 14 June, for instance, a Bengali mob attacked a population. Though Modi has generally avoided Bihari settlement on the outskirts of Dhaka after discriminatory language himself since taking an altercation broke out between communities, office, he has been criticized by activists for failing resulting in 10 deaths and widespread damage to condemn the group’s activities. The election from arson. A local leader alleged that the attack was widely interpreted as a blow for minorities, was motivated by the desire of local politicians to particularly Muslims, who received the lowest evict the community. number of seats in India’s parliament, the Lok Dalits, too, comprise many of Bangladesh’s Sabha, in 50 years.

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 171 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Even before the election, however, the Anti- parliamentarian winning the seat for Kokrajhar, Communal Violence bill passed by the cabinet in headquarters of the Bodoland Territorial Council, late 2013 – a groundbreaking piece of legislation an indigenous self-government body. that would have detailed reparations for victims Similarly, Adivasi villages in Assam were also of communal attacks and held politicians attacked later in the year, reportedly by Bodo accountable for violent outbreaks – was dropped separatists. Adivasis is the term used by the in parliament following strong opposition from government to denote indigenous groups from a number of parties, including the BJP, which central India, in this case largely tea-plantation accused Congress of pandering to Muslim voters workers, many of whom are descendants of ahead of the election. As 2014 marked the migrants brought to Assam in the 1850s. In thirty-year anniversary of the Golden Temple December at least 80 Adivasis were killed and massacre and the subsequent anti-Sikh riots that another 250 reported missing in a series of killed thousands, with no high-ranking officials prosecuted for their role in the violence, the bill would have been an important step for the families of victims in their search for justice. Isolated pre-election violence occurred in the north-west state of Jammu and Kashmir, where an armed separatist struggle has been waged for decades by Muslim Kashmiris. In Kashmir, three people, including two village council chiefs, were killed in Pulwana District in mid-April, with separatists warning against voting in the elections and calling for their boycott. State assembly elections for Jammu and Kashmir were also held in November and December, again marking a spike in violence as shoot-outs in border camps killed both soldiers and gunmen. Despite more threats of violence and calls to boycott, the process was relatively peaceful and voter turnout was around 70 per cent. The Assam state of north-eastern India was also affected by pre-election violence as a result of ongoing tensions between Muslims and indigenous communities – caused by land disputes and Muslim in-migration into indigenous territories. In early May, over 30 Muslims were killed in multiple attacks on villages ahead of the national elections. The government blamed the Songbijit faction of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB-S) for the attacks, an armed separatist organization of the Bodo indigenous people, though the NDFB-S denied responsibility and accused the government of attempting to stoke communal tensions. Muslims in the area are assumed by many, including Modi, to be illegal migrants from Bangladesh, despite many being descendants of Muslims who moved to the area before partition. The elections resulted in the first ever non-Bodo

172 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 attacks, again attributed to the NDFB-S faction, Below: Dalit girls in Kadi Town in the Mehsana resulting in the displacement of tens of thousands district of Gujarat. Navsarjan Trust of Adivasis escaping the violence. Several Bodos were reportedly killed in retaliatory killings. is locked in a decades-long conflict rooted in land Within a few days, the government announced rights and political self-determination. Violence ‘Operation All-out’, with as many as 9,000 troops in Manipur continued in 2014 with the murder deployed in the province in an effort to eradicate of indigenous district councillor Ngalangzar NDFB-S fighters. Malue by unidentified assailants on 12 July in In Manipur, in north-east India, minority Ukhrul. Following his death, hundreds of military and indigenous groups including Kuki, Meitei personnel were deployed and limits on freedom and Naga face human rights abuses by both of assembly imposed. On 16 July, the new government forces and armed groups. The region BJP government restarted peace talks with the

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 173 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Isak-Muivah faction of the Nationalist Socialist Bihar, often cited as India’s most lawless province, Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM), even though where the population is overwhelmingly rural the Manipur government blamed NSCN-IM for and often located in remote areas. Some activists the assassination of Malue. Public rallies held in believe that the appointment of Jitan Ram August in Ukhrul district, calling for a resolution Manjhi, a Dalit, as Bihar’s chief minister in May of negotiations, ended in the deaths of two sharpened tensions as Manjhi’s calls for greater protesters when police fired on the crowd. rights for the Dalit community were resented by The discrimination experienced by north- upper-caste members. Manjhi resigned from his easterners in their home regions is also replicated post in February 2015 just before he was to face a when they move to large Indian cities such as vote of confidence in the state assembly, claiming Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore for education his decision was intended to avert violence after or employment. Due to their distinct features he and his supporters allegedly received death and cultural practices, minority and indigenous threats. migrants from the north-east often face verbal Though the majority of Dalits still reside in abuse and even violence. This was highlighted rural areas, with just over 20 per cent based in in January when Nido Tania, an indigenous urban areas, cities are often seen as a positive force university student from Arunachal Pradesh, in reducing caste divisions. While Dalits still face died shortly after being beaten by a group of violence and discrimination in cities, strict social shopkeepers in Delhi who had reportedly shouted hierarchies are harder to enforce and violence racist slurs and insulted Tania’s hairstyle. Four generally is not as pervasive and brutal. Severe adults were charged with his death, while minors inequalities persist, however, with Dalits making were also detained. The police investigation up a large proportion of those engaged in the recommended that charges be filed under the urban informal labour sector as domestic workers, Scheduled Castes and Tribes Prevention of rickshaw-pullers, street vendors and other poorly Atrocities Act, 1989 (SC/ST Act), a key piece of paid sectors. While many choose to migrate legislation intended to prevent violence against voluntarily for employment, many also end up Dalits and indigenous peoples. In September this in urban areas as a result of forcible displacement recommendation was declined by the trial court or evictions – issues which affect marginalized after it concluded that the racist element was not minorities disproportionately and continue to proven, though Nido’s father, a member of the drive migration to urban areas. Of the 60 million legislative assembly, is seeking to overturn this or more people displaced by development projects ruling. In the wake of this killing, the Bezbaruah since independence in 1947, 40 per cent are Committee was formed to investigate remedial Adivasis and another 40 per cent are Dalits or measures, and made a series of recommendations other rural poor. including criminalizing discrimination targeting The challenges are especially acute for Dalit north-easterners. By the start of 2015, the women, who are further exploited due to caste- government had decided to add to its hate speech gender prescriptions. Manual scavenging, for provision in Section 153 of the penal code to instance – the practice of removing human waste address their concerns. – is often ‘reserved’ for Dalit women, particularly Violence against Dalits is also widespread in rural areas but frequently in urban centres and continued throughout 2014, driven by as well, including by local government and the persistent effects of India’s caste system and municipal corporations who pay menial wages for the lack of justice for victims. One of the most this degrading and unsanitary task. This is despite shocking incidents occurred in October in Bihar, the Supreme Court reaffirming in March 2014 when a Dalit boy was beaten and burned to that the practice was prohibited. In some cases, death for letting his goat graze on the grass of certain Dalit castes are expected to do the job and an upper-caste landholder. The landholder was may be pressured or intimidated if they attempt subsequently taken into police custody. Though to access alternative livelihoods. Nevertheless, attacks on Dalits are common throughout the urban areas can also offer women from excluded country, the situation is particularly difficult in castes the opportunity to improve their lives.

174 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 The garment manufacturing industry in Tamil Nadu, for example, has attracted Dalit women Case study by Rajiv Shah into cities like Tirupur and Coimbatore through the Sumangali Scheme. Set up in the early 2000s, the scheme targets young women and girls, 60 Discrimination per cent of whom are Dalits. Girls migrate on the promise of decent wages and a bonus after their against Dalit contracts are finished, hopeful to escape poverty and discrimination in the villages – though many women in unfortunately end up in situations of exploitation and bonded labour. Ahmedabad While India is visibly struggling with general urban poverty and the growth of informal settlements, minorities experience these challenges In Ahmedabad, located in the heart of more acutely. One in every five urban slum Gujarat state, Dalits have been an important dwellers is Dalit, compared to only one in ten but often invisible presence for generations, for urban India generally, and urban Dalits working as scavengers and waste-clearers continue to report discrimination in access within the strict confines of India’s caste to housing and employment. Rapid urban system. Concentrated on the periphery of expansion and urban beautification programmes the city, frequently segregated from other for international events or upmarket housing communities, many had also migrated have led to the destruction of many urban slums, to the city in search of work in emerging including marginalized minority settlements. industries such as Ahmedabad’s textile Expanding urban areas can even swallow former mills. Nevertheless, though strong caste and rural settlements, with little regard for their communal barriers remained in place, Dalit existing residents. In Maharashtra in 2012, for settlements existed alongside upper-caste instance, the Malegaon municipality attempted and Muslim neighbourhoods in the city to requisition outlying Dalit and Adivasi villages centre and the nearby industrial townships. for a slum relocation project, claiming that their However, over the last few decades a number existing land certificates were no longer valid of violent incidents, including anti-Dalit under the city’s jurisdiction. 25 houses were riots in 1981 and communal violence in demolished without warning, though a sustained 2002, have reinforced divisions. This case campaign managed to save 75 Dalit and Adivasi study, drawing on interviews conducted in homes in the adjacent village. December 2014 with a number of activists Though lower-caste groups are especially and community members based in the city, vulnerable to land grabbing, many communities highlights some of the key challenges facing have also successfully resisted attempts by local Dalit women today. authorities and companies to forcibly displace According to Madhuben Koradiya, a Dalit them. During 2014 the Dalit Ekta Camp in New women’s rights activist with the Ahmedebad- Delhi, a slum community of 4,000 Dalits and based NGO Navsarjan Trust who was Muslims, faced the threat of demolition due to interviewed for this case study, the closure claims of encroachment on protected green space, of many of the city’s mills in the 1980s despite residents having lived there for decades. and early 1990s also precipitated a crisis Critics argued that the real motivation was local for Dalit women. In previous years Dalit politics rather than environmental protection, women had been making some small gains, as in May the local member of the legislative with some even managing to secure low-level assembly had written to local authorities to government employment, but this tentative request demolition of the slum: he stood to progress halted with the collapse of the textile profit from evicting 900 voters who supported industry: the opposition Aam Aadmi Party candidate in

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 175 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 ‘[It] led to large-scale joblessness among men, the 2002 communal violence. Preeti Vaghela, following which Dalit women were forced to do another activist based with the Navsarjan any job they could lay their hands on, even as Trust, described how prior to the riots Dalit construction workers, in order to help the family. A and Muslim families lived side by side in some huge oversupply of labour in the job market meant parts of the city. However, in the aftermath, less wages…. Women have nowhere to go, except to the interaction between women from different work as daily wagers or home-based workers.’ communities came to an abrupt halt:

As a result, their livelihood options deteriorated: ‘[Until 2002] women interacted with each other. However, following the riots, Dalits have fled many ‘Things have further worsened over the last 10 to of these areas, and got scattered to different places. 15 years. Dalit women are doing such jobs which The social fabric which women had built around I could not even imagine when I was young. They themselves, even among Dalits, has broken apart.’ are ready to work as guinea pigs for pharmaceutical companies, which use them to experiment with the Ramilaben Babubhai Parmar, a researcher who reaction to medicines of the human body. They are was involved with Navsarjan Trust in a survey ready to become surrogate mothers for money.’ of the city’s sanitary workers, reports that among Valmiki – probably the most marginalized Following the outbreak of communal violence of all the Dalit sub-castes – most women across Gujarat in 2002, the situation for Dalit work as sanitary workers, whether it is for the women worsened. Though Muslims were exposed municipality or housing societies. to the worst of the violence, the ‘next biggest casualty’ were Dalits: ‘In housing societies, they are paid to work as sweepers. They sometimes are also allowed to work ‘Out of more than 1,000 killed, more than 100 as sweepers inside individual houses and clean up were Dalits. The young Dalits were misguided by individual toilets. However, they are generally not the saffron brigade [right-wing Hindu extremists]. employed as housemaids to clean up utensils or cook Now no one takes care of the families of many of the food. The latter work is mostly done by women from Dalits who were arrested for the riots or those who other backward classes, who do not have the stigma of died. The condition of women is particularly in bad being “impure”. There are Valmiki women who work shape. Many women have been pushed into such in private offices. But they mostly work as sweepers.’ illegal activities like brewing country liquor and prostitution, and there is little anyone is doing.’ Their husbands, too, will also typically work in this dangerous occupation and as a result many The challenges Dalit women face, though end up having to head their households alone: overlapping with general issues of urban poverty and gender discrimination, are in many ways ‘The situation is such that there is a higher incidence distinct from the issues that face the female of widows among the gutter workers. Our survey said population as a whole. Ahmedabad has a number about 20 to 25 per cent of young Valmiki women of active women’s organizations, but while these were widows, and I don’t think that the situation often have a large Dalit constituency among their has changed much even now. Malnutrition is widely members, their focus generally is not on specific prevalent. Most girls are married very young, even incidents of discrimination. While a trade union before attaining adulthood.’ may periodically train its members on issues of sexual violence and harassment, for example, In the segregated areas where Valmiki are located, it usually avoids taking up human rights issues however, sanitary facilities are almost non-existent: related to atrocities against Dalit women. Solidarity was also undermined following ‘A large number of Valmiki localities are devoid

176 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 of any toilet facilities. There is a pay-and-use cook food or clean utensils. In fact, nobody has asked toilet in several localities, like Bootbhavani and me to do these jobs, which others do.’ Chandranagar areas, where they live, yet it is in poor shape, or often locked, and never cleaned up Another Valmiki woman, when asked why she because of lack of water, and women are forced to did not refuse to work as a manual scavenger as go out in the open, often sitting next to the railway it was prohibited by law, smiled and said, ‘Do station nearby, to defecate.’ you want us to lose our job? If we do not do the work, we will be replaced by others.’ This seemed One consequence of the systematic humiliation to be the case even when they had been lucky experienced by the community is that Valmiki enough to access some secondary education. women also face regular abuse from men of their Based on the accounts of the women interviewed, own caste: it appeared that even those Valmiki women who had managed some study were still condemned to ‘Within Valmiki families, their condition has the same manual labour their ancestors had been worsened. Our impression is that cases of their forced to perform. Though these issues are not suicide have gone up drastically, and so have cases usually as pronounced among non-Valmiki Dalit of violence by men. I come across such at least three women, discrimination in Ahmedabad is still to four cases of this kind every month. Working widespread even among the less stigmatized Dalit in insanitary conditions, dejected and depressed groups, as Koradiya describes: following day-long work, men drink a lot of illicit country-made liquor, which wasn’t generally the ‘It is rarely visible, but one can feel it does prevail case earlier. This tells heavily on women.’ in the dominant caste behaviour. In an interaction, Dalit teachers complained to us that while they In one slum area in western Ahmedabad, situated would sit together to take an afternoon meal, non- within an affluent locality, around 70 Valmiki Dalit women as a rule would not like to share food families live in huts with no access to water, with them, nor would the non-Dalit women ever sanitation, electricity or any form of government offer them water. The feeling of distance was always support. None yet have the luxury of a concrete visible.’ house, in part because their homes have been destroyed by local authorities as illegal several Sexual harassment, too, remains a serious times already. All face the constant threat of challenge for women in Indian cities in general, eviction. The settlement is surrounded by but is especially acute for Dalit women, who expensive flats, whose owners employ some of are vulnerable due to their secondary status. For the women as sweepers. Research interviews with example, Leena Patel, a Dalit journalist and social a number of Valmiki women living in this area worker interviewed for this research, highlighted highlighted the continued discrimination they the experiences of Dalit women working in the faced in their employment. While claiming they city’s diamond polishing industry. The ‘hypocrisy’, were not subjected to ‘untouchability’, as was as Patel describes it, is that ‘untouchability is their the case in the past, all of them admitted that at motto, but the dominant caste owner doesn’t best they were working as sweepers in individual have any problem touching Dalit women’. She households, with none employed as regular heard similar stories from Dalit women recruited housemaids to clean up utensils or cook. As one to work as cleaners at wedding parties, who felt of the women interviewed put it: helpless in the face of harassment. ‘In fact, a few of the women considered sexual overtures as a ‘Frankly I don’t feel untouchability as our ancestors normal behaviour of the contractors who offered did, but I do not do any other work inside the them work. They said, if they protested against houses except sweeping and cleaning the apartments. men touching them, they would not be given the I am allowed into the kitchen also, but I do not job the next time.’ ■

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 177 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 the upcoming assembly elections. At the end of encountered as both a sectarian and visible ethnic November, once the upcoming elections were minority. Indeed, in recent years Sunni militant set to be announced, Dalit Ekta Camp was groups such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ), Sipah-i- informed that their homes would be destroyed Sahaba (SSP) and TTP have increasingly targeted in less than 12 hours. They filed a case before the Hazara Shi’a, the majority of whom reside in Delhi High Court and managed to get a stay of Quetta. A stark indication that 2014 would bring the demolition. On 4 December the court issued little significant change to their situation came an order that the Delhi Development Authority on 1 January, when a car bomb targeted a bus must produce evidence that the eviction is in carrying Shi’a pilgrims returning from Iran to accordance with existing policy. Baluchistan’s capital city, Quetta, killing at least three and injuring 31 others. Later that month, Pakistan a similar attack was perpetrated by LeJ on a Violence and political instability persisted in bus carrying Hazara Shi’a pilgrims in Mastung Pakistan throughout 2014. Beginning in August, District, just outside of Quetta. At least 22 of mass demonstrations led by the opposition these passengers were killed, with more than 20 leader Imran Khan of the Pakistan Tehreek- others wounded. e-Insaf (PTI) party took place in cities across Similar targeted attacks against the community the country, with participants demanding continued throughout 2014. In April, for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s resignation on example, two Hazara men were victims of a account of alleged vote rigging during the 2013 targeted killing near a bus terminal in Quetta. election. The protests were only called off on 16 In October, at least eight Hazara were killed at a December, in response to an attack on a military- market in the outskirts of Quetta when gunmen run school in the northern city of Peshawar opened fire on the bus in which they were that killed 141 people, including 132 children. travelling. Outside Baluchistan, Shi’a in Pakistan According to the perpetrators, the Tehreek- also suffered a number of targeted attacks in e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), this attack – the cities such as Karachi. This violence had been deadliest perpetrated by the group so far – was accompanied by widespread intimidation: for in response to ongoing military operations in example, in April the banned militant outfit, North Waziristan. The offensive, launched by the Lashkar-i-Islam, distributed incendiary pamphlets government in June after peace talks previously in a Peshawar neighbourhood, threatening collapsed and followed later in the year by a residents – mostly Shi’a Muslims – with violence similar push into the Khyber region, resulted in if they did not leave their homes. the displacement of more than a million people Another marginalized religious group is during the year, including many Pashtuns – Pakistan’s Ahmadi population, who – despite an ethnic minority in the country who have considering themselves to be Muslims – remained historically made their homes in the tribal areas. subject to severe legal discrimination in the In this context of insecurity and division, country’s criminal code and Constitution, Pakistan’s Muslim and non-Muslim minorities which officially designates them as ‘non- in particular have faced high levels of social Muslims’. Alongside this persistent institutional marginalization, hate speech and the constant discrimination, in 2014 Ahmadis faced a number threat of violence. While there was a slight of targeted attacks, resulting in 11 casualties. In decrease in the number of attacks compared to May, an Ahmadi man accused of blasphemy was 2013, when sectarian violence in the country shot dead by a teenager while he was in police reached unprecedented levels, these groups custody. Later that same month, a Canadian- continue to face disproportionate levels of American doctor undertaking humanitarian work violence, particularly Shi’a, who account in Pakistan was killed, apparently on the basis of for around 15 per cent of the country’s his Ahmadi faith. International pressure failed Muslim population. Hazara Shi’a have been to bring an end to such attacks: less than two particularly vulnerable to attack as a result of months after the UN statement, in response to the intersectional discrimination they have blasphemy allegations, a mob set fire to homes

178 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 in a small Ahmadi community in Gujranwala Below: Shi’a Muslims protest against the killing District, Punjab, killing two children and their of their community members in a suicide grandmother. bombing on the outskirts of Quetta, Pakistan on The situation for non-Muslim minority 21 January 2014. EPA/Sohail Shehzad groups remained similarly tense in 2014. Discrimination against Pakistan’s Christian According to the NGO Life for All, this signalled population culminated in a particularly violent the most violent month suffered by Pakistan’s attack in November when a Christian couple in Hindus in two decades. Forced conversion and Kot Radha Kishan accused of desecrating the marriages of minority women also continued in Qur’an were beaten and burned to death in the 2014, with Dalit Hindu girls especially targeted. brick kiln where they worked. More recently, These incidents have been perpetuated by the in the first large-scale attack suffered by the lack of substantial reform to personal laws, Christian community since the bombing of All which prevent or obstruct certain minorities Saints Church in 2013, Jamaat-ur-Ahrar – a TTP from registering marriages. Although attempts splinter group – bombed two churches in Lahore were made to address such gaps in the province during Sunday processions in March 2015, of Punjab with the tabling of the Punjab Hindu killing at least 15 and wounding upwards of 70 Marriage Registration Bill in 2014, substantial people. reform remains to be seen. Meanwhile, for Pakistani Hindus, there was The year 2014 also saw violent attacks against an alarming increase in attacks on places of religious minorities who have typically been less worship in 2014. While a total of nine Hindu affected by such harsh discrimination in Pakistan, temples were attacked during the previous year, such as Zikris and Sikhs. In August, for example, five temples were targeted in March 2014 alone. at least six people from the Zikri community

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 179 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 were shot and killed near a shrine in Awaran at federal, provincial or local levels is still lacking. District, Baluchistan. The attack was preceded Religious minorities are not the only groups by graffiti in the town a week before, calling on that suffered discrimination in Pakistan in 2014. Zikris and Hindus to convert to Islam or face Pakistan has become an increasingly hostile death. For Pakistan’s small Sikh community, environment for the country’s mostly Pashtun growing religious intolerance manifested in an refugees from Afghanistan, the majority of attack on three shops run by Sikhs in Hashtnagri, whom have lived in Pakistan for decades. In Peshawar. In response members of the Sikh March, shortly after the government declared community took to the streets to demand greater its intention to restrict the number of Afghan security. refugees in Pakistan, bulldozers were sent to Muslim and non-Muslim minorities continued demolish a settlement outside Islamabad where to be disproportionately affected by the country’s over 100 Afghan families resided, some for notorious blasphemy laws during the year. In almost 30 years. Meanwhile, in the context of the March, Sawan Masih – a Christian man persistent nationalist struggle in the province of convicted of uttering blasphemous remarks the Baluchistan, enforced disappearances, torture and year before – was sentenced to death. Meanwhile, extra-judicial killings of members of the Baluch international efforts to appeal the death sentence minority by security forces reportedly continued of a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, who was with impunity. convicted of blasphemy in 2010, were undercut Extreme levels of violence and instability in when the Lahore High Court upheld the ruling Pakistan have encouraged many to flee their in October; she has now appealed to the Supreme homes for safer environs, either within or outside Court. Amid growing religious intolerance, the country. In October, the Human Rights attempts to challenge blasphemy laws or defend Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) reported that those accused of violating them also became at least 300,000 people – including over 200,000 increasingly difficult: in May, human rights Hazara, 10,000 Hindus and hundreds of Zikris lawyer and activist, Rashid Rehman, was the and Parsis – had left Baluchistan over the last victim of a targeted killing due to his defence of a ten years, with many migrating to large urban professor accused of blasphemy. areas in other provinces. Yet those arriving in Although political and social obstacles have Pakistan’s cities, many of whom are minorities, stood in the way of improving conditions for typically do so for a variety of reasons: not minorities in Pakistan, in June 2014 the Supreme only to escape insecurity and natural disasters, Court delivered a groundbreaking judgment in but also to seek out better public services and response to the bombing of All Saints Church opportunities. However, rapid and unplanned in Peshawar in 2013. This ruling not only called growth has perpetuated infrastructural and social on the government to ensure that victims of problems in Pakistan’s cities, with many migrants the attack were compensated, but also directed and other marginalized groups concentrating federal and provincial governments to develop in informal settlements. For example, a large institutions to monitor implementation of number of Hazaras who have left Baluchistan minority protection laws and to create a National to escape insecurity are now living in difficult Council for Minorities. Meanwhile, also in June, conditions in cities such as Islamabad and the Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Rawalpindi, where they lack access to adequate Pervez Khattak directed that increased security housing, jobs and other services. should be provided to protect places of worship Although ethnic, linguistic and religious for minorities. In response to rising violence groups in Pakistan have tended to live in against Hindus in Sindh, the provincial particular geographic areas – with the majority government similarly took initiatives to promote of Hindus living in Sindh, for example, and the the security of minority places of worship, and majority of Punjabi speakers in Punjab – cities officially celebrated the Hindu festival Diwali in such as Karachi are much more densely mixed. October. While all these are welcome initiatives, Though it is important not to oversimplify progress has been slow and an effective response ethnic and other divisions, poorly planned urban

180 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 development and rapid demographic growth minorities often confined to underpaid and have the potential to escalate levels of violence low-status livelihoods. In Lahore, the Christian along sectarian lines, with serious implications for population accounts for the bulk of the city’s Pakistan’s minorities. This is particularly the case sanitation workers and street-sweepers – a fact in Karachi, where ethnicity is highly politicized. that reinforces their stigmatization – while most Violent disputes between different parties over of their supervisors are Muslim. Nevertheless, control of local settlements are therefore defined urbanization has presented opportunities for increasingly in ethnic terms, placing minorities minorities and other disadvantaged groups to at even greater risk of attack. With Pashtuns now transcend prescribed roles and access services constituting the largest segment of new arrivals such as education that might otherwise have been in Karachi, there is concern this could exacerbate unavailable to them. Urban centres have also tensions between the locally ruling Muttahida been a site of resistance where – despite the severe Qaumi Movement (MQM), which largely repercussions they can and often do confront – represents the muhajir population – mostly members of minorities and other groups have Urdu-speaking Muslims who migrated from protested against the persistent targeting they northern and western India following partition face. One such instance took place in November – and the Pashtun-dominated Awami National 2014 when, following the murder of a Christian Party. couple in Kasur, various Christian, Hindu and Indeed, relocating to cities has also not other groups took to the streets in Peshawar, always ensured greater security for Pakistan’s calling on the government to end impunity for minorities. Hindus who have migrated to the perpetrators and promote religious harmony. Karachi, for example, have continued to fall victim to incidents of forced conversion and Sri Lanka marriage. Militants have also increasingly Throughout 2014 the Sri Lankan government, focused their attacks against minorities in urban headed by Mahinda Rajapaksa, continued to areas. In Karachi, growing numbers of TTP obstruct calls by NGOs and the international fighters and high levels of violence led to 750 community for a full investigation into war sectarian targeted killings reported between crimes conducted during the country’s long civil September 2013 and September 2014. However, war between the government and the Liberation government anti-terrorism measures have often Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), an armed group only served to increase the vulnerability of seeking to establish a separate Tamil state in the minorities and other marginalized groups in north. However, popular resentment against urban areas. In response to a double suicide increasing authoritarianism and corruption bomb attack in Islamabad in March 2014, for contributed to the shock defeat of Rajapaksa’s example, the government swiftly blamed and Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) in the January conducted raids on the city’s slums, or katchi 2015 national elections and his replacement by abadis, where many minorities make their homes. Maithripala Sirisena, a former ally and SLFP Subsequent efforts to demolish slums have been member until his surprise defection to the met with protests from those living in these opposition in November 2014. Though Sirisena’s areas, including many of Islamabad’s Christians election on a ticket of ‘compassionate governance’ who migrated from other parts of the country has been welcomed by activists, he has remained in search of better opportunities. These actions quiet on substantive issues of Tamil autonomy. reflected increasing hostility from the recently Furthermore, while he has announced plans to elected government towards these settlements, conduct an inquiry into alleged war crimes – an which it has regarded as a security threat, though apparent step forward after years of prevarication some inhabitants have argued that the attempted by the Rajapaksa government – the UN and other clearances are also driven by commercial interests. international investigators will not be involved in Patronage networks and discriminatory the process. attitudes in areas such as employment are The divisive issue of justice for the families of often reproduced in Pakistan’s cities, with victims of the decades-long conflict, many of

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 181 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Below: Tamil activist Balendran Jeyakumari international investigation into allegations of was arrested in March 2014 and released serious human rights abuses – a recommendation on bail one year later. Vikalpa/Groundviews/ accepted by the UN Human Rights Council Maatram/CPA (HRC) through a 27 March vote. In response, government officials refused to cooperate with the whom belong to the Tamil or Muslim minorities, investigation and on 7 April the minister of mass remains unresolved. In 2012, after much media publicly threatened legal action against international and domestic pressure, the cabinet anyone testifying to the OHCHR. On 18 June, approved a presidential task force to monitor parliament passed a resolution opposing such the implementation of recommendations made an international investigation with Rajapaksa under the government’s Lessons Learnt and subsequently announcing on 19 August that Reconciliation Commission (LLRC), focused OHCHR investigators would not be allowed into mostly on reconciliation after the war rather than the country. Those thought to be cooperating accountability for human rights violations. In with the UN have been threatened or faced January 2014, the government released an update reprisals. One example was Ananthi Sasitharan, on the LLRC implementation and reported on a Tamil Northern Provincial Councillor and some positive developments such as a national human rights advocate, who was attacked in the trilingual policy. But, as noted in the UN Office media for planning to attend the HRC session in of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ Geneva. (OHCHR) report to the Human Rights Council Despite the civil conflict formally ending five in February 2014, the government had pledged years ago, Sri Lanka’s minorities continue to to implement only 145 of the LLRC’s 285 be harassed and intimidated by state security recommendations. The High Commissioner forces for activism or suspected separatism. In condemned its investigation as ‘limited and February and March, in what the OHCHR piecemeal’ and called for an independent called the biggest search operation since 2009,

182 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 the government arbitrarily detained over 65 the BBS coordinated rallies through Muslim people in the north of the country, claiming neighbourhoods, burning shops, homes and that the LTTE was trying to re-establish itself. mosques. Though extreme, the violence was not Human rights defenders were caught up in an isolated incident. Between January and August, the sweeps on suspicions of engagement with the OHCHR received reports of at least 88 cases former LTTE fighters. On 13 March, Balendran of attacks, destruction of property or hate speech Jeyakumari, a Tamil activist known for her towards Muslims, while Christian groups reported work on the disappeared, was arrested by the 55 such cases. Rajapaksa announced the creation Terrorist Investigation Division along with her of a high-level panel to investigate the attacks, 13-year-old daughter in Kilinochchi district. although the OHCHR reported in September Shortly afterwards, human rights defenders that no prosecutions had yet taken place. Ruki Fernando and Father Praveen Mahesan, One of the drivers of continued human both from the minority Christian community, rights abuses in Sri Lanka is the fact that, five were arrested on 16 March after attempting to years after the conflict, the country remains investigate Jeyakumari’s whereabouts. A huge highly militarized. Many aspects of civilian life international outcry resulted in the release of are still controlled by the army, who are now Fernando and Mahesan, but at the end of the year guiding post-conflict reconstruction in the Jeyakumari still remained in detention without north. One of the most significant steps in this charge. In March 2015 Jeyakumari was released regard was Rajapaksa’s decision to bring the on bail, although with strict conditions imposed. Urban Development Authority (UDA) under Despite these and other cases of minority civil the purview of the military in 2010. This has had society crackdowns, the government submitted serious implications for urban populations across the Assistance to and Protection of Victims of the country, particularly minorities in the north Crime and Witnesses Bill for consideration by and east, who resent the army’s involvement in parliament. Long awaited, the bill has been infrastructure development, land deals and a in preparation since 2006, and is set to give range of economic sectors, including hotels, coffee reparations to victims, as well as protection to shops and Jaffna’s burgeoning tourism industry. witnesses from harassment, intimidation or Urban areas in the north and east have faced coercion. The Centre for Policy Alternatives acute stresses as migration from rural areas, the (CPA), a public policy research organization based return of displaced communities and the recent in Colombo, said that while the draft was an settlement of majority Sinhalese from the south improvement on previous versions, there are still has resulted in rapid population growth. some shortcomings that may jeopardize witness These difficulties have been exacerbated by safety. The first hearings for the government’s reported incidents of intimidation and exclusion Commission on Missing Persons, to investigate by authorities in towns with large Muslim disappearances in the Tamil-dominated north populations, such as Pottuvil, where in 2013 and east of the country, were also held early in the military allegedly supported local Buddhist the year, registering 19,471 such complaints by extremists in erecting Buddhist statues and September. However, some observers questioned broadcasting Buddhist prayers in public areas as how effective it would be. a provocation. While well-managed urbanization Since the end of the conflict with the in the region could produce significant social and LTTE, Sri Lanka’s Muslim population has also economic benefits, current policies are likely to experienced increasing hostility from Buddhist deepen religious and ethnic tensions. nationalists. Anti-Muslim violence and hate Similarly, in the capital of Colombo, where speech continued in 2014, including a riot in more than half of the population lives in slums, June when four Muslims were killed and over 80 the government has committed to eradicating injured in Aluthgama and surrounding areas in the city’s informal settlements by 2020. However, the south-west of Sri Lanka, led by the extremist authorities have been criticized for pursuing group Bodu Bala Sena (BBS). Protesting the an aggressive policy of settlement clearance alleged assault of a monk by a Muslim man, that, rather than addressing the root causes of

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 183 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 poverty and marginalization, has frequently Urbanization across the region has taken many targeted minorities and other vulnerable groups. forms. Rapid urban growth, frequently sponsored In 2010, shortly after control of the UDA was and directed by the state, is transforming passed to the Ministry of Defence, dozens of China and in the process leading to forcible houses were bulldozed in Mews Street, Slave resettlement, destruction of heritage and other Island – reportedly all belonging to Muslim impacts that have been felt especially acutely by families, except for one Tamil-owned home minorities in cities such as Kashgar or Lhasa. – to accommodate the expansion of a school While urbanization has contributed to rising for the children of army officers. They were incomes and development across the country, given only five days’ notice of the evictions, there is a danger that inequalities will only despite having title deeds and residing in the widen if measures are not taken to ensure that houses for decades; other settlements with minorities are fully included in this process. predominantly minority populations were also Japan, in contrast, has already developed into a identified for redevelopment. As Colombo’s largely urban society. Among the most pressing urban beautification has continued with the issues there are the resolution of historic construction of swathes of luxury apartments discrimination and underdevelopment in certain and other ‘world-class’ developments, slums neighbourhoods, such as Buraku dowa, and the have been demolished all over the city without conflicts that arise in Tokyo and elsewhere from consistent or adequate compensation to affected racist groups who resent the increased diversity families. According to a comprehensive 2014 of urban Japan. In Mongolia, where the majority report by CPA, throughout Colombo – one of of the population is still rural, urbanization the most ethnically diverse areas in Sri Lanka – ‘a is nevertheless transforming the lives of many significantly large section of the population being herders and pastoralists who, in a context of affected are Tamil and Muslim’. crop failure and limited access to land, are now migrating in large numbers to the capital, Ulaanbaatar. East Asia China The year 2014 in China was characterized by Michael Caster continued censorship, the detention of political opponents, forcible resettlement and other Violations of minority rights persisted across abuses. Minority populations, particularly East Asia during 2014. In China, the troubled Tibetans and Uyghurs, were especially affected western province of Xinjiang witnessed an by security crackdowns, restrictions on religious upsurge in violence during the year, with freedom and the detention of rights activists. heavy-handed security crackdowns and This included the conviction of Uyghur academic official discrimination feeding into increasing Ilham Tohti in September on separatism dissent, sometimes violent, among the Uyghur charges in a closed-door trial condemned population. Restrictive policies on culture, by the European Union and others. He lost religion and land rights have also served his subsequent appeal in November and was to further alienate the Tibetan population. sentenced to life in prison. He had been detained Meanwhile in Japan, ongoing tensions with in January, along with seven of his Uyghur neighbours in the region have contributed to students, who were also sentenced to between the rise of right-wing nationalist groups who three and eight years in prison. protested regularly throughout the year against Tibetan human rights activists, including the Koreans, Chinese and other minorities in the Tibetan writer Woeser and singer Gebey, were country. In Mongolia, too, resentment linked to also harassed during the year. In December, the exploitation of the country’s natural resources prominent monk Karma Tsewang, an outspoken has fuelled vocal anti-Chinese rhetoric and even language and culture activist, was also detained attacks against Chinese nationals. on ‘state security’ charges along with 16 of his

184 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 supporters. Soon over 4,000 people signed a Above: A modern Uyghur residential area can be petition for his release but he was later sentenced spotted through a partially demolished wall. to two years in prison, while another monk was Teo Choong Ching sentenced to 10 years on unspecified charges. The same month, well-known Mongolian rights detention before being released from custody activist Hada was released from four years of shortly before their deaths. In March, Goshul extra-judicial house arrest, following a 15-year Lobsang died soon after being released on prison sentence on ‘separatism’ charges, but medical parole after reportedly suffering torture remained in police custody under residential and a savage beating in jail that left him unable surveillance. to swallow food. In December, just days after As in previous years, Tibetan activists were being released from prison, political prisoner assaulted or denied medical care while in Tenzin Choedak also died after prolonged abuse

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 185 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 and ill-treatment in prison. He was less than six government as religious extremists. However, years into his 15-year sentence. the WUC alleged that the actual death toll was The National Security Commission, formed much higher, with hundreds of Uyghur civilians by President Xi Jinping in 2013, had its first killed in the ensuing crackdown by security meeting in April with a mandate to address issues forces. The details surrounding these events are such as separatism, religious extremism and also contested, with state outlets claiming that terrorism. In Xinjiang, China’s most westerly the violence began with a premeditated attack on region, this has translated into increasingly a police station by jihadist militants, while the restrictive policing of the large Uyghur WUC and other Uyghur sources have suggested population in response to political dissent and that a recent security crackdown on religious unrest. While some of these incidents have practices and reports of police abuses had been serious, including attacks on civilians, triggered the protests. national policies and local security forces often One of the chief sources of resentment among fail to distinguish between violent crimes and many Uyghurs is the state’s repression of various legitimate activities such as peaceful protests or religious and cultural forms of expression, activism. Human rights groups have argued that often on the grounds of security. In August, the government’s repressive and indiscriminate for example, authorities in the city of Karamay treatment of the region’s Uyghur population banned men with long beards and people with has exacerbated the situation and contributed to headscarves, veils or clothing with the crescent further violence. moon and star from boarding public buses. The The year 2014 saw a number of tragic attacks local Urumqi parliament also announced a move related to ongoing tensions within Xinjiang. This at the end of the year to ban Islamic face veils in included the massacre of more than 30 people public, while authorities forced Muslim students in March outside a train station in Kunming, to eat during Ramadan, threatening students Yunnan province by a group subsequently who refused with expulsion. In the wake of new reported to be Xinjiang separatists. In May, two regulations in Xinjiang that went into effect in cars loaded with explosives also ploughed through January 2015, prohibiting the spread of religious a busy shopping street in Urumqi, the capital propaganda online or clothing with religious of Xinjiang province, killing around 30 people. messages that could promote extremism, a Both incidents were condemned by the President Uyghur man was reportedly sentenced in March of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC), 2015 to six years’ imprisonment for growing a Rebiya Kadeer, though she called on China to beard and ‘inciting’ his wife, who also received refrain from collectively punishing the whole a two-year sentence, to wear a burqa. These population and drew attention to the role that restrictions have played a major role in triggering state policies played in encouraging the violence. opposition, including deadly attacks, across the However, following the Urumqi bombing, region. China announced a year-long anti-terrorism Ongoing labour migration of ethnic Han crackdown, with Xinjiang Party Secretary into Xinjiang, particularly to urban areas in Zhang Chunxian asserting the necessity for the north of the region such as Urumqi, has ‘unconventional measures’ in the ‘people’s war’ been another source of conflict. This has often against terrorism. These included numerous raids occurred through the state-sponsored creation of on mosques, house-to-house searches, harassment new towns and cities populated predominantly and other abuses by police, with several rights by Han, often near areas seen as separatist groups reporting increased arbitrary arrests and troublespots. Tensions were therefore inflamed disappearances. Executions were also carried out by comments in May by Zhang Chunxian, throughout the year. suggesting that China’s ‘one child’ policy should Violence in the region peaked over the summer in future be imposed on all ethnic groups in following a riot in Yarkand that resulted in 96 the region: at present, in line with its national deaths, according to official sources, including policy towards ethnic minorities, the government 37 civilians and 59 persons identified by the permits Uyghur families to have two to three

186 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 children each. Another policy, reportedly to pursue a range of repressive policies in developed during the year by local authorities Tibet during 2014, characterized by forced in Cherchen County in southern Xinjiang, resettlement, restrictions on freedom of belief introduced a reward system to incentivize Uyghur and other discriminatory policies. In recent and Han inter-marriage with RMB 10,000 years, Tibetans have protested against their (US$1,600) annual payments for up to five years treatment through a series of high-profile and other benefits. self-immolations in Tibet and elsewhere in Further urban development policies in China. In 2014, according to the International Xinjiang will lead to the creation of dozens Campaign for Tibet, the number of self- of new cities and towns. One is planned for immolations since 2011 reached 135, of construction near Hotan, a city with considerable which 22 involved women and 24 involved symbolic importance for Uyghur culture. Local those 18 years old or younger. Authorities in residents have reported that Uyghur farm owners Tibet have responded to these incidents by in the area have been forced to sell their land for detaining and arresting family members and below market rates, which would otherwise be friends of the deceased. Since 2013 the police taken without remuneration by the government have warned Tibetans that anyone accused of as part of a ‘development policy’. Those who abetting self-immolators would be charged with have resisted forced evictions or land grabs homicide. In 2012 police were offering around have been detained or arrested. The new cities RMB 50,000 for tips related to planned self- project will be completed by the majority Han immolations or protests, and by February 2015 Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, the Tibetan provincial government had raised or Bingtuan, a semi-military organization that the reward to RMB 300,000 for information on is largely staffed by majority Han and is widely terrorist activities – a broad term that reportedly resented by the local Uyghur population. includes ‘thought, speech or behaviour’ Poverty and unemployment among undermining the state. Uyghurs is worst in the south of Xinjiang, Throughout 2014 police stations were set up in despite government attempts to boost urban Buddhist monasteries across Tibet, accompanied development through special economic zones, by ‘patriotic education’ campaigns targeting the such as in Kashgar, established in 2011 and spread of certain Buddhist teachings. Appeals to scheduled for completion in 2020. Kashgar the Qinghai People’s Congress in January 2014 has partnered with eastern provinces such as to limit religious restrictions and end police Shenzhen and investment companies to secure presence in monasteries were disregarded. In July, investment. Zhongkun, for example, has been officials in Tibet issued regulations on temporary active in developing tourism in the city but has prohibition of freedom of movement and been accused of exploitative practices that do religion, prohibiting Tibetans from participating not benefit Uyghur residents. Their livelihoods in the Great Prayer Festival in Ladakh, India, one and identity have been further threatened by the of the most important Tibetan Buddhist festivals ongoing demolition of Kashgar’s old city, an area that includes special teachings by the Dalai of particular cultural significance to the Uyghur Lama. Later in the year, at least 26 nuns were community. The urban redesign project aims expelled from the prestigious Jhada Nunnery to demolish some 65,000 homes and resettle after it refused to denounce the Dalai Lama in over 200,000 Uyghur residents, 85 per cent of September. Kashgar’s old city. Though some Uyghurs have In 2014, the State Council also announced welcomed the opportunity to live in modern the completion of a massive relocation project housing with amenities unavailable in their of Tibetan nomads from multiple grassland former mud-brick homes, many feel the forced provinces around the Tibetan Autonomous relocation from the ancient centre to high-rise Region, a year ahead of schedule. Those who apartments on the outskirts is more of an assault resisted relocation from traditional herding lands on culture than a sign of modernity. to overcrowded resettlements have had their The Chinese government also continued personal documents and belongings seized or

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 187 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 been detained by the police. Mass resettlement in recent years has already resulted in the forcible Case study by Ross Perlin relocation of more than 2 million Tibetans, including hundreds of thousands of nomadic herders rehoused in ‘New Socialist Villages’, in Urbanizing the some cases impoverishing them or making them dependent on state subsidies. Trung – one of While only around a quarter of the population in the Tibetan Autonomous Region are currently China’s smallest urban, this proportion is rising rapidly, driven in part by Han labour migration. Urbanization officially recognized has been closely tied to the state’s large-scale development programme in the region and the minorities significant economic growth that has resulted, with government figures reporting a doubling in average per capita incomes among nomads This research is a result of several years of field between 2005 and 2010. This has been sustained work in the north-west corner of Yunnan province, by recent investments in infrastructure such as one of the most multicultural and multilingual the Beijing–Lhasa railway, completed in 2006 areas in China. The most recent observations and and responsible for a substantial increase in interviews are from November 2014. Dulong is business and tourism within Tibet. However, the widely used Chinese name – the people call rapid in-migration of Han Chinese, coupled themselves Trung. with the forced relocation of Tibetans to Lhasa, has had significant impacts on Tibetan November 2014 marked the official completion traditional culture that some argue far outweigh of a paved 76 km road, including a 6 km the economic benefits, including the destruction tunnel, connecting Yunnan province’s Trung of historically significant areas of Lhasa as the River valley to the rest of the world. ‘The city’s booming tourism industry has driven rapid opening of the highway will lead the Trung redevelopment of the old centre. people to prosperity and happiness,’ announced Nevertheless, urban areas can offer the Yunnan Party Secretary Li Jiheng. At a reported possibility of better life outcomes for Tibetans, cost of US$127 million, one of the country’s including women, who are sometimes able to most isolated places – the mountainous enjoy a measure of freedom from oppressive homeland of the Trung people, hard by the gender norms. While in rural areas Tibetan border of Burma and the Tibetan Autonomous girls are routinely denied access to education, Region – is now fully open for business. relocation to cities is slowly creating more With a total population of 6,930 according opportunities for them to attend school. Tibetan to the 2010 census, the Trung are one of the women who work in urban settings also earn smallest of China’s 56 officially recognized their own salaries and therefore do not need to ethnic groups, and the majority live in the rely on family land or livestock, enabling them Trung River valley. Until 1999, the valley had to be more independent. However, Tibetan remained almost completely inaccessible to women who travel outside Tibet to eastern cities outsiders, except on foot or by horse caravan such as Beijing or Shanghai often experience from the neighbouring Nu River valley. Trung discrimination in areas such as employment, people still derived their livelihood from shifting housing and education for their children. Similar swidden agriculture with a wide variety of crops, barriers remain for Tibetans in general and other as well as subsistence hunting and gathering. minorities such as Uyghurs, excluding them For the last 15 years, a treacherous, unpaved from the promised social or economic benefits of road has allowed uncertain access to shared urbanization. jeeps, but remained closed half the year due to

188 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 winter snows. ‘The new all-weather road will cut Below: Traditional Trung dance, 2014. travel times in half, bring a regular bus service, Claire Liy and allow more frequent visits to the county seat’, said one young Trung man. ‘Everything will be from joining China’s ‘floating population’, but opened up.’ more are now ascending the rungs from the Transformative demographic changes are village to the township to the county seat, and already under way. On the one hand, the road sometimes beyond to the prefectural capital, the enables people to leave, prompting classic provincial capital of Kunming, and (in a handful urbanization patterns in a country where the of cases) even Beijing, over 2,000 miles away. The official urban population has for the first time local government has even encouraged this with outstripped the rural – though many in practice a formal labour export programme, attempted move between the two. Until recently, sheer in 2008, in which 19 Trung farmers were sent to distance and expense had prevented most Trung work in the eastern industrial city of Dongguan.

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 189 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 More typically, education is the way out. centralized locations in towns like Kongdang Secondary school is only available outside the and Gongshan, with boarding for students. valley, and the most successful Trung students Instead of ‘barefoot doctors’ moving between go on to university, even further afield. They villages, the emphasis was now on hospitals only return to work for the county or prefectural and clinics in the towns. The government governments, which are major employers, cited service delivery and poverty alleviation as especially of minorities. reasons to further concentrate and urbanize the The focal quasi-urban environment for most population, which had already been resettled Trung is Cikai, the seat of Gongshan county, from isolated mountain hamlets, down to the where the road into the valley originates. China’s riverside, back in the 1950s and 1960s. county seats are porous membranes where the In 2003, the Sloping Land Conversion rural and the urban coexist. About one-third Programme (tuigeng huanlin) abruptly of the county’s 35,000 people live in Cikai, ended traditional subsistence practices in where government, trade and education are the name of environmental protection and concentrated for a substantial rural hinterland, reforestation, promising cash and rice instead not to mention taxis, karaoke clubs, churches and simultaneously ‘freeing’ Trung people and public amenities. ‘I came here to make from the land and enabling wage labour. more money and because life in the valley At the same time, the central government’s is backward’, said a young Trung man who Western Development Programme (launched had recently moved to Gongshan to work in in 2000) and poverty-alleviation initiative construction. ‘I first came here for high school – focused on 592 ‘key counties’, mostly in so I have a lot of friends here. I have Lisu areas of western China populated by ethnic friends, Tibetan friends, Han friends.’ minorities – provided further impetus and Though most Trung remain in the valley, funding. Starting in 2010, a dedicated ‘Help they are effectively urbanizing at an even more the whole Trung nationality’ programme has local level, in situ and largely by fiat, as scattered led to the construction of 1,068 new houses houses turn into denser settlements and hamlets with windows and balconies in 26 ‘settlement mushroom into villages. Others are being drawn areas’, near the previously existing villages but into fast-growing Kongdang, the main town in denser. Within a few years, almost the entire the valley. Besides being the local government Trung population has effectively been resettled seat and the centre of education and trade, and rehoused – but at the same time, many Kongdang is where the road into the valley have left. terminates. Though most cycle through, some Many inhabitants, particularly younger non-Trung small business owners and traders Trung, emphasize the positive benefits that this have settled there semi-permanently. Although urban development has brought to the area. currently less than 10 per cent of the valley’s ‘It’s completely different now, not backward population, such outsiders are over-represented like before,’ according to one resident. and highly visible in Kongdang, with a palpable ‘You wouldn’t recognize it: new houses, effect on the Trung language and culture. tall buildings, internet, even a museum in In situ urbanization is the direct outcome of Kongdang.’ Yet poverty remains endemic, with deliberate high-profile national policies which welfare dependence deepening. Estimates vary, have converged on the Trung River valley but agree that income in the valley remains as a particular test case, in order to combat under the threshold of US$1 per day. An eco- what is officially viewed as an embarrassing tourism boom has yet to materialize, but direct example of ‘backwardness’ (luohou). The early food subsidies and surreptitious subsistence 2000s brought hydroelectric power stations, activities help fill the gap. Other problems, satellite antennas and mobile phone reception. such as alcoholism and rising suicide rates, also Village schools were closed in favour of remain. ■

190 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Japan Japan’s indigenous Ainu also continue to face In August 2014 the UN Committee on the discrimination, limited access to basic services Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and low levels of political participation. Even in reviewed Japan. The committee noted concern Hokkaido, where the majority are based, most that Japan has still not adopted a comprehensive Ainu have lower economic status than non-Ainu definition for racial discrimination in its domestic Hokkaido residents. When Japan ratified the legislation, nor legislation enabling victims to UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous seek legal redress. One of the most troubling Peoples in 2007 it denied it had any indigenous and urgent issues, however, was the continuing peoples, but the next year it passed a non-binding problem of hate speech. This included, in resolution recognizing the Ainu as indigenous April, the use of Nazi imagery by right-wing to Japan. The decision was a major victory in nationalists during anti-Chinese and anti-Korean recognizing the distinctiveness of Ainu language demonstrations in Tokyo, as well as various and culture. However, in November 2014 racist slurs. Persistent anti-foreigner sentiment is Masaru Onodera, a member of the Hokkaido reflected in ‘Japanese only’ signs still posted by prefectural parliament, created controversy when some hotels and restaurants. In March, a giant he publicly stated Ainu indigenousness was ‘Japanese Only’ banner was even hung from the ‘highly questionable’. Saitama Stadium in Tokyo by supporters of the The struggle for recognition is even more Urawa Red Diamonds during a football game, acute for indigenous Okinawans (or Ryūkyūans) prompting an order from the national J-League for who, unlike Ainu, have yet to receive official the club to play a match in an empty stadium – an indigenous status, despite previous UN edict that cost the club in excess of US$1 million. recommendations. Their culture and traditional There were some positive developments to lands are threatened by the denial of their right address the issue. In July the Osaka High Court, to free and informed participation in policy- followed by the Supreme Court in December, making, especially concerning the expansion upheld a groundbreaking October 2013 ruling by of US military bases in Okinawa – an issue Kyoto High Court that had found Zaitokukai, that continues to be perceived as a form of an organization opposed to the granting of discrimination against the indigenous population. certain rights to foreign residents in Japan, Ongoing construction of a new US base in guilty of racial discrimination for shouting abuse Henoko, situated in a bay rich in biodiversity and slogans in front of a Korean school. At the including the critically endangered Okinawan beginning of 2014, an Osaka municipal human dugong, was a particularly contentious issue in rights committee also drafted recommendations Okinawan politics in 2014. Local protests swelled for curbing hate speech, including the creation of to several thousands demonstrating in September a municipal fund to offset court costs for victims. and October, ahead of elections in November, Multiple municipalities have followed suit with with authorities responding harshly by detaining similar proposals, though there are concerns that and arresting anyone who approached the hate speech legislation will be difficult to pass due construction site. The subsequent election of to free speech concerns. Takeshi Onaga in the November Okinawan Legal and institutional discrimination against gubernatorial elections was in large part due to foreigners and minorities continues to affect his strict opposition to military base construction. many residents, some of whom have spent their In January 2015, Tokyo announced that, despite entire lives in Japan. In July, for instance, the considerable local opposition, the plan to relocate Supreme Court overturned a Fukuoka High a US military base from Futenma to Henoko Court decision, ruling instead that permanent would still continue. However, as of April residents do not have a guaranteed right to 2015 Onaga was still actively opposing plans to receive welfare benefits. The case involved an relocate the base. 82-year-old Chinese woman who had been born Japan has yet to implement CERD’s and grew up in Japan, but was denied welfare 2010 recommendation to create a specific because she was not a Japanese national. government agency to deal with Burakumin

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 191 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 issues. Burakumin are not a distinct ethnic of the controversial Oyu Tolgoi copper and group in Japan, but the descendants of outcast gold mine. The multi-billion-dollar mining communities from the feudal era who continue project, located in the south of the country, has to face discrimination in mainstream Japanese been opposed by local herders and civil society society. Although they are not subject to official organizations due to the destructive impact discrimination, Burakumin still face deep- the development will have on the surrounding seated prejudice, especially in marriage and environment. In February 2015, however, employment, with some companies referring following a national text message referendum, to lists of family names and neighbourhoods to Mongolia agreed to further development of the discriminate against Burakumin. Historically, mine, despite opposition from environmental Burakumin neighbourhoods, also known as dowa, groups. Pastoralist livelihoods are threatened were isolated and excluded settlements with little not only by the mine itself, but also by the in the way of public services or other amenities. infrastructure connecting it to China, which runs Increasing numbers migrated to urban areas in through traditional grazing and pasture lands. the post-war period, resulting in the expansion of Herders have consistently complained about segregated slums. inadequate compensation for their land. Following strong advocacy efforts from Buraku Rising nationalism, linked in part to organizations, however, the Japanese government resentment of the role of international companies committed substantial government funds in mining and natural resource extraction, has between 1969 and 1997 to improving Buraku intensified anti-foreigner sentiment in Mongolia, urban neighbourhoods, funding upgraded particularly towards Chinese nationals. This is housing, infrastructure development and other reflected in regular incidents of abuse and even improvements. As a result, in large part because violence towards migrants, foreign minorities of the active efforts of Buraku residents, living and visitors. In April 2014, for instance, three conditions in the areas have generally improved. foreigners were attacked at a rock concert in By 2002, the government had completed urban Ulaanbaatar, while in early 2015 reports emerged development projects related to the Dowa Special of the ill-treatment of Chinese tourists by Measures. Among other positive developments, Mongolian nationalists. In May the Mongolian the physical environment in traditionally Buraku parliament announced that it would begin districts has improved and other indicators, such discussing anti-discrimination legislation to as educational attainment and employment, have supplement the relevant provisions in the also risen. However, some of the community Constitution. However, critics have argued that cohesion is being weakened as some more the proposal does not go far enough to include a affluent Buraku move out and poorer non- specific category for hate crimes. Buraku groups move in from elsewhere, meaning Mongolia’s Tuvan minority’s language and that sub-standard housing and other issues are culture remain under threat, despite government reappearing. support and a modest subsidy. Already, growing numbers of Tuvan children are travelling to Mongolia attend schools in the capital where they cannot Though in recent years Mongolia has been study in their native language. These challenges one of the fastest growing economies in the are especially acute for the Dukha (also known world, 2014 saw a dramatic reduction in as Tsaatan) community, a Tuvan sub-group and foreign direct investment and a fall in its GDP Mongolia’s smallest ethnic minority, with fewer growth rate. The slowdown in the Mongolian than 50 families remaining in the far west of the economy, which remains heavily dependent on country. Nevertheless, there have been efforts the country’s natural resources, has been partly to support the preservation of Dukha language attributed to concerns among foreign companies and culture. In December 2014, the Mongolian over stalled negotiations between the Mongolian National Museum premiered a documentary government and Turquoise Hill Resources, a about Oyunbadam, a Dukha educator who subsidiary of Rio Tinto, over the development established a grassroots language and culture

192 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 school for Dukha children. large land masses of Australia, New Zealand and Mongolia’s recent transition to a market New Guinea to a variety of smaller states where, economy, as well as limited livelihood in most cases, the numerical majority of the opportunities in the countryside, has also driven population are indigenous. Their experience of rapid urban growth in the country’s capital, urbanization is similarly varied: while countries Ulaanbaatar – a process that has unfortunately such as New Zealand have close to 87 per outpaced the development of public services and cent of the population living in towns and infrastructure. In certain districts more than half cities, the proportion is much lower in Papua of the population live in ger, traditional nomadic New Guinea (13 per cent) or Tonga (23.4 per yurts of wool and felt, in lots for which they do cent). However, smaller island states are also not hold land titles. Forced evictions continue facing high population growth and rapidly to occur against a backdrop of rising property accelerating urbanization. Almost a quarter of prices and increasing competition for space, Pacific Islanders already live in urban centres, up with families evicted without consultation and from only 8.5 per cent in 1950, and half of the communities harassed by real estate companies, region’s countries already have majority urban which have even cut off water and electricity populations. In these countries the challenges of supplies to pressure them to leave. Ger residents urbanization, particularly for their indigenous also have limited access to essential services such communities, are especially acute. as sanitation, education and health. Urban migration among indigenous peoples Many are families of former herders who in the Pacific is driven in part by the potential have been pushed to the city by desertification opportunities cities present in terms of improved and the harsh winters of the steppe. Following employment, health care and other benefits. a period of extreme cold in 2010 – known as a Furthermore, limited livelihood options and lack dzud, meaning ‘white death’ – that resulted in of development in rural areas is also a factor, the deaths of millions of livestock, thousands and income generated by urban indigenous of herders moved into gers on the edge of the people is often used to support families in city. They continue to make up a significant their communities of origin. Nevertheless, in a proportion of those migrating to the city context of rapid and largely unmanaged growth, each year. The increasing settlement of rural indigenous populations face increasing challenges and formerly nomadic Mongolians around in urban areas, including lack of housing, limited Ulaanbaatar has contributed to the erosion public services, low economic prospects and other of their traditional lifestyles. In addition to issues. One of the key challenges for almost all migration in order to find work, herders are also Pacific Island countries is that there is insufficient moving closer to markets in towns, particularly land to keep pace with the growing demands near Ulaanbaatar, because they are switching of urbanization. The shortage of land means from subsistence husbandry to raising animals that many who move to urban centres do not for sale. Many residents of poorer areas of have access to or cannot afford adequate land or Ulaanbaatar rely on herders for their food supply, housing, contributing to the growth of squatter which results in more seasonal migration to the settlements. city; a number of such in-migrants return to the These factors have increased stress on the countryside for the summer months. physical and social environments of urban dwellers, particularly for women and children. Domestic violence, sexual violence and violence against women remain endemic across the region, Oceania and these problems are often compounded by the impacts of urbanization, such as fragmented Jacqui Zalcberg communities and increasing marginalization. In addition, the deterioration of established The diverse region of Oceania spans communal structures in urban areas renders approximately 25,000 islands, ranging from the many young people vulnerable to issues such

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 193 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 as gang violence, crime and substance abuse, mandatory sentencing laws in some jurisdictions particularly as traditional governance systems – issues which particularly affect the indigenous have eroded. In New Zealand, for instance, the community. rapid urbanization of Māori from the 1960s saw The issue of Aboriginal deaths in custody also the breakdown of iwi (tribe) and hapū (clan) received renewed attention in 2014 following systems. Māori leadership, however, worked to the death in August of a 22-year-old Aboriginal address the issues that arose from this breakdown woman while incarcerated in a Western Australia and established multi-tribal urban authorities to jail. The women was twice taken by police to help foster the economic, social and commercial a local hospital, but on both occasions was development of urban Māori communities. declared well enough to be sent back to prison, The impacts of urbanization on indigenous despite reportedly not being seen by a doctor. communities and minorities across Oceania The woman had been placed in South Headland have therefore been ambiguous, and their future police custody due to unpaid parking fines, a situation will likely depend to a large extent on controversial approach that has been blamed the region’s ability to achieve sustainable and for perpetuating the high incarceration rates inclusive urban development. among the indigenous population and other marginalized groups. Australia Serious inequalities persist in other areas, too, The year 2014 began promisingly with the such as education, employment and health: announcement by Prime Minister Tony for example, life expectancy for the Aboriginal Abbott in January of a planned amendment and Torres Strait Islander populations is still a to the Constitution to recognize Australia’s decade less than that enjoyed by non-indigenous indigenous population as the original inhabitants Australians. Progress to reduce these disparities of Australia. Abbott subsequently pledged in has been slow, with Abbott admitting in December to hold a constitutional referendum February 2015 that the country’s continued on the issue in 2017. The amendment is seen failure to meet most targets on improving by rights activists as an important milestone in outcomes for indigenous communities in areas reversing the historic marginalization suffered such as education, employment and community by the Aboriginal community. Nevertheless, safety was ‘profoundly disappointing’. Yet the considerable hurdles remain before the introduction of the government’s controversial amendment, which was first proposed in 2010, is Indigenous Advancement Strategy (IAS) in July, likely to be passed. consolidating 150 different programmes into five In addition, the positive effects of the broad thematic areas and involving cuts of more amendment may be limited without broader than AU$500 million over the next five years, efforts to address the deep-rooted discrimination has generated considerable resentment among that Australia’s indigenous population continues indigenous communities. In addition to reduced to face on a daily basis. One issue that sparked overall funding, significant portions of the new national debate during the year was their budget have gone to state departments, sporting disproportionate rates of incarceration, described clubs and other non-indigenous organizations, by the Law Council of Australia as a ‘national while some local indigenous organizations found emergency’. Though they make up only around that their funding had been halted. 2.5 per cent of the overall population, indigenous One challenge in terms of service access and Australians comprise 27 per cent of the country’s development is the geographical seclusion of prison population. This is even higher in some many rural indigenous communities. While the regions, with Aboriginal youth making up 98 country as a whole is highly urbanized, with per cent of detained juveniles in the Northern almost 90 per cent of Australians now living in Territory. The UN Committee against Torture, urban areas, the proportion is significantly lower in its 2014 review of Australia, noted its concern among the indigenous population; over 20 per about the high numbers of indigenous prisoners, cent are still based in areas classified as remote as well as cuts in legal assistance and the use of or very remote, compared to less than 2 per cent

194 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 of the non-indigenous population. Many of Above: In the township of Kennedy Hill, Western these isolated communities, particularly in the Australia, a young Aboriginal girl watches as the Northern Territory, struggle with higher levels town’s main offices are demolished. The Western of child mortality, poor living standards and Australian government are in the process of lack of access to essential services such as health closing approximately 150 remote Aboriginal care. These issues are compounded by a lack of communities. Ingetje Tadros/Diimex culturally appropriate programmes and limited opportunities for bilingual education, with a large state government that as many as 150 of its proportion of indigenous children in more remote 274 Aboriginal communities would be shut areas of the country barely able to read or write. down sparked widespread outrage among Though some remote indigenous communities Aboriginal Australians and rights activists. The face significant challenges, the announcement announcement was made following the decision in November 2014 by the Western Australia of the Australian federal government to stop

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 195 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 funding power, water and other services to these with responsibility for the provision of power, communities beyond the next two years, with water and other services now falling to the state Western Australia accepting an AU$90 million authorities. The State of South Australia initially one-off payment from the federal government rejected a payout, but in April 2015 reached to take responsibility for the services. The an agreement with the federal government to Western Australia State Premier, Colin Barnett, share the management of the state’s indigenous claimed that without federal funding the state settlements, which otherwise would have faced government could not afford to continue to closure. The implications of these changes for service the communities, despite being the other rural indigenous communities remain to be richest state in Australia. He also justified the seen. closure of the communities in terms of safety Nevertheless, with the exception of certain and well-being, citing ‘high rates of suicide, poor areas such as the Northern Territory where education, poor health [and] no jobs’. three-quarters of the population are rural, the The decision was strongly condemned by majority of Australia’s indigenous populations the deputy indigenous adviser to the Abbott are now urban. The relocation of indigenous government, Dr Ngiare Brown, who argued communities to urban areas is rooted in part in that ‘governments have the responsibility to Australia’s troubled colonial history, beginning understand the historical and contemporary with their displacement and forcible resettlement contexts of those communities and the failure in missions and reserves. Limited opportunities of systems which placed them at risk, and then and the takeover of much of their former negotiate the best possible options’ for them. homelands subsequently pushed increasing Amnesty International has noted that the plan to numbers of indigenous people, particularly in the evict traditional owners from their homes would second half of the twentieth century, to migrate cause considerable trauma to the communities in search of opportunities. Nevertheless, various and that for them migration to larger urban improvements in rural areas from the 1960s centres would present an even higher risk of onwards, such as recognition of land rights and substance abuse, crime and other issues. Nor, more government funding, reduced the pull of when the decision was made, was there a plan migration to urban areas. In the past few decades, in place to support community members in demographic increases have resulted primarily transitioning to their new context elsewhere. from natural growth over multiple generations, as The potential effects of uprooting communities well as higher levels of self-identification among in this way were demonstrated in 2011 when the indigenous urban population in censuses and the small indigenous settlement of Oombulgurri population surveys. was forcibly closed by the state government after The effects of urbanization for indigenous evidence emerged of high levels of violence, Australians has been mixed. Despite the suicide and sexual assault in the area. Those difficulties of adjusting to unfamiliar urban who refused to leave were evicted from the settings, life in Australia’s cities has brought town and public services closed down. In 2014, many positive developments. In particular, despite protests from rights groups, the town the interaction of many previously separated was demolished. The transition for residents was communities in urban areas led to the emergence reportedly traumatic, with inadequate support of a shared indigenous consciousness and the services and housing in place for displaced beginning of indigenous political activism. While residents who were forced to relocate to a larger aspects of traditional indigenous culture have urban area nearby. Some community members undoubtedly been eroded – for example, just were reportedly still homeless at the end of 2014, 1 per cent of indigenous people in urban areas several years later. speak an indigenous language, compared to 56 Notably, similar agreements to transfer per cent in rural areas – cities have in some ways responsibility for remote communities have been helped reinforce indigenous identity and enabled reached between the federal government and the the reinvention of indigenous heritage in new States of Queensland, Victoria and Tasmania, and distinctly urban forms of expression. Urban

196 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 indicators in a range of sectors, from employment transport as a gesture of solidarity. to education, also outperform those in rural areas Increasing racism and xenophobia in by a significant margin. Australia, particularly towards Muslims, may Nevertheless, indigenous residents continue also contribute to widespread popular support to experience serious inequalities in cities for the country’s punitive policies towards compared to the non-indigenous population, asylum seekers. The majority of asylum seekers, particularly as shifts in urban labour markets have originating mostly from Afghanistan, Iran, reduced employment opportunities for workers Pakistan and Sri Lanka, are ethnically distinct with limited job skills or education. Indicators from the white Australian majority and are often such as educational attainment, income and presumed by members of the general public to be health are also poorer among urban indigenous Muslim. All asylum seekers entering Australian communities than the non-indigenous urban territory by boat continue to face mandatory, population. In addition, evidence suggests that indefinite and non-reviewable detention at indigenous residents are disproportionately centres on Nauru or Manus Island in Papua New situated in poorer and marginalized city districts. Guinea, in conditions described by UNHCR Discrimination and exclusion have therefore as unsafe and in violation of international persisted and have even led to new forms of standards. Violence and neglect in these centres disadvantage. Some studies have suggested, for remain serious issues: an Iranian man was beaten instance, that well-being and self-reported levels to death in May in a riot at the Manus Island of happiness among indigenous Australians centre, while in September another asylum seeker in rural areas is higher, despite lower levels of was left brain dead after an infected cut was not development. The overall picture of indigenous adequately treated, resulting in septicaemia. urbanization in Australia is therefore mixed, with The government has nevertheless continued to cities bringing considerable benefits while also militarize migration control and forcibly returned maintaining many inequalities. boats carrying asylum seekers to their country of Though Australia has a vibrant and diverse origin. In 2014, Australia attempted to return a population, especially in urban areas, there boat carrying 153 asylum seekers and refugees to have been ongoing reports of ethnic minorities Sri Lanka. The Australian High Court blocked the being subjected to increasing racism. A 2014 attempt temporarily after it found that another survey reported that experience of discrimination boatload of 41 people had already been returned remains close to the highest level recorded; to Sri Lanka, where they faced persecution. 18 per cent of those surveyed reported that The 153 asylum seekers on the boat were held they had experienced racial, ethnic or religious aboard the Customs vessel as the government discrimination compared with 19 per cent in sought to arrange their return to India, and 2013 – the highest level recorded since this were subsequently sent to Nauru. In January particular survey began in 2007. There have 2015 the High Court held that the government also been repeated reports of minorities and had not acted illegally when it detained them foreigners being subjected to hate speech on at sea for almost a month. These policies were public transport in major cities, including two further institutionalized in December 2014 when widely reported incidents in Sydney and Perth parliament passed the Migration and Maritime in which Asian women were verbally abused Powers Legislation Amendment, strengthening by other passengers. There were also concerns, the power of maritime controls to take asylum following a religiously motivated attack on a seekers found at sea to other destinations and Sydney coffee shop in December 2014 which led also reducing other safeguards for asylum seekers. to the deaths of two hostages, that attacks against The Act has been criticized by a wide coalition Australia’s Muslim population would escalate of stakeholders for further eroding human rights in the aftermath. However, Sydney citizens and standards relating to asylum seekers. activists launched a campaign online with the hashtag #IllRideWithYou, with users offering to Papua New Guinea accompany Muslims in religious attire on public The indigenous population of Papua New

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 197 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Guinea is one of the most diverse in the world, close to half of the city’s population live in slums. with thousands of separate communities and Similar issues have affected other urban areas an estimated 800 languages spoken in the in the country, such as the coastal city of Lae, country. Many communities continue to where an influx of migrants from rural areas live on subsistence agriculture in the isolated in Mamose, the New Guinea islands and the mountainous interior, although the presence Highlands Region has dramatically increased of natural resources such as forests and mineral the size of its informal settlements. Though the reserves in some indigenous areas has resulted in government, through its National Urbanization land grabbing, environmental devastation and Policy (NUP), has committed to improving other abuses. The country also faces governance infrastructure, services and urban management, challenges that persisted during 2014, with serious problems persist. an arrest warrant issued by the national anti- One major challenge in urban areas of Papua corruption watchdog for Prime Minister Peter New Guinea is violence. Urban conflict has O’Neill for alleged fraudulent payments. O’Neill increased as cities have become more ethnically subsequently fired the deputy police commissioner diverse, with tribal fighting – a frequent issue and stopped the watchdog’s funding, effectively between different ethnic groups in the country bringing its activities to a halt. – now normalized in major urban centres. The year 2014 saw the approval of Papua New Furthermore, Port Moresby is also plagued by Guinea’s application for Extractive Industry so-called ‘rascalism’. This phenomenon, centring Transparency Initiative (EITI) candidate status. around youth gangs defined along community This was an important move for a country and cultural lines, has reinforced ethnic division endowed with abundant natural resources, yet in in the capital. The decline of traditional conflict which the UNDP estimates that 40 per cent of resolution systems, such as village courts, has the population are living on less than US$1.25 meant that some communities have become more a day. It is hoped that the initiative will improve dependent on wantok for protection. Wantok – relations between communities and development literally meaning ‘one talk’, someone who speaks projects, as well as ensure that profits are the same language – previously served in part as a transparently directed back to the country and social support system among rural communities, its peoples. This is particularly the case for but in Port Moresby and other urban areas it ExxonMobil’s US$19 billion Liquefied Natural is frequently adapted to support identity-based Gas (LNG) project, which began production criminal gangs, in the process deepening urban in 2014. Nevertheless, rights violations against divisions. A particularly high-profile case of local communities continue to occur. In early ethnic violence occurred in January 2011, when 2015, for instance, 14 people, including 11 an argument between two men from different indigenous women and girls who were raped or highland provinces led to an outbreak of fighting violently molested at the Porgera Mine in the between factions of their communities that killed Papua New Guinea highlands, reached an out- five people. Women are especially vulnerable in of-court settlement with the world’s biggest gold Port Moresby, as the city has high levels of sexual mining company, Barrick Gold. Apart from these assault, domestic violence and rape. victims, at least 120 women have lodged claims of rape at the mine. Solomon Islands Although Papua New Guinea is the least The Solomon Islands are an archipelago of urbanized of the Pacific Island countries, with approximately 922 small islands. Ninety-five per less than 13 per cent of the population living in cent of the population is indigenous Melanesian, urban areas, this figure is somewhat deceptive with smaller Chinese, European, Micronesian due to the country’s large landmass. Papua New and Polynesian groups also resident. Due to the Guinea in fact has the largest urban population relative isolation of its communities, there are in the Pacific, while Port Moresby is the region’s many diverse languages, culture and traditions. most sizeable city. This has also led to significant For this reason, local governance systems, challenges, with some estimates suggesting that including familial ties, are often more important

198 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 than national political institutions. European and Vietnamese minorities, as well In November 2014, general elections saw as smaller groups of other indigenous peoples, Independent candidates secure 32 seats in the such as Futunans, i-Kiribati and Wallisians. The 50-seat parliament, which led to the formation of country has undergone a series of political crises a ruling coalition known as the Solomon Islands since the 1990s, resulting in numerous changes People’s Democratic Coalition (SIPDC) and the in leadership. The year 2014 also saw a change in election of Manasseh Sogavare as the country’s key leadership positions in the country, with then prime minister. Sogavare had served as prime Prime Minister Moana Carcasses Kalosil defeated minister from 2000 to 2001 and again from 2006 by Joe Natuman in a no-confidence vote on 15 to 2007. The election was the country’s first since May 2014. Presidential elections were held in an Australian-led peacekeeping operation, the September, resulting in the election of Baldwin Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands Lonsdale. (RAMSI), transitioned to a police-focused mission The year 2014 saw important changes to in 2013 following ethnic violence that gripped the Vanuatu’s legislation on indigenous land rights. country between 1997 and 2003. The new laws alter the Constitution to include Despite its return to stability, the Solomon recognition of customary institutions and Islands is struggling to cope with rapid urban establish a role for the Malvatumauri (National growth, particularly in the capital of Honiara, Council of Chiefs) in advising parliament on as a result of large-scale migration from rural changes to land law, as well as to strengthen the areas. Honiara has experienced a doubling of its control of customary institutions while reducing population in less than 17 years, and the city’s the power of the minister of lands over customary annual urban growth rate of 4.7 per cent is one land. It is hoped that this new legislation will of the highest in the Pacific. This is putting prevent leases on customary land being signed immense pressure on urban service delivery, off by the minister without the consent of the already in short supply, and leading to local communities – a recurring issue since the country tensions. gained independence in 1980. Honiara also faces the challenge of informal In terms of urbanization, Vanuatu has one urban settlements, where up to 35 per cent of of the region’s highest growth rates, and it Honiara’s residents – the majority of whom is projected that over half of the Vanuatu are indigenous islanders – now reside. While population will be based in urban centres by population growth and increasing rural–urban 2050. This is particularly the case in Port Vila, migration are significant factors contributing Vanuatu’s largest city, where ni-Vanuatu face to the growth of these informal settlements, a limited land availability – a situation that has lack of developable land for low- and middle- been exacerbated by the development of tourism- income earners also drives the trend. Besides related facilities and exclusive residential housing, poor living conditions and limited or no access leased on what was regarded until recently as to basic services such as sanitation, inhabitants inalienable indigenous land. As much as 80 per are at increased risk of natural disasters. Over cent of the coastland on Etafe Island, where Port 65 per cent of housing in informal settlements Vila is located, has been leased out. As a result, lacks durability, meaning that it would likely large tracts of territory have been walled off, not withstand strong winds or earthquakes. The restricting access to local beaches and marine settlements, some of which are located on steep resources. Some villages in peri-urban areas are slopes, are therefore at high risk of collapsing in now obstructed by commercial resorts and other the event of a natural disaster, leaving residents in developments that have blocked off swathes of a situation of extreme vulnerability. community land from public use. The impacts of this are especially acute for ni-Vanuatu Vanuatu inhabitants, who have a particularly close The majority of Vanuatu’s population are connection to the land – an essential element in indigenous Melanesian, known locally as their traditional culture and local livelihoods. ni-Vanuatu, though there are also Chinese, Although urban areas tend to have better

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 199 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 services than rural areas, poverty rates are highest in urban communities. A recent Case study by Anne-Marie Tupuola-Plunkett UNICEF study found that one-third of children in Port Vila live in poverty – a rate nearly 20 per cent higher than the national Resilience despite average. Living conditions for ni-Vanuatu in poorer settlements are also deteriorating as adversity – adapting a consequence of overcrowding and limited services or infrastructure. As a result, Port Vila’s indigenous poverty levels are 18 per cent, compared to 10 per cent in rural areas. Furthermore, lack of communities to access to safe water, sanitation or waste disposal facilities are contributing to deteriorating health climate change in outcomes among urban ni-Vanuatu. Many urban disenfranchised ni-Vanuatu women are the Pacific region particularly affected by poverty and excluded from paid employment. Vanuatu has been ranked by UN sources as Most of the Pacific region’s island states are still the country with the highest risk of experiencing predominantly rural, but rapid urbanization a natural disaster in the world. March 2015 saw is fragmenting indigenous societies and one of the worst disasters in its history when undermining traditional livelihoods. In the Cyclone Pam hit the island, displacing at least process, new forms of poverty and disadvantage 3,300 people and affecting more than half of its such as unemployment, delinquency and population. In Vanuatu, as with other Pacific inadequate nutrition are emerging in urban islands, large urban areas are especially vulnerable areas. The devastating impacts of climate due to the dense concentration of their change are now adding to these hardships, populations in disaster-prone coastal locations, particularly in the region’s most densely particularly the poorest and most marginalized. populated coastal settlements. In Port Vila, the cyclone destroyed makeshift The Pacific is one of the most vulnerable housing and weakened already limited basic parts of the world to climate change which, services, leaving many informal settlements in combined with limited resources and land, even deeper poverty. However, given the scale has left indigenous inhabitants and other of the disaster, the death toll remained relatively marginalized groups at the mercy of its effects. low, with 11 confirmed fatalities in the whole As highlighted by Aunese Makoi Simati, the of Vanuatu. While modern communications Tuvalu ambassador to the UN, at the 2015 and early warning systems helped reduce the Third World Conference on Disaster and Risk death toll, the particular characteristics of the Reduction, ‘[T]he word “vulnerable” goes hand indigenous communal houses – known as in hand with the words “small island” because nakamals – also proved critical. This was due there is no high ground. As Tuvalu is small, to their construction with lightweight materials flat and barely three metres above sea level, such as bamboo, as well as the use of traditional ‘“moving” means just going to the other side.’ design measures that strengthen their resilience to Many of the Pacific’s low-lying islands storms. ■ and atoll communities are already in fear of extinction or the evacuation of their communities due to rising sea levels, eroding coastlines and water contamination. At the same time, the impact of severe storms, cyclones, global warming and ocean acidification are threatening ecosystems, food

200 Asia and Oceania State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 security and indigenous livelihoods. Flooding, housing in Samoa. Thatched Samoan fales, landslides and other weather-related hazards are unlike westernized homes, have survived and also destroying homes and displacing families withstood extreme storms. Their oval shaped, from their ancestral lands, in the process open layout is resistant to strong winds and erasing heritage and sacred sites unique to the natural materials used in their construction these communities. Speaking of the flooding of are less dangerous than the corrugated iron cemeteries in the wake of Hurricane Pam, Simati and concrete blocks of modern houses. described how ‘we feel that even the dead are Training locals in the design and building calling for help’. of traditional Samoan architecture therefore Notwithstanding the adversity that climate promotes resilient housing and may also help change brings, Pacific communities are minimize the need for residential relocation. demonstrating remarkable resilience, ingenuity Climate change is a global challenge that and resourcefulness in responding to these affects all of humanity. The rich knowledge challenges. In the words of the Secretariat of and social capital of the Pacific’s indigenous the Pacific Regional Environment Programme populations in responding to climate change (SPREP), ‘adaptation to climate change is is now being disseminated across national and becoming a Pacific way of life’. The installation international borders through blogs, websites of storage tanks and innovative drainage systems and multimedia, supported by alliances has helped to diffuse water contamination and and partnerships with diverse agencies, potential health risks arising from unusually corporations and community organizations. long periods of drought and saltwater intrusion. A passive response is not an option, most Many Pacific communities are strengthening especially for Pacific indigenous communities, their biodiversity, planting dense vegetation and as their existence and survival already hang building sea walls, mindful of the risks of erosion in the balance. In moving forward, climate and landslides to the densely populated areas change must be viewed as a human rights along their coastlines. issue for all indigenous peoples, irrespective of For Samoa, an island group with a growing where they reside. ■ low-lying urban population, adaptation to climate change is often associated with deforestation and natural disasters. Thus adaptation strategies tend to address the links between climate change and disaster management. For instance, the Samoa Red Cross Society, under the Community Disaster and Climate Risk Management Programme, empowers indigenous communities to become more resilient in the face of disaster threats, as well as build on the skills and resources at hand. One project provides low-income families with free seeds and fertilizers, along with training on how to prepare vegetable beds, so they can grow non-traditional produce like cabbages, tomatoes and cucumbers. This strengthens adaptation by diversifying livelihoods and improving nutrition – both areas where climate change has led to heightened levels of risk. The increasing threat of climate change has also encouraged renewed interest in traditional

State of the World’s Minorities Asia and Oceania 201 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 ICELAND

ATL ANTIC FINLAND

OCEAN NORWAY SWEDEN RUSSIA

ESTONIA

LATVIA IRELAND UNITED DENMARK KINGDOM LITHUANIA Kaliningrad (Rus.) BELARUS NETHERLANDS GERMANY POLAND BELGIUM LUXEMBOURG CZECH REP. UKRAINE

SLOVAKIA

LIECH. MOLDOVA FRANCE SWITZERLAND AUSTRIA HUNGARY SLOVENIA ROMANIA CROATIA BOSNIA GEORGIA ANDORRA SAN MARINO SERBIA PORTUGAL AND HERZE. BLACK SEA MONACO MONTENEGRO AZERBAIJAN

Kosovo SPAIN BULGARIA ARMENIA MACEDONIA AZER. ITALY ALBANIA TURKEY GREECE

CYPRUS

MEDITERRANEAN SEA Europe Katalin Halász and Nurçan Kaya Europe Bill Bowring, Paul Iganski, Shorena Kobaidze, Nataliya Novakova, Tom Palmer and Federica Prina kraine dominated the headlines Below: A young Tatar activist holding the flag of during 2014, following the removal the Crimean Tatars on the Maidan, at a rally in U of then President Viktor Yanukovych Kiev, Ukraine, March 2014. Panos/Iva Zimova in January after weeks of unrest and the establishment of an interim government shortly the popularity of right-wing political groups afterwards. This was followed in late February in countries such as Hungary, where national by the seizure of the Crimean parliament elections in April saw the right-wing Jobbik building by pro-Russian armed separatists and group secure 20 per cent of the national vote a referendum in March, widely condemned on an anti-Semitic and anti-Roma ticket. These as unfair by international observers, that led sentiments have fed into the mainstreaming to Russia’s annexation of the region. Since of xenophobic and discriminatory policies for then, continuing into 2015, eastern Ukraine certain ethnic and religious minorities, such as has witnessed an escalation of conflict between targeted police checks, restrictive legislation and the government and separatist forces, causing other measures. widespread displacement and an increasingly While generally not officially sanctioned, the nationalistic environment in Russian-held areas. stance of authorities towards their minority and This situation has been especially difficult for indigenous communities can indirectly contribute minorities and indigenous peoples, particularly to a heightened risk of violence. Hate crime the Crimean Tatars. and hate speech, though occurring in a range of Rising nationalism, meanwhile, was evident contexts, has been especially evident in urban across Europe during the year, driven in large areas. Some of the most vulnerable groups in part by the protracted effects of the international Europe, such as migrants, Muslims and Roma, financial crisis and growing anxiety around are concentrated in cities and therefore offer immigration. This in turn has helped boost a visible target for attacks. But though these

204 Europe State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 groups are frequently blamed by racist groups Reformist bloc, a group of small pro-market for taking jobs or crime, it is more often the case parties. The coalition also secured the support that they are themselves excluded from urban of the nationalist Patriotic Front, whose policies labour markets and disproportionately affected as include building a wall on the Turkish border victims of violence. and limiting welfare support, of which the Roma In many cases, the social and political minority are among the principal recipients. marginalization of these communities is Tied for second place was DPS, the ethnic reinforced in European cities by physical distance Turkish minority party, with 15 per cent of the and separation. Within a context of widening vote. During the campaign DPS proposed a bill urban inequality and even in affluent capitals to make Turkish language lessons compulsory for such as Paris, black and Arab residents are being Turkish students in public schools. Under current pushed out into insecure, segregated suburbs. laws the language course is elective and the use Roma, too, are typically concentrated in poorer of Turkish during public election campaigning is settlements, often in sub-standard housing, banned. Shortly after the election, DPS proposed and stigmatized by official policies that often further bills in parliament to penalize ethnic encourage segregation or eviction. Without crimes committed during Communist rule in the targeted interventions and the creation of more country and to review the 1991 Revival Process inclusive urban planning, European cities risk laws which force ethnic Turks who are Bulgarian becoming even more inhospitable towards their citizens to accept Bulgarian names on official minorities. documents. However, in November the coalition Yet despite these challenges, across Europe government, prompted by the Patriotic Front, urban areas continue to attract and sustain suggested moving the twice-daily Turkish news minority and indigenous communities. Many bulletins from the national broadcasting stations disadvantaged groups remain in cities because to cable channels. they are better placed to access employment, Roma are still subjected to high levels of health care and education than outside them. discrimination. Estimates vary regarding the size There are plenty of examples, too, of thriving of the Roma population in Bulgaria. According to urban neighbourhoods across Europe where the 2011 census, there were over 325,000 Roma, a large minority or indigenous presence has constituting 4.9 per cent of the population. enriched these areas. The religious and ethnic However, commentators point to the fact that diversity of urban areas, though it can be a feelings of stigma may lead Roma to self-identify source of tension, has also created more tolerant as belonging to other groups; they put the figure and welcoming environments for these groups. at double the census results or even higher. These issues were demonstrated in Sweden when, More than half the community live in following several attacks on mosques at the end ghettoized neighbourhoods on the edge of urban of the year that included incidents of suspected centres. The remaining Roma population live in arson, fire bombing and vandalism, crowds poor isolated villages scattered throughout the gathered in Stockholm, Malmö, Gothenburg country. A 2012 study on housing deprivation by and other cities to participate in a so-called ‘love the European Foundation for the Improvement bombing’ – a collective show of support from of Living and Working Conditions found that fellow citizens for the Muslim community. Roma in Bulgaria are far more disadvantaged than nearby majority populations: for instance, Bulgaria they were ‘three times more likely to lack access Political instability continues to beset Bulgaria to improved forms of sanitation and almost eight in the wake of the collapse of the socialist- times as likely to live in sub-standard housing, led government in July after barely a year in such as shacks and other run-down buildings’. office. Snap elections in October resulted in Since 2010, the European Commission has a precarious coalition between former Prime overseen the national Bulgarian strategy for Minister Boyko Borisov’s centre-right GERB Roma integration and in the spring it published party, which garnered the most votes, with the the results of its latest assessment of their

State of the World’s Minorities Europe 205 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 situation. Although some progress was noted, Roma suburb of the city of Stara Zagora. Two it found that significant action was required in protesters were arrested and the demolition every area of implementation. Specifically, the eventually proceeded as planned. In December, report called for a constructive dialogue with Bulgaria’s health minister Petar Moskov faced the Roma community and the development of criticism when he suggested during a speech in anti-discrimination activities to support Roma parliament that ambulances should be barred integration. Positive initiatives for promoting from entering Roma neighbourhoods, claiming Roma inclusion were observed in the west of that medics were unsafe in predominantly Roma the country, where civil society, international areas. The Sofia-based human rights watchdog, donor organizations and local authorities are the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, described the working together to integrate Roma into the speech as ‘incitement to racial hatred’. wider community through initiatives such as In March the release on bail of a security desegregated school transport, extra-curricular guard charged with shooting and killing a Roma activities such as volunteering, microfinance teenager in 2013 triggered protests by minority and various mentoring schemes involving Roma groups, which were countered by nationalist youth. demonstrations. Civil society groups have Nevertheless, prejudice remains. Two reported a surge in nationalist and xenophobic incidents in the second half of 2014 highlight sentiment, leading to an increase in attacks on the problems that urban-dwelling Roma face ethnic and religious minorities. Unfortunately, in terms of lack of secure tenure and limited this xenophobia is shared by a significant portion access to basic services. In July, Roma residents of the population, as suggested by recent research of 55 houses scheduled for demolition clashed conducted by Sofia University which found that with riot police after forming a human chain half of the city’s residents would not want to live around their homes. The structures were deemed in a neighbourhood with African, Arab, Chinese illegal, having been built without permits in a or Roma communities.

206 Europe State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Left: Roma neighbours in front of their houses in by Bulgaria’s Chief Mufti to have properties the village of Vrachesh, Bulgaria, January 2015. historically owned by the Muslim community Bulgaria is home to one of the largest populations formally returned to the community. of Roma in the EU. REUTERS/Stoyan Nenov The situation of refugees in Bulgaria, particularly in urban areas, is illustrative Racist attitudes towards religious minorities of the discrimination faced by minorities. have been encouraged by Bulgaria’s nationalist Unused to hosting large numbers of refugees, political wing. In February, in spite of protests the government has been unable to respond from Jewish groups and the ethnic Turkish party, effectively to the influx of thousands of Syrian DPS, Bulgarian nationalists marched through refugees. According to the FCJ Refugee Centre, Plovdiv to commemorate Hristo Lukov, a Second Bulgaria previously received about 1,000 asylum World War general who espoused anti-Semitic seekers every year; in 2013, however, this figure and pro-Nazi views. The annual rally, which leapt to 9,100, with 4,000 coming from Syria is accompanied by pro-fascist and xenophobic alone. Though conditions appeared to improve slogans, had been banned from Sofia by the city’s later in the year, the influx has put pressure mayor. The march was organized by the far right on housing in urban areas and given rise to Bulgarian National Union. This was followed in xenophobic reactions. For example, in April June by the defacing of Sofia Central Synagogue residents of one village petitioned to evict three with pro-Nazi graffiti alongside a swastika. Syrian refugee families just two days after they According to the Anti-Defamation League, 44 moved into rented accommodation in the village. per cent of Bulgarians harbour anti-Semitic Konstantin Penchev, the National Ombudsman, attitudes – 10 per cent higher than the average said that their actions were a demonstration of for Eastern Europe as a whole. intolerance and could not be justified. Most of The extreme nationalist party Internal the refugees who remain in Bulgaria identify as Macedonian Revolutionary Organization Kurdish. In an interview with the FCJ Refugee continued to organize protests in front of the Centre, Nikolay Chirpanliev, the chairman courthouse in Pazardjik against the wearing of of Bulgaria Refugee Agency, described Syrian religious attire and the propagation of Islam. In refugees of Kurdish origin as ‘a lot worse than August the Chief Mufti of Bulgaria announced our Gypsies in every aspect’. This comment that there had been 12 hate crime attacks against demonstrates the high level of institutional Muslims and Muslim places of worship since prejudice against ethnic minorities. 2012. The most recent attack was reportedly on Karaja Pasha Mosque in July. France In a report on religious intolerance in The attack on the Paris offices of satirical Bulgaria in 2013, released in July, the US State magazine Charlie Hebdo on 7 January 2015 Department criticized the government for failing and the subsequent shootings at a Jewish to consistently protect religious freedom in the supermarket in the city’s eastern suburbs left country, citing incidences of anti-Semitism, 17 people dead, stunning a country already discrimination against Muslims and harassment struggling with social division and the rise of of Jehovah’s Witnesses. Given that the religious the far right National Front Party, who in April minority communities reside predominantly in 2014 won an unprecedented number of seats urban areas, Bulgaria’s cities and towns often in local elections on a strongly anti-immigrant provide the setting for the most severe examples ticket. In the aftermath of these events, President of xenophobia and hate speech. In February, for François Hollande restated commitment to example, over a thousand protesters attacked the protect freedom of expression, but also reiterated historic Dzhumaya mosque in Plovdiv, hurling the government’s responsibilities to end France’s bricks and fireworks at the building. Of the 120 extreme inequalities, including the ghettoization people detained by police, eight were charged of certain urban areas. The lack of social with hooliganism and received fines or other integration and spatial segregation of many of minor sentences. The protest followed moves France’s minorities, particularly its marginalized

State of the World’s Minorities Europe 207 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Above: French citizens gather at the Unity and their descendants in French society has March in Paris to protest against the attack on become a high priority for the government. Charlie Hebdo, France, January 2015. Kelly Kline Efforts have been further bolstered under the Hollande administration with a series of Muslim population, was acknowledged by interventions, including a €5 billion investment Manuel Valls, France’s Prime Minister, shortly in neighbourhoods where social disadvantage after the shooting when he described the is significant. However, research conducted on ‘territorial, social, ethnic apartheid’ at work in the the social exclusion experienced by immigrants capital, which has ‘relegated the poor and heavily in France concluded that the government’s immigrant population to ghetto-like suburbs of continued push for assimilation, together with Paris’. the French political tradition of secularism Studies have found that certain ethnic groups, (laïcité), may have prevented the state from such as those of African descent, find it harder tackling discrimination and in the process to move out of poor suburbs and are three times alienated some minorities. For example, France’s more likely to move into the least advantaged law banning the wearing of full-face coverings on neighbourhoods. Spatial segregation also has the grounds that their use reduced opportunities an impact on unemployment, with recent for ‘living together’ – a stance affirmed by the immigrants facing much longer commutes, European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in thereby restricting their access to jobs and July – has been condemned by Human Rights adding to the barriers already raised by frequent Watch (HRW) and other rights groups as a discrimination against individuals of North breach of the rights of freedom of religion and African origin. The inequalities evident in Paris’s expression. According to statistics gathered in suburbs or banlieues are visible in the poor level 2009, an estimated 1,900 Muslim women in of housing, high rates of unemployment and the France are affected by the full-face veil ban, securitization of these urban fringes. Although many of whom are well integrated into French tension has not reached the levels witnessed society. The ban has provoked significant public during the 2005 riots, violent crime in the debate regarding the potentially negative effects banlieues remains a serous concern. of laïcité. Naturally, the integration of immigrants According to a survey conducted in spring

208 Europe State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 2014 by Pew Research Center into European and support for the magazine, with a reference public opinion towards minorities, of the seven to gunman Amedy Coulibaly, Dieudonné was countries polled the proportion of French people deemed to be publicly supporting terrorism and with a favourable opinion of Muslims – 72 per was promptly detained by police. cent – was the highest. However, a human rights Later in January, shortly after the ‘Dieudonné report finalized in December and presented affair’, around 17,000 protesters marched by the Council of Europe’s Human Rights through the streets of Paris chanting racist, Commissioner Nils Muižnieks in February 2015 homophobic and anti-Semitic slogans. The indicated a rise in intolerance and racism across demonstration, dubbed the ‘Day of Anger’, France, particularly with regard to homophobic, ostensibly provoked by the government’s inability xenophobic and anti-Muslim incidents. There to counter unemployment, quickly descended were concerns in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo into a verbal assault on minorities. At least 150 attacks that hostility towards the Muslim protesters, mostly youth, were arrested and 19 population could increase further. policemen suffered injuries, including one who Anti-Semitic incidents have been on the rise in was seriously wounded. France as well as across Europe, nearly doubling The French government’s policies towards in France in the first seven months of 2014, its Roma population are an ongoing concern. compared with the previous year. According In 2014, 13,483 people were evicted by law to statistics published by the Jewish Agency enforcement agencies from 138 different for Israel, which encourages emigration to that locations. This figure was lower than the number country, the number of French Jews leaving for of Roma evicted in 2013, but remains high Israel remained steady at about 2,000 annually compared to neighbouring countries. until 2013, when it rose to 3,400 before peaking Many Roma are concentrated in communities at more than 7,000 during 2014. The agency on the edges of towns and cities with limited predicts that as many as 15,000 French Jews will access to basic services such as water and leave the country during 2015 in reaction to the sanitation. Roma face a number of obstacles in attack in January this year on the Hyper Cacher accessing education, employment and housing. supermarket in a Jewish neighbourhood of Paris, Their illegal camps are systematically demolished which left four hostages dead. However, Jewish by public authorities and many are often community leaders urged calm, noting that deported to their home countries. emigration would be giving in to terror – many One tactic employed to promote integration, pointed out that the person who helped hostages as an alternative to eviction, has been the to safety was a young Muslim. construction of so-called ‘insertion villages’, The already tense public debate regarding housing developments in existing towns, where anti-Semitism and freedom of speech was further certain Roma, selected using ‘social diagnostics’ polarized in January when French comedian on the basis of their education levels, language Dieudonné M’bala M’bala was criticized for a skills and job prospects, are rehoused in down-arm gesture called the quenelle, a gesture temporary facilities and provided with basic interpreted by some rights groups as an inverted services and schooling for a limited period. Nazi salute. It provoked Valls to issue a memo However these methods have been criticized for to police providing the legal justification for being akin to social engineering, with the new banning performances considered to be anti- settlements merely formalizing segregation and Semitic, such as those by Dieudonné. Twelve benefitting only a small sub-section of the Roma months later Dieudonné was in the spotlight population. once again when, a few days after the Charlie In June the intersecting issues of urban Hebdo attacks, he wrote on Facebook, ‘As far as disintegration and social discrimination against I am concerned, I feel I am Charlie Coulibaly.’ Roma and the banlieues were brought into stark By combining the popular slogan ‘Je suis Charlie’ relief when a group of around a dozen youth (meaning ‘I am Charlie’), used by thousands to from a north Paris estate abducted Darius, a express their grief for the murdered journalists 16-year-old Roma boy, from a nearby camp and

State of the World’s Minorities Europe 209 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Case study by Bill Bowring Little change, two decades on, for Turkey’s displaced Kurds

Turkey’s Kurdish community, besides being the largest minority in the country, is also one of the most discriminated against. Historically, Kurds are concentrated in the eastern and south-western parts of the country. Their situation deteriorated further following the outbreak of fighting in 1984 between the government and the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed opposition group fighting for self-determination. Increasing violence on both sides resulted in the displacement of millions of civilians. A major factor in Turkey’s rapid urbanization in recent decades, especially the main cities in south-eastern Turkey, was the policy of village destruction, which was central to Turkey’s internal conflict against the PKK. By 1994, at least 3,000 villages had been delibreately destroyed as part of this campaign. The European Court of Human Rights gave judgment in a number of cases and established that Turkey had destroyed Above: Syrian Kurd boys watch people coming many villages as part of a military strategy. In to the Thursday animal bazaar in Suruc, this context, urban centres such as Diyarbakır Turkey. Panos/Iva Zimova experienced rapid growth, tripling in size during the 1990s even as many residents the majority of them those who were originally themselves moved elsewhere in Turkey or uprooted by fighting between 1986 and 1995. abroad to escape the violence. IDMC reports that most have had to survive Though there is no consensus on how without external support, either in urban areas many exactly were displaced, reliable in relative proximity to their home villages or in estimates range between 1 and 3 million. cities in other regions of the country, often in low This legacy of displacement persists today, quality housing. with the Internal Displacement Monitoring Though the government has reportedly Centre (IDMC) estimating there to be at least undertaken periodic attempts to support return, 953,700 Kurdish internally displaced persons through village rehabilitation and compensation (IDPs) in Turkey as of December 2014 – for those displaced, as well as payments to those

210 Europe State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Canada included interviews with local researchers who described the ‘atmosphere of pressure’ and the ‘nationalist backlash’ that the Kurdish minority often experienced when in western Turkish cities. This poses significant challenges for their long- term integration and well-being. A large portion of Istanbul’s Kurdish population, for example, having been displaced during the conflict, were forced to move to the periphery of the city to live in areas with low rents or weak regulations where they could settle illegally. Many today are still living in neighbourhoods such as Karayollari, a spatially segregated neighbourhood that continues to struggle with high levels of unemployment and crime. Kurdish communities in Istanbul are facing new challenges, including gentrification. In one high-profile case, Kurds and Roma residents were evicted from informal settlements in Karayollari in order to make way for Avrupa Konutlari, an up-scale gated community comprising numerous high-rise buildings around a large swimming pool and aimed at middle-class commuters. Kurds living nearby have told journalists that they see the buildings as a provocation, while some admit that they welcome the job opportunities which the construction industry provides. At the same time, some commentators have highlighted that internal migration, even in difficult circumstances, can contribute to affected by the 2013 conflict, IDMC reports cohesion and also bring benefits to Kurds that as of 2009 only 187,000 IDPs had returned. and other marginalized groups in terms of However, the political will to implement greater life opportunities. Though studies on these changes has been questioned given that displaced households have highlighted the conditions in former villages often make return continued longing for return among many of unfeasible, with little in the way of basic services those displaced more than two decades ago, or livelihood options. Some areas still reportedly it is likely that others will remain in their contained landmines. With hundreds of new locations. As the country attempts to thousands of refugees from neighbouring Syria move towards lasting peace, support for those now settled in the country, the prospects of a wishing to return and more targeted urban speedy resolution are even slimmer. strategies to encourage the development and Those who have migrated out of the main inclusion of Kurdish communities in urban Kurdish-populated areas to western Turkish areas will be essential. ■ cities face other challenges. A 2012 study for the Immigration and Refugee Board of

State of the World’s Minorities Europe 211 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 beat him severely before dumping him in a car Right: A family of Syrian migrants who arrived park. Le Monde newspaper used their front page by boat to the island of Lesbos, Greece, 2014. editorial to criticize the government, saying the They now live in an apartment provided by an attack was ‘the result of several years of inefficient NGO. Panos/Carlos Spottorno public policy which maintains the misery of these Roma communities and allows the racism on anti-discrimination and the creation of a new latent in French society to prosper’. The Darius state agency on religious affairs in 2014, increased case served to highlight two central problems: attacks on Muslims and Jehovah’s Witnesses the precarious situation of the banlieues and the have been recorded across Georgia, including inhumane treatment of the Roma. Certainly numerous incidents in different villages where there are important questions to be answered the rights of Muslims were infringed by the local about the danger of allowing parallel societies population, often with the involvement of local to emerge and the lack of police control in authorities and police officers. Furthermore, marginalized areas of France’s cities. some civil society groups and religious leaders have expressed concern about the mandate of Georgia the newly established Agency of Religious Issues, In June, Georgia signed an association agreement fearing it might be used by the government to with the European Union (EU), initialled at control religious organizations. the Eastern Partnership Vilnius Summit of Despite the many positive legal developments November 2013. The agreement, which was in Georgia during the year, including the ratified by the Georgian parliament on 18 July, adoption of the 2014–20 National Human is a decisive step in the country’s reform process Rights Strategy and an action plan for its and includes provisons on the protection and implementation, other legislation had negative inclusion of minorities. As part of its developing implications for minorities in the country. In relationship with the EU, Georgia has also particular, the Law of Georgia on Stateless committed to a four-year communication and Persons and Refugees, adopted on 1 September, information strategy that explicitly underlines has decreased the length of visa-free stay for that specific efforts should be undertaken foreigners in Georgia from 360 days to 90 days to ensure that minorities in Georgia receive in any 180-day period. The law also cancelled information in a language that they understand. the visa-free regime with 24 countries. These new In May the government also adopted an anti- migration policies have created serious problems discrimination law that prohibits discrimination for foreigners who are permanent residents of on religious, ethnic or other grounds, though the Georgia and for former citizens of Georgia whose legislation was modified from its original version citizenship was suspended because they were following strong resistance from the Orthodox granted citizenship of another country. Among Church, particularly over its provisions on sexual those affected are ethnic Armenians living in orientation. Georgia’s southern Samtskhe-Javakheti region, Though Georgia contains a variety of religious since many travel to Russia every year to work as minority communities, including Muslims, manual labourers. Before the passing of the new various non-Orthodox Christian denominations legislation, Armenian citizens were able to live and other faith groups such as Bahá’i, in Georgia without any additional documents, with freedom of religion guaranteed in the as long as they crossed a state border once every Constitution, the majority Orthodox Church has year. played an increasing role in recent years in the Georgia’s urban landscape has changed rapidly country’s political life. Numerous human rights since its independence in 1991. The transition organizations have highlighted instances where towards a market economy was accompanied the Orthodox Church has received preferential by economic decline and increasing regional treatment from the state, while at the same time disparities due to the difficulties of moving many minority communities have experienced from a rural to an urban economy. Much of the discrimination. Despite its legislative framework country’s urban life is concentrated in the capital,

212 Europe State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Tbilisi, where almost half of the country’s urban to manage Greek debt, many Greeks have population is based. While Tbilisi is responsible been impoverished by unemployment, wage for over 50 per cent of national production, limits, reduced welfare benefits and rising other regions are less developed. For example, household costs. At the same time, Greece the regions of Samtskhe-Javakheti and Kvemo has also experienced a large influx of migrants Kartli – the only two of Georgia’s nine regions and refugees due to its geographic proximity in which minorities make up a majority of the to areas of conflict and displacement in the population – have struggled to keep up with Middle East. The Greek coastguard detained the rapid economic growth of the capital. Both over 17,000 undocumented migrants, over half remain predominantly agricultural regions. from Syria, in the first eight months of 2014 Rural–urban disparities have reinforced existing alone. Inadequacies in the Greek asylum system inequalities experienced by certain minority over the last decade have resulted in thousands populations. These gaps are especially evident of migrants trapped in detention centres, in terms of service access: for example, only suspended in a legal limbo without the necessary 29 per cent of the households in Samtskhe- documentation. The European Commission Javakheti and 44 per cent in Kvemo Kartli have against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) noted in bathroom facilities. Regional disparities, poverty its December 2014 ECRI Report on Greece that in and unemployment have been flagged as key the centre of Athens many migrants rent and live priorities by the government in the new Social- in sub-standard accommodation, often deprived Economic Development Strategy for 2020, which of access to public social welfare services, with an if implemented could benefit a large proportion increasing number who are homeless. According of Georgia’s minorities. to the report, NGOs are barred by law from providing housing to undocumented migrants, Greece adding to the destitution. Under the continuing burden of recession As the large-scale influx has coincided with and austerity measures imposed by the EU one of Greece’s worst economic and social crises

State of the World’s Minorities Europe 213 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 for decades, attitudes towards the migrant and refugee population in Greece appear to be among Case study by Linda Szabó the most negative in Europe. A Pew Research Center survey of seven EU countries (France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Spain and the How the redevelop- United Kingdom) in spring 2014 found that anti-immigrant sentiment was highest among ment of Józsefváros respondents in Greece (86 per cent). At its extreme, hostility towards migrants and is pushing out refugees has extended to racist violence which has blighted some urban areas. According to Budapest’s the Greek Racist Violence Recording Network (RVRN) annual report for 2014, well over minorities half of the incidents of hate crime recorded by the network in 2014 were committed against immigrants or refugees. The majority of attacks In recent years Budapest’s most stigmatized occurred in public places or on public transport, neighbourhood, Józsefváros, has been often in the centre of Athens in neighbourhoods undergoing significant change. ‘Józsefváros with concentrations of immigrant and refugee is being rebuilt,’ goes the municipality’s residents. In the great majority of cases the slogan – the only question is for whom. While victims believed they were targeted because of Józsefváros has long been one of the city’s most their ethnic identity and other characteristics diverse areas, with the highest concentration marking them out as ‘foreigners’, such as skin of Roma and migrant populations, the local colour and religion. Half of the attacks were municipality’s plans for the area threaten reportedly carried out by groups of offenders, to displace its most underprivileged groups, apparently including extremist groups. A number including poor minorities. of the incidents were allegedly perpetrated by Józsefváros has always been attractive for police officers; some occured in police stations newcomers and migrating traders, though, and detention centres. While providing a picture beginning with the arrival in the late 19th of the racist and xenophobic violence occurring century of Jewish merchants and then Roma in urban areas in Greece, these incidents are musicians, who moved here to play at local likely to represent only a fraction of racist restaurants. But while Józsefváros – with the crimes committed given that many (especially exception of the Palace Quarter – was never undocumented) victims are reluctant to report considered an affluent part of town, the them. appearance of slums in the area only became In addition to hostility against migrants obvious in the 1960s as plans to refurbish and refugees, negative attitudes prevail about other minorities in Greece. Public attitudes towards Jews in Greece appear to be among the most negative in Europe. Almost half (47 per cent) of the respondents in Greece in the 2014 Pew Research Center survey were unfavourable towards Jews. Another survey, the Anti-Defamation League’s ADL Global 100, also suggested that anti-Semitic attitudes were more prevalent in Greece than other European nations: 69 per cent of the survey’s respondents in Greece were judged to be harbouring anti- Semitic attitudes on the basis of their agreement with anti-Semitic tropes presented in survey

214 Europe State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 public housing stock were not implemented. facility, and closure took place in June 2014. At that time, due to the serious shortage of Presumably, the municipality expects further residential housing in Budapest, multiple familes growth in the number of upwardly mobile or were forced to share apartments and the local upper middle-class residents in the district – council did not allocate sufficient funds for the most of whom at present are concentrated in maintenance of its buildings. a part of the district that already underwent Subsequently, from the mid-1970s, a significant redevelopment in the early 2000s. construction boom allowed the most affluent This first major renewal project of the district tenants to flee the overcrowded and deteriorating was carried out in public–private partnership tenement houses. At the same time, a state-led as old social housing blocks were demolished programme which dismantled the impoverished to accommodate private developments, raising Roma colonies on the outskirts forced many property prices in the area to the highest in the families to move into inner city neighbourhoods district – in the process making housing for such as Józsefváros. By the 1980s, the area had the original tenants unaffordable. A significant become highly stigmatized due to its bad housing number of the more than 1,000 households stock, the relatively high number of poor Roma evicted from the neighbourhood were Roma. and the concentration of criminal activities such Some of them were able to stay in the district, as prostitution in certain neighbourhoods. but others had to leave, including many who The country’s reintegration into the global decided to take cash compensation instead of market economy has only worsened the situation another apartment. of those living in the district. Although most It is very likely that, in the coming years, apartments were quickly privatized over the other housing blocks will be demolished, and 1990s, the highest number of social houses the original tenants as well as retailers catering remained in District 8. The local municipality to the current local communities will have to could not sell its property, either because it move. The district mayor has publicly promised was not allowed to by law due to the poor to transform the area from a ‘ghetto full of housing conditions or because the tenants criminals’ to a ‘university town’, yet it is unclear could not afford to buy their residences. The to what extent minorities and other marginalized efficiency of social regeneration projects based groups will be able to share in this vision. This on the accessibility of EU funds has been very form of urban regeneration is supported by limited so far. At the same time, more and more the national government, too, which recently migrants became interested in certain disused designated a campus area for a newly established areas following the collapse of state socialism; university in the district. The new reconstruction for instance, the underutilized land around project, as opposed to the previous one, is Józsefváros railway station was occupied by being carried out mainly from public funding Chinese and other migrant traders. and will affect around 2,200 households until Yet despite the fact that these migrant-run the end of 2017. The redevelopment includes businesses have provided poorer residents plans to replace social housing with university with lively and inexpensive retail areas, their buildings, again threatening the living space contribution has never been recognized. On of Roma families concentrated in the area. the contrary, their operation is often presented Unless the local housing movement is able to negatively in public media. Though the local successfully stand up for the rights of the tenants municipality has not launched a directly concerned by both the continuing public–private xenophobic or racist campaign, in 2013 it partnership development and the national decided to close down the 23-year-old Chinese government-led project, a number of the current market, reportedly to construct a local sports inhabitants may be pushed out to the margins of Budapest or even outside the city altogether – a Left: A derelict building in Józsefváros, situation that will leave them even more invisible Budapest, 2014. Neményi Márton than before. ■

State of the World’s Minorities Europe 215 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 questions. However, despite the apparently high through the National Strategy for the Social level of anti-Jewish sentiment in Greece suggested Integration of Roma 2012–20. Legislation in by these surveys, incidents of violence against 2011 promised an overhaul of Greece’s asylum Jews appear to be infrequent. This may be due system. This was delayed, in part by government to the small size of Greece’s Jewish minority – austerity measures, but the UN refugee numbering a little over 5,000 people, residing agency (UNHCR) has recently noted some mostly in the cities of Athens, Larissa and improvements, including reduced waiting times Thessaloniki. However, cemeteries, Holocaust and better quality of interviews. Nevertheless, memorials and other sites have been targeted, in January 2015, UNHCR maintained that with the number of incidents in 2014 reportedly other EU countries should not return asylum exceeding the total for 2012 and 2013 together, seekers to have their applications processed according to the Antisemitism Worldwide in Greece – a clear sign that more still needs 2014 report. This included, in December, the to be done. The new government, elected in vandalization of a Jewish cemetery in Larissa with January 2015, has released many detainees from swastikas and abusive graffiti. Notably, however, immigration detention centres and promised there were no personal physical attacks against further reform. However, tensions persist in Jews reported. the areas in which undocumented migrants and Conditions for Greece’s Roma community, refugees are concentrated. Municipal authorities, estimated to be in the region of 265,000 persons, especially in Athens, have struggled to provide or approximately 2.5 per cent of the population, adequate support and housing. Some local are characterized by social exclusion and business people and residents blame migrants deprivation. Many Roma live in sub-standard for the ghettoization and deterioration of housing with inadequate water supply and sewage their neighbourhoods; however, this does not facilities on the periphery of urban areas and on acknowledge the constraints faced by migrants the edge of small towns and villages. Roma have without the necessary legal documentation. also been subject to racist abuse and violence. In November 2014, three men were convicted of a Latvia violent racist attack on a Roma woman Paraskevi While Russians comprise the largest of Latvia’s Kokoni and her nephew in the town of Etoliko, minorities, amounting to over a quarter (27.2 per western Greece, in the previous year. The victim cent) of the population, the country includes a believed that she was targeted because she is a diverse range of smaller ethnicities as well. There relative of a leader of the local Roma community. are also, in a country with a population totalling This attack did not occur in isolation, but in 2.1 million, more than 270,000 ‘non-citizens’: the context of a series of threats and attacks this category was introduced after Latvia’s attributed to members and supporters of the declaration of independence from the Soviet extreme right-wing Golden Dawn party. Union to designate former Soviet citizens without Despite the strain on the Greek state in direct links to the pre-Soviet Latvian Republic. managing Greece’s financial and social crisis These people were not granted automatic Latvian there have been some positive developments. citizenship; instead they became ‘non-citizens’ In September 2014 a new anti-racism law eligible for naturalization subject to conditions – was adopted by the Greek parliament which including passing Latvian language tests. strengthened the response to racist violence The naturalization process has since been and incitement. An extensive investigation of simplified through successive legal amendments, Golden Dawn was pursued across 2014. The mostly to satisfy the conditions of EU parliamentary immunity of all Golden Dawn membership, which was obtained in 2004. But MPs was removed and they were charged with while more than 142,000 were granted citizenship membership of a criminal organization, along between 1995 and January 2014, applications for with other criminal charges. Incremental gains naturalization have since fallen. Moreover, while are being made in improving living conditions the children of ‘non-citizens’ may be registered as and attacking the social exclusion of Roma Latvian citizens by at least one parent – and many

216 Europe State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 parents have chosen to do so – in July 2014 there were still over 8,700 ‘non-citizen’ children, their Case study by Dobroslawa Wiktor-Mach parents having refrained from registering them. The reasons for this included: parents’ belief that citizenship should be granted automatically; Remembering insufficient knowledge of existing registration procedures; and more favourable travel conditions Warsaw’s Jewish to some Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries for ‘non-citizens’. According to community 2012 official figures, while 99.8 per cent of ethnic Latvians had Latvian citizenship, there was a through heritage much higher incidence of non-citizenship among those belonging to other ethnic groups: 34 per conservation cent of Russians, 54.6 per cent of Belarusians and 55.6 per cent of Ukrainians. While ‘non-citizens’ have continued to have Before the outbreak of the Second World War, access to rights such as social benefits, they have when Poland was home to the largest Jewish not been granted voting rights and access to some community in Europe, more than 380,000 forms of employment, mostly in the civil service. Jews lived in Warsaw. During the war, A survey conducted in May and June by the however, the Nazis annihilated the majority research centre SKDS among people belonging to of the city’s Jewish population and destroyed national minorities (Belarusians, Poles, Russians, much of their physical heritage. Under Ukrainians and others) showed that 58 per cent Communist rule, the surviving synagogues of respondents agreed with the statement ‘I am and other Jewish buildings deteriorated further proud of being Latvian’, up from 35 per cent in due to neglect. Only a few monuments were 2009. Yet 80 per cent of minority ‘non-citizens’ protected as valuable historic sites. stated that they did not wish to acquire Latvian With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the citizenship, while only 11.3 per cent planned first efforts to rediscover Warsaw’s forgotten to apply for it (the remaining 8.1 per cent were heritage emerged. But it was not until February uncertain). In light of these findings, in August 1997, when the Law on the Relationship Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma conceded between the State and the Union of Jewish that ‘too little has been done in the field of Religious Communities was adopted, that the community cohesion’, while the importance long process of restituting Jewish communal of national unity was stressed in the context of heritage began. The law also provided for the Ukrainian crisis. Straujuma added that the the establishment of the Foundation for the government would intensify efforts to provide Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland Latvian language training and facilitate citizenship (FODZ) to reclaim and administer synagogues, acquisition. cemeteries and other sites, especially outside Public protests, particularly with the large cities where there was no longer a Jewish participation of Russians/Russophones, were population to take care of them. The same year triggered in early 2014 by an agreement among also witnessed the revival of the Warsaw Jewish coalition members of the former government, Community, the largest of the eight Jewish proposing that publicly funded minority schools municipalities operating in major Polish cities incrementally switch to education in the state and which together form the Union of Jewish language. Existing legislation has provided for Religious Communities in Poland. Latvian to be employed in no less than 60 per So far, the Foundation and the Communities cent of teaching time, while the remaining time have become the owners of only a small portion can be devoted to other (both minority and of Poland’s Jewish physical heritage. Besides foreign) languages. Approximately a quarter the restoration, reconstruction and protection of students have been receiving part of their

State of the World’s Minorities Europe 217 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 of existing buildings, there are also efforts to function for the city’s Jewish population, is commemorate pre-war Jewish communities a venue for cultural events, such as concerts, with monuments and memorial plaques, often debates or exhibitions. in cooperation with local non-Jewish residents. Lingering anti-Semitism continues to threaten However, limited funding and insufficient the survival of Warsaw’s Jewish heritage as well, capacity has meant that the Warsaw Jewish with occasional acts of vandalism at cemeteries, Community is only able to deal with one or two synagogues or other monuments. In February projects at any time. 2015, for instance, an unknown group of people The subject of Jewish physical heritage remains defaced the fence of the Okopowa Street cemetery, controversial, however. There is no consensus on an old but still active cemetery managed by the how the reclaimed buildings should be used since Jewish Warsaw Community. The gate was spoiled the number of Jews living in Poland is very small, with yellow paint and on the walls vandals painted and they cannot afford to maintain all Jewish in red: ‘Jews for slaughter.’ According to FODZ’s properties. Should the synagogues be preserved as annual reports, several such incidents take place architectural monuments due to their historical in Poland every year, mostly consisting of anti- value? Should they be retained for their symbolic Semitic slogans or swastikas painted on buildings value to remind people of Poland’s multicultural or other forms of damage inflicted on memorial past? Should they be sold for commercial use? plaques, graves and fences. Though the incidents Or perhaps, should they serve local, mostly non- are reported to the police, in most cases the Jewish communities, who will then take care perpetrators are never found. of them? There is no clear vision about this. In One way to raise social awareness of Poland’s Warsaw, apart from an active mikvah located minority heritage is through education, in the historical Nożyk synagogue, the building especially in a form which is attractive to of an old mikvah in Praga houses a secondary younger generations. A lot of hope has been school and the Polish Jewish Youth Organization. invested in the new Museum of the History The Nożyk synagogue itself, besides its religious of Polish Jews, which inaugurated its main multimedia exhibition on 28 October 2014 after years of preparation. It is hoped that the museum, with its innovative approach to commemoration, will engage visitors by linking the multi-faceted Jewish life directly to Polish history. Contemporary art, performance and new technologies are employed to enrich the experience and give visitors the opportunity to explore Jewish heritage. Instead of focusing on the Holocaust, the exhibition – developed by an international team of over 120 respected researchers, activists and curators – presents the rich history of Jewish life in Poland, based on the idea of an open-ended past. In doing so, it emphasizes the continuity of Jewish heritage throughout Poland’s history, testifying not only to the immeasurable loss Warsaw has suffered but also the continued enrichment Jewish culture brings to the city today. ■

Left: Inside the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. Magdalena Roeseler

218 Europe State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 education in a minority language, mostly integration of Roma children. Moreover, in Riga, Russian. Plans for near-monolingual education compared to other parts of the country, there were ultimately set aside. seems to be better majority–minority dialogue Roma remain one of the most marginalized on the issue of education and linguistic policies, groups in Latvia and still suffer disproportionately while nearly half of schools provide bilingual from discrimination in areas such as employment education. and education, as well as being victims of racist attacks. In December 2014 the ECRI issued Russia conclusions on the implementation of its 2011 According to the 2010 census, nearly 20 per recommendations to improve the integration cent of the Russian Federation’s population of Roma in schools. Roma children have been identify themselves as belonging to ethnic at times placed in separated schools or classes, groups other than the Russian majority and with added problems relating to poor school there are more than 170 peoples recognized attendance and low educational achievements. in the country, including indigenous peoples. Despite efforts to facilitate their integration in Diversity is entrenched in the very structure of the education system, the percentage of Roma the Federation, with 21 ethnic republics in which children who attended special needs schools local languages are recognized as official alongside increased from 10.6 per cent in 2011 to 16.1 per Russian. Despite this, under President Vladimir cent in the academic year 2013/14. Putin an emphasis has been placed – in official In 2014 Latvia’s levels of urbanization were discourse, the education system and the media just below 70 per cent and predicted to slightly – on national unity and Russian patriotism, a increase in the coming decades, although trend that continued during 2014. Throughout unemployment and economic austerity have the year, authorities continued to repress civil contributed to emigration, which is particularly society organizations, including those working felt in large cities. Latvian cities such as Riga on minority and indigenous peoples’ rights, and Dagavpils often have a high proportion of through the application of the controversial Russian speakers. The Russophone minority 2012 ‘Foreign Agents’ law that requires NGOs is represented in Latvian municipal organs, in receipt of foreign funding and engaged in particularly in Riga, where the parties supported ‘political activities’ to register as an ‘organization by Russian speakers have generally performed performing the functions of a foreign agent’. well in local elections. Since 2009 the mayor of Among others, the Anti-Discrimination Centre Riga has been an ethnic Russian, Nils Ušakovs. (ADC) Memorial, which had campaigned against The majority of Latvia’s Roma are also city discrimination against Roma and migrants, dwellers, residing in the cities of Riga, Jelgava closed its office in St Petersburg in April 2014 and Ventspils. Latvia’s Roma became largely following a court ruling requiring it to register as settled in the post-war period, while post- a ‘foreign agent’. independence they have moved from rural to In March, following civil unrest and protests urban areas, and from smaller to larger towns, in Ukraine, Russia annexed Crimea after a given the disappearance of collective farms. referendum that was condemned by international Roma often live in overcrowded housing and are observers as neither free nor fair. Unsurprisingly, affected by social exclusion. Research conducted this development and continued fighting with in various Latvian cities and towns has revealed a pro-Russian armed separatists in eastern Ukraine high level of intolerance towards a range of ethnic has had a profound impact on Russian society. groups, particularly Roma. Among its consequences has been the acute At the same time, urban areas in some politicization of issues concerning Ukraine, and instances provide opportunities to advance at times direct harassment of Ukrainians residing minority rights. For example, public discussions in Russia. For example, in April 2014, a swastika and training seminars have been held in was painted on the door of the flat belonging to a various cities of Latvia for teaching assistants of Ukrainian residing in Vologda, while flyers were Roma ethnicity with a view to facilitating the stuffed in the mailboxes of other residents in the

State of the World’s Minorities Europe 219 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Below: A young Uzbek migrant sells SIM cards developments in Ukraine have overshadowed outside a metro station after leaving his family the actions of ultra-nationalists, resulting in their in Andijan, Uzbekistan to find work in Moscow. public events, such as anti-immigration rallies, Zachary John Krahmer gaining less media attention and public support than in previous years. same building ‘informing’ them, through the The conditions of migrant workers have use of derogatory terms, that a Ukrainian lived continued to deteriorate. Migration regulations there. While such direct harassment has been are continuously modified and are becoming uncommon, Ukrainians have reportedly been increasingly restrictive. In addition to affected by a general atmosphere of intimidation, bureaucratic difficulties in obtaining work and particularly in light of the state media’s biased residence permits, since 2013 law enforcement coverage of events, routinely linking Ukrainian officials have used particularly repressive means nationalists to fascism. At the same time, to crack down on illegal immigration. Measures

220 Europe State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 have included police raids and the rounding minorities such as Roma – vulnerable to police up of people on the basis of their ‘non-Slavic abuse, leading to illegal searches, arbitrary appearance’. For example, between 23 October detention and extortion of bribes. Ultra- and 2 November 2014 the Moscow authorities nationalist groups have carried out their own implemented ‘Operation Migrant 2014’, attacks on migrants, in a form of vigilantism reportedly arresting 7,000 migrants in the first seeking to combat crimes allegedly perpetrated four days, in some instances resorting to violence; by ethnic minorities and illegal immigration. some of those arrested had administrative The groups most at risk of ethnically motivated or criminal charges brought against them. A violence have been people of ‘non-Slavic similar operation took place in St Petersburg in appearance’, particularly people from the North September and October 2014. The absence of Caucasus (Russia’s southern republics), the South registration or even identity documents has made Caucasus and Central Asia, as well as Roma. migrants – and some particularly disadvantaged The SOVA Centre’s preliminary data for 2014 indicate that 19 people were killed and 103 injured in Russia as a result of hate crime; as in previous years, most victims were from Central Asia and the Caucasus. Instances of hate crime can go unreported. For example, the Moscow Helsinki Group in 2014 documented cases of Meskhetian Turks in the south of Russia who had been victims of ethnically motivated attacks, and who did not report these instances to the police – due to fear of reprisals and distrust of law enforcement officials themselves. Meskhetian Turks are a minority who have been subjected to widespread harassment and discrimination, and hundreds of whom are still reportedly stateless. Indigenous peoples, besides enduring higher unemployment rates, poorer standards of living and lower life expectancy, face limited opportunities for political participation. In September, representatives of indigenous peoples’ organizations were prevented from leaving Russia to attend the UN World Conference on Indigenous Peoples in New York. Various means were used to this end, including obstructing their journey to the airport (e.g. Valentina Sovkina, head of the Saami parliament of Kola Peninsula), or the confiscation of passports at Sheremetyevo airport before their flight (e.g. Rodion Sulyandziga, director of the Centre for Support of Indigenous Peoples of the North). As in previous years, 2014 saw poor implementation of the legal rights of indigenous peoples, which include their free access to lands in ‘territories of traditional nature use’ (TTNUs). These are protected territories, which require impact assessments before the exploitation of their natural resources (oil, gas and metals) or

State of the World’s Minorities Europe 221 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Above: A Roma woman in Ukraine, June 2014. their parents, tend to have lower educational Steve Evans standards than regular schools. This can make the preservation of their languages, many of construction projects (such as pipelines and which are on the verge of extinction, logistically dams) can take place. Though Russian law difficult: the remoteness of these locations, and provides that TTNUs are to be established at the vast distances between speakers of these the federal, regional and local levels – and some languages, complicate the organization of own- TTNUs have been designated at the regional language tuition. level (Khanty-Mansi Autonomous okrug and Levels of urbanization in Russia are high: Khabarovsk krai) – the federal authorities have nearly three-quarters of its population live in continued to refrain from designating TTNUs urban areas. Small villages have continued to at the federal level. Moreover, in December be depopulated as their inhabitants – including 2013 the definition of TTNU changed from those belonging to minorities – have left ‘specially protected natural territories’ to ‘specially rural areas for cities to seek employment protected territories’. This lowers the legal status opportunities. This trend leads to the of such territories and eliminates requirements to reduction in the number of locations where conduct environmental impact assessments before people belonging to the same minority live in commercial projects are implemented. substantial numbers, reinforcing a tendency Two-thirds of the approximately 250,000 among new generations growing up in persons belonging to indigenous communities urban areas that are effectively monolingual. do not reside in urban areas: they are scattered Moreover, ongoing plans for the ‘optimization’ around two-thirds of Russia’s territory, often in of the education system have led to the closure regions with limited access to public transport of small village schools, which are more likely or means of communication. As a result, they than city schools to teach minority languages, do not benefit from the essential infrastructure or to provide instruction through the medium and political institutions available in urban areas, of these languages. frequently leading to their social and political While access to services is generally better marginalization. Their children often have no in cities than in rural areas, some of those choice but to study in special boarding schools belonging to minorities residing in urban centres which, in addition to separating children from continue to experience extremely poor living

222 Europe State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 conditions. This is particularly the case with institutions, while state buildings were then seized Roma settlements and the typically overcrowded by armed rebels in the provinces of Donetska and areas where migrant workers reside. Both groups Luganska in eastern Ukraine. In response, the have remained affected by sub-standard living Ukrainian government deployed soldiers to these conditions due to poverty and discrimination. areas, leading to direct conflict with separatist Announcements of housing for rent are often forces in June that, despite multiple attempts to accompanied by statements ‘only for Russians’ reach a ceasefire, continued throughout 2014 and or ‘only for Slavs’, resulting in darker-skinned into 2015. As of April 2015, parts of Luganska people being penalized. Roma have at times and Donetska remain under separatist control. been subjected to expulsion from their According to UN estimates, the conflict had settlements and the destruction of their houses, led to around 6,000 people killed and another without alternative accommodation being 15,000 injured between April 2014 and the end provided. These groups have further been the of February 2015. The conflict also triggered a targets of ‘special operations’ carried out by law wave of internal displacement amid increasing enforcement officials, nominally for document insecurity, with hundreds of thousands of checks but often leading to ill-treatment. civilians – including many from ethnic or Cities have also been the location of the religious minorities – affected. majority of violent attacks against minorities: Though the uprising against the Yanukovych according to the SOVA Centre, in 2014 most government was not motivated primarily by such incidents occurred in Moscow and St ethnic concerns, the subsequent annexation of Petersburg. On 15 May, hundreds of football fans Crimea and the separatist seizure of territory in Moscow chanted racial abuse and nationalist in eastern Ukraine with suspected Russian slogans as they marched to a migrants’ dormitory, involvement has deepened existing political before being stopped through the intervention divisions in the country that correlate with of the riot police. Raids took place on commuter ethnicity. Troublingly, one of the first acts of and underground trains throughout the year, the interim government in February 2014 was perpetrated by right-wing extremists. In some the voting in of a controversial amendment to instances those who tried to defend ‘non-Slavs’ 2012 legislation on minority languages, which were themselves physically attacked. recognized Russian as a second official language in some areas of Ukraine. Its annulment could Ukraine have deepened the tensions between Russian Demonstrations in late 2013 against the speakers and other linguistic minorities in the government of Viktor Fedorovych Yanukovych, country. However, the move provoked criticism in response to his decision to abandon a planned from rights activists and the recently appointed agreement with the EU, intensified in early president of the interim government, Aleksandr 2014 when hundreds were killed or injured in Turchinov, subsequently announced that it violent clashes between protesters and authorities would not be implemented. before Yanukovych was removed from office on Another legislative development related to 21 February. Shortly afterwards, as an interim minority and indigenous peoples’ rights, this government was formed in Kiev, pro-Russian one positive, was the amendment of Ukraine’s militias seized control of the Crimean parliament existing anti-discrimination laws in May. The building with the stated intention of declaring revisions added new definitions, strengthened independence from Ukraine. Following a protections for victims and expanded the powers controversial referendum on 16 March that was of the Ukraine’s Commissioner for Human condemned by international observers as neither Rights. However, human rights defenders have free nor fair, Crimea was formally annexed by noted significant problems with implementation Russia – a situation enforced by the growing and stressed the importance of practical support, presence of Russian troops. such as free legal assistance for victims and From April, Russia had gained control over training for law enforcement agencies, to reduce much of the region and began establishing state hate crimes and other forms of discrimination.

State of the World’s Minorities Europe 223 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 The need for adequate protection is especially welfare. Furthermore, from the first stages of the acute for Ukraine’s growing population of IDPs, conflict, ethnically motivated violence against the many of them from minority or indigenous community appears to have escalated. In April communities. Until recently a migration hub 2014, a joint statement by the European Roma due to its location between the EU and Russia, Rights Centre and other rights organizations Ukraine now faces mass internal displacement as a highlighted the rising levels of violence directed result of the conflict. As of April 2015, the country against Roma. This included, among other had close to 1.3 million IDPs concentrated largely incidents, an attack on a Roma community in the eastern provinces. Women and children earlier in the month in Sloviansk, with residents constitute the majority of IDPs as men tend to beaten and their homes looted. Following the stay home, either for work-related reasons or in attack, Roma residents fled the city. At the end an attempt to protect family property. One of of April, a Roma family’s house in Cherkassy was the most pressing issues is the integration of IDPs set on fire after weeks of intimidation from locals, in new communities, particularly for minorities, with the police reportedly failing to intervene to who often face disproportionate challenges during protect the victims. displacement. Very few have been able to find jobs The conflict also had a negative impact on the since their displacement, with most relying on lives of religious minorities. In Donbas, the active savings, family assistance or limited social benefits efforts of Protestant pastors to provide shelter to survive. Many cannot even search for jobs as to IDPs, distribute humanitarian assistance and they have to take care of small children, pensioners take civilians out of the zone of conflict led to or disabled persons. frequent intimidation, theft and violence from Housing is another area where IDPs have separatists. After parts of eastern Ukraine fell experienced difficulties. As the state did not have under separatist control, many churches and emergency infrastructure in place to accommodate religious facilities, particularly those belonging displaced civilians from the conflict zone, to evangelical Christian sects, were expropriated resettlement has been ad hoc and varied according and community members forced to leave their to the policies of the regional or local authorities. possessions. As a result, a large proportion have been housed Much of the conflict has been concentrated in dilapidated sanatoriums, dormitories, summer in urban areas such as Donetsk and Luhansk, as camps and other forms of sub-standard shelter. well as other smaller cities in the eastern conflict These facilities are often located in isolated zones, with rising casualties among civilians locations outside urban areas, which complicates and widespread damage to urban infrastructure. the search for employment and creates further According to Organization for Security and obstacles for IDPs attempting to integrate into Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) research, the new communities. At present, one of the best vast majority of IDPs have come from urban or responses to the crisis has come from authorities semi-urban areas. Those minorities still living in in Khersonska province, next to Crimea, where separatist-held areas face new challenges in an 18,000 free land plots were granted to Crimean increasingly nationalistic climate. In Donetsk, Tatars for resettlement. By contrast, Roma – for instance, where until recently the population already one of the most discriminated against included a diverse mix of Armenians, Greeks, groups in the country before the conflict began Jews, Tatars, Turks and foreign students, there – have reported experiencing particular difficulties have been accounts of increased intolerance and in accessing housing from local authorities due to hate speech. African nationals, who even before discrimination. the conflict faced frequent discrimination, have Displaced Roma from eastern Ukraine face reportedly been particularly exposed to verbal additional hurdles as, according to NGOs abuse. Religious minorities, too, have been working with community members, more exposed to threats and intimidation, particularly than half of them have never had birth or people following non-Russian Orthodox forms identity documentation, meaning they cannot of Christianity, with places of worship and other be registered as IDPs or gain access to social buildings seized from their communities by

224 Europe State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Political bodies and civil society organizations Case study by Nataliya Novakova representing Tatars also face constant intimidation, with two leading Tatar representatives, Mustafa Dzhemylov and Refat Chubarov, denied re-entry Deteriorating rights to Crimea in the wake of the annexation. Meanwhile members of the Mejlis of the Crimean for Crimean Tatars Tatar People, an executive committee that has served as a representative body to the Ukrainian under Russian rule government and international community, has reported increased harassment in the form of constant checks and ad hoc requests to provide At the beginning of 2014, following the immediate reports on their activities to authorities. annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, Since the organization was forced to register in the government of Ukraine lost control over the Russian Federation as an ordinary non-profit the peninsula. The subsequent transition to the organization, its status as an elected representative legislation of the Russian Federation and the body of the Crimean Tatars no longer applies. continued presence of unregulated paramilitary There have also been a number of cases of groups, known as samooborona, posed forced disappearances of Crimean Tatar activists, considerable threats to the local population, with at least eight documented cases between particularly for ethnic and religious minorities. March and early December. Little progress has The concerns were especially acute among many taken place in the investigation of these incidents. of Crimea’s indigenous Tatar population, given Several Tatar activists have also been brutally their history of repression under Soviet rule. This killed, and others detained, tortured or threatened, culminated in their eventual mass deportation including many who have advocated on issues by Stalin to Siberia in 1944. Though many have such as land rights for their community. This returned to Crimea following the collapse of is part of a general crackdown on freedom of communism, the community continued to struggle expression that has particularly affected minorities, with unemployment, lack of access to basic services as evidenced by the attack on Nadir Bekirov, a and ongoing barriers to the restoration of their Crimean Tatar activist, in September ahead of his former lands. Ukraine itself never resolved the issue planned attendance at the UN World Conference of providing land or other housing opportunities on Indigenous Peoples in New York, leaving him to returnees. The temporary solution was so-called unable to travel to the event. Tatar media has also ‘fields of protest’ – places where illegal settlements been targeted, with the forced closure of ATR, of Tatars were built. The authorities did not legalize Crimea’s only Tatar television channel, after it was the settlements, but also did not prevent them from repeatedly refused registration as a Russian channel being set up. by regulators in Moscow. However, although following the annexation Tatars, most of whom are Muslim, have the Russian government initially wooed the Tatar also found themselves affected by a climate of population with promises to address housing and increasing nationalism and religious chauvinism other pressing concerns, since then the behaviour in Crimea. Muslim communities have been of the authorities towards the community has attacked, religious literature burned and become increasingly draconian. On 15 November, members of the remaining Tatar population for instance, around 60 people were arrested en have been pressured to renounce their Ukrainian masse in a market in Simferopol and taken to citizenship. Other communities, such as the police station to be questioned about their members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, migration status. Several days later, a crackdown in have also faced persecution. In this climate, the another of the city’s markets led to the detention possibility of Crimea’s Tatars finally achieving a of around 15 people of ‘non-Slavic’ appearance, all resolution to decades of injustice seems slimmer of whom were reportedly Crimean Tatars. than ever. ■

State of the World’s Minorities Europe 225 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 LIBYA

LEBANON SYRIA

ISRAEL/OT/ Palestinian Authority

EGYPT JORDAN MiddleIRAQ Middle

KUWAIT East andIRAN East and

SAUDI ARABIA BAHRAIN QATAR

NorthU.A.E . North

OMAN AfricaYEMEN Africa Preti Taneja Preti Taneja

ARABIAN SEA Middle Middle East and EastMiddle and North NorthEast and Africa AfricaNorth Preti Taneja AfricaPreti Taneja Sarah El Ashmawy, Tom Palmer, Miriam Puttick and Derek Verbakel he Middle East and North Africa the beheading of 21 Egyptian Copts in Libya in (MENA) region experienced one February 2015 and an attack by armed gunmen T of its bloodiest years in 2014, with in central Tunis in March 2015. ongoing fighting in Syria between President Though some of these attacks may have been Bashar al-Assad’s army, opposition forces and the intended to exaggerate the actual presence of increasingly powerful presence of the extremist ISIS in these countries, it is also the case that group Da’ash, also known as the Islamic State even religious and ethnic minorities in relatively of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS). In neighbouring stable countries in the region routinely experience Iraq, ISIS launched a summer offensive in the discrimination, intimidation and violence. In north of the country which saw their forces many cases these incidents occur in urban areas overrun large swathes of territory. This area has where diverse populations have coexisted for long been home to many minority communities, centuries. However, ongoing violence, particularly including Chaldo-Assyrians, Shabak, Turkmen in Iraq and Syria, is increasingly leading to and Yezidis, who were actively targeted as ISIS segregation and homogenization in cities. ISIS, captured Mosul, Tal Afar and other major cities, besides displacing minority communities in the as well as numerous towns and villages with large areas under its control, has also systematically minority populations. Thousands were killed or destroyed churches, shrines and non-Sunni abducted, while hundreds of thousands of people mosques. As a result, the historical legacy of were displaced. In addition, ISIS has spread fear centuries of coexistence is being erased. Yet across the region with a number of high-profile urban centres such as Cairo, despite significant incidents in other countries, such as the suicide challenges, still offer minorities more opportunities bomb explosion at a Beirut hotel in June 2014, to engage in activism, enjoy personal freedoms

228 Middle East and State of the World’s Minorities North Africa and Indigenous Peoples 2015 and interact with members of other communities. worship still refers specifically to the ‘Abrahamic’ Ensuring the security and dignity of minorities in religions – a term that includes Christianity, urban areas is therefore essential to achieving long- Islam and Judaism, but potentially excludes term stability across the region. Bahá’í and other faiths that are discriminated against. More generally, there is continued Egypt scepticism about the government’s willingness The year 2014 began with a referendum in and ability to tackle the broader context of January on a new Constitution that prohibits discrimination towards minorities in the country. political parties based on religion, with 98 per Despite some positive signs during the year – cent of participants voting in approval, though culminating in President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s opposition groups complained of intimidation attendance of a Coptic Christmas mass in and partisan media coverage. For the country’s January 2015, an unprecedented gesture by an most vulnerable social groups, however, the Egyptian head of state – many challenges remain. drafting process at least provided an opportunity This is particularly the case for Copts and other to promote a more inclusive environment for religious minorities in a country where Islam Egypt’s diverse religious and ethnic population. is still elevated as the state religion and Sharia In the preceding months, representatives of long- principles form the main source of legislation. marginalized communities such as Amazigh and For example, the fraught issue of regulations Nubians were able to meet with members of on church construction, despite apparently the drafting committee to advocate for various receiving legal approval through the new amendments to the text. Constitution – Article 64 stipulates ‘the freedom The approved version was generally regarded of practising religious rituals and establishing as an improvement on the 2012 Constitution, worship places for the followers of Abrahamic passed under former President Mohamed Morsi religions’ – has not yet been resolved. Though and widely criticized by rights groups for its lack steps were taken later in the year to address of protections for many minorities. Among other the existing restrictions on church building, achievements, the ‘right to return’ of Egyptian with the Coptic Church and other Christian Nubians whose lands were flooded during the organizations drafting a proposed law, at the government-led construction of the Aswan end of the year the restrictions remained in dam in the 1960s, without prior consultation place. The regulations, rooted in Ottoman or consent, was recognized for the first time. law, have for decades been used to obstruct Furthermore, the 2014 Constitution finally the development or renovation of Christian recognized ‘incitement to hatred’ as a crime, places of worship, and have contributed to the tasking the future legislative body with the wave of attacks in recent years against Coptic creation of a special commission to implement buildings. Though authorities have reportedly the provision. This is a significant milestone been more accommodating in approving church for Egypt’s minorities, as in recent years hate construction since Sisi took power, Coptic speech has been linked with outbreaks of violence communities continue to be targeted by militant against Bahá’í, Copts and Shi’a. groups. In January 2015, for example, two However, the Constitution has also been policemen were killed outside a church in Minya, criticized for perpetuating many of the followed by further attacks three months later in shortcomings of its predecessor. While Article Alexandria and Cairo. 64 on religious freedom has been strengthened, Another source of deep concern is the Sisi its provision on religious practice and places of government’s ongoing human rights abuses and repression of civil freedoms. Shortly after Left: A Yezidi girl and her family at a refugee staging a coup against Morsi in June 2013, camp in north eastern Syria. Some of the the military were responsible for the killing 12,000 Yezidis at the camp walked up to 60km of more than 1,000 protesters. This served to in searing heat to flee Iraq. Rachel Unkovic/ deepen divisions within the country which International Rescue Committee Sisi, since securing democratic election in May

State of the World’s Minorities Middle East and 229 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 North Africa Below: Muslim men stand with a Coptic for its failure to ensure their protection. Christian man holding a lit candle in tribute to Whether they are in search of economic the 21 Egyptians beheaded in Libya in February opportunities or displaced due to violence or 2015. REUTERS/Mohamad Torokman disruptive development such as the Aswan dam, many members of Egypt’s minorities have 2014, has failed to resolve. In particular, the relocated to towns and cities within Egypt as government’s crackdown on supporters of the well. Urban development is therefore a key area Muslim Brotherhood, involving arbitrary arrests, of concern for these communities, reflected indefinite detention and killings, has alienated in the inclusion of Article 235 in the 2014 a significant portion of the population and, Constitution, which stipulates that ‘the state by extension, may have put Copts and other shall guarantee setting and implementing a plan religious minorities at increasing risk of attack. for the comprehensive economic and urban While minorities have long been targeted by development of border and underprivileged areas, militants, the mass execution of 21 Coptic including Upper Egypt, the Sinai Peninsula, Egyptians in neighbouring Libya in February Matrouh and Nubia’. It is hoped that this text 2015 by ISIS was a painful reminder of the will lead to support for Nubians who wish to community’s continued vulnerability. Media return to their area of origin. investigations revealed that many of the victims Cairo is not only Egypt’s capital, but also the came from Upper Egypt villages and had left largest megacity in the MENA region. Rapid their homes to financially support their families. and largely unmanaged urban growth has led to The government was criticized by some activists large swathes of informal settlements across the

230 Middle East and State of the World’s Minorities North Africa and Indigenous Peoples 2015 city, with many sheltering in makeshift housing As the country’s second largest city, Mosul was and unsanitary living conditions. These issues previously home to a wide array of minority are especially pronounced, however, for the groups. Hundreds of Christian families and other city’s ‘Zabbalin’ – the Arabic word for garbage minorities joined the exodus of civilians leaving collectors – a large community whose livelihood Mosul, with the UN estimating that 500,000 is based on the collection and recycling of solid people fled in the first week following the entry waste. Operating in the informal sector, the of ISIS into the city. The remaining Christian majority are Coptic and originally migrated families received an ultimatum to either convert from Upper Egypt with their families in search to Islam, pay jizya (a tribute levied on non- of a source of income. Though their activities Muslims) or be killed. In June ISIS also took provided Cairo with a highly efficient system of control of Tikrit and then Tal Afar, causing waste collection, in 2004 the community was the displacement of approximately 200,000 dealt a blow when authorities contracted their Turkmen. Further massacres of civilians in Shi’a work out to corporations. While in practice Turkmen and Shabak villages took place as ISIS’s they continued to earn a living informally from advance continued, with hundreds also taken this activity, their income was greatly reduced. captive and towns such as the Turkmen-majority However, authorities have now officially town of Amerli besieged. ISIS also took control reinstituted the involvement of the community of many Assyrian areas in the Ninewa plains in in waste collection and, despite continued early August, forcing thousands more to flee for discrimination, the community has developed their lives, leaving behind everything they owned. strong solidarity networks to support each other. Among the worst affected by this advance are Iraq’s Yezidis. In the beginning of August Iraq ISIS reached Sinjar, home to a large portion of The spread of armed conflict during 2014, the community. The Kurdish peshmerga forces, propelled by the rise of ISIS, has taken an who had been protecting the area, withdrew enormous toll on the civilian population. Over without warning, leaving the local population the course of the year, over 17,000 civilians were defenceless. An estimated 200,000 Yezidi civilians killed and more than 2 million displaced, with fled for their lives, with at least 50,000 heading minorities disproportionately affected. After ISIS to Sinjar mountain, where they were trapped took control of the Ninewa plains, traditionally in the scorching summer heat for days without home to many of Iraq’s diverse ethnic and food or water. Those unable to escape or who religious minority groups, militants carried out attempted to defend their villages from ISIS a brutal campaign of executions, abductions fighters were subsequently murdered or abducted, and expulsions. Entire minority communities, with large-scale massacres of Yezidi men and including Armenian Christians, Chaldo-Assyrians, boys in the villages of Qiniyeh, Kocho and Jdali. Sabean Mandaeans, Shabak, Turkmen and Meanwhile, thousands of Yezidi women and girls Yezidis, have been uprooted from areas where they were abducted for the purpose of forced marriage have been living in some cases for thousands of or sexual slavery. Large numbers of women were years. Minority women have been the targets of subsequently transported to Syria to be sold or particularly horrific forms of sexual and gender- forcibly married to ISIS fighters. As of the end of based violence, including kidnapping, rape, forced 2014, only about 300 had managed to escape. marriage, sexual slavery and trafficking. ISIS has imposed a new order in urban areas The spread of the conflict over the course of under its control, marked by the imposition the year assumed increasingly urban dimensions of strict interpretations of religious law, the as ISIS took control of major cities previously silencing of all forms of opposition and the thought to be firmly under the control of destruction of any traces of minority culture and the Iraqi government. In January, ISIS seized heritage. In Mosul, ISIS issued orders mandating Fallujah and Ramadi in Al-Anbar governorate women to wear the veil and instructing them before moving into Mosul in Ninewa governorate not to leave the house unless accompanied by in June as the Iraqi Security Forces collapsed. a man. Residents of the city have been tried in

State of the World’s Minorities Middle East and 231 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 North Africa Below: A Yezidi woman hauls water in a process described by Irina Bokova, Director- containers toward a Yezidi refugee camp in General of UNESCO, as a campaign of ‘cultural the Sinjar mountains, Iraq, March 2015. cleansing’. Panos/Noriko Hayashi. Most Iraqis displaced by the recent wave of violence are currently living in desperate self-styled Sharia courts for violating or opposing conditions. The majority have fled to urban the group’s ideology, with many sentenced to centres in the Iraqi Kurdistan region, where public executions and other punishments. ISIS around 930,000 IDPs, or 47 per cent of also expropriated houses belonging to Christians Iraq’s total IDP population, were based by and other minorities before looting them of their late 2014. While a few have been able to find contents. accommodation with friends and relatives or In addition, militants have destroyed or are using their savings to rent apartments, the defaced sites of enormous religious, cultural majority are living in overcrowded camps, and historical value, including several churches unfinished building structures, churches, malls, and monuments in Mosul, the Assyrian Green schools and other public buildings. The influx of Church in Tikrit, the oldest and largest library IDPs raises difficult dilemmas related to informal in Tel Afar and countless mosques, shrines and illegal housing occupancy in Kurdish cities. and tombs of religious importance to Shabak, It also risks creating future conflicts over lands Turkmen and Yezidis. Evidence of the region’s and properties that IDPs were forced to leave historic diversity, reflected in the wealth of behind, in some cases exacerbating unresolved churches, mosques and other buildings in its land claims dating back to the Ba’athist era. urban areas, has been systematically eradicated Adapting to life in displacement in cities or

232 Middle East and State of the World’s Minorities North Africa and Indigenous Peoples 2015 camps in the Kurdish region has been particularly country’s history and culture, many minority difficult for minorities. In addition to lacking leaders emphasize the importance of establishing all the basic necessities of life, including food, safe areas allowing minorities to return to their drinking water, clothing, medicines and hygienic lands, with reconciliation measures to enable products, many are suffering from the effects of reintegration with other faiths and ethnic severe trauma and have little access to support backgrounds. services such as psychosocial counselling to help them to deal with experiences such as sexual Israel/Palestine violence. The prospect of accessing employment For the marginalized and besieged communities and public services is bleak for many IDPs, of Israel and the State of Palestine, 2014 was the due to high competition, language barriers and most deadly year in recent history. Over a seven- discrimination by Kurdish authorities against week period in July and August, Israel’s aerial minorities. IDP women are also especially and ground assault against militant groups in the vulnerable to sexual harassment, assault and other occupied and blockaded Gaza Strip, known as forms of exploitation. Operation Protective Edge, resulted in the deaths Although the latest crisis has greatly of at least 1,486 Palestinian civilians, including compounded the suffering of Iraq’s minorities, 513 children, and the displacement during the the struggle for recognition and access to basic hostilities of around 500,000 people. This was rights in the urban context is not new. In the the latest episode in a series of violent escalations context of spiralling sectarian violence in the in recent years, set against a backdrop defined years following the US-led invasion, Iraq’s urban by unstable progress towards the reconciliation centres have long been unsafe for minorities. of the two main Palestinian factions, another Formerly mixed neighbourhoods in major cities failed round of US-convened peace talks and such as Baghdad have become segregated along unprecedented Israeli settlement expansion in the sectarian lines, leaving minorities especially occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. vulnerable to targeted violence. Faced with the The unstable political situation led to rising government’s unwillingness to protect minorities tensions in the West Bank at the start of the or prosecute those responsible for attacks against summer, triggered in part by the abduction of them, many minorities have left and resettled three Israeli teenagers who, it later transpired, had elsewhere, especially in the Ninewa plains. been murdered by two members of Hamas. In However, living in minority areas has meant the wake of their disappearance, Israeli military facing the reality of neglect in public service shot and killed five Palestinians, and detained provision from the Iraqi government. In the at least 150 more during raids on Palestinian past, the government has allocated the Ninewa towns and villages in search of the missing boys governorate less than its legally required share – actions condemned by Human Rights Watch of the federal budget, and many towns lack (HRW) as amounting to ‘collective punishment’ basic public services. In the southern and central of the Palestinian population. regions of Iraq, areas inhabited by black and Incitement to violence and racist language on Roma minorities are marked by deplorable living social media directed at the Arab minority in conditions, including lack of suitable housing and Israel also rose dramatically during Operation inadequate access to drinking water or sanitation. Protective Edge, as did incidents of abusive The long-term process of marginalization of graffiti and attacks on private property. Arabs Iraq’s minorities, compounded by recent events, were also harassed and physically attacked by has opened up the possibility that the existence ultra-nationalist gangs during demonstrations of these historical communities in Iraq could against Operation Protective Edge. The hostile be coming to an end. The latest crisis has led atmosphere was aggravated by provocative many to abandon hope of a safe return to their statements from public figures and by attempts homes and focus instead on restarting their to pass legislation undermining the rights of lives elsewhere. However, given the deep roots the Arab minority. This was exemplified by of minorities in Iraq and their centrality to the the endorsement of the so-called ‘nation-state

State of the World’s Minorities Middle East and 233 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 North Africa bill’ by a majority vote in the Israeli cabinet in Right: Bedouin children play on a rooftop in November. If enacted, the bill will limit collective the ‘unrecognized’ village of Um Al-Hiram in rights to Jewish citizens of the country and could southern Israel’s Negev desert, October 2014. pave the way for other discriminatory policies REUTERS/Finbarr O’Reilly against non-Jewish populations. Israeli civilians were also attacked by militants on 1,200 people displaced in the West Bank, the a number of occasions during the year. Besides the highest figure recorded by the UN since it began abduction of the three Israeli teenagers, there were tracking incidents in 2008. A large number of several other incidents, including two in which these concern buildings and shelters erected by Palestinian drivers targeted Israeli pedestrians at Palestinian communities in land assigned under Jerusalem light rail stations located in Palestinian the 1993 Oslo Accords as Area C, where Israel neighbourhoods. The series of attacks against has control over law enforcement, planning and Israeli civilians culminated in an armed assault construction. Area C makes up over 60 per cent in November by two Palestinians on a West of the West Bank, with the remainder divided Jerusalem synagogue, killing five civilians and and designated either as Area A or Area B, which injuring six others. Israeli authorities responded nominally fall under full and partial Palestinian by conducting large-scale arrests, including administration respectively. The 300,000 hundreds of children, and reinstating their policy Palestinian residents of Area C are especially of demolishing the homes of the families of the vulnerable to displacement due to discriminatory Palestinians involved. This was again condemned planning policies and the threat of violence from by HRW as tantamount to collective punishment groups of religious and nationalist extremists and a policy liable to stoke the cycle of violence. living in neighbouring Israeli settlements. Large The Israeli army was also criticized for swathes of Area C have been designated as its excessive use of force in response to nature reserves or closed military areas, and are demonstrations by Palestinians throughout the therefore off-limits for Palestinian construction. year. This included, in December, the death of Additionally, over 6,000 Palestinians live in 38 Ziad Abu Ein, a senior minister in the Palestinian communities located within Israeli-designated Authority, following an assault by an Israeli ‘firing zones’ allocated for military training. soldier during a peaceful protest against illegal While only 1 per cent of Area C is slated for Israeli settlements. On the same day, during Palestinian development, Israeli settlements protests against Abu Ein’s killing, a 14-year- continue to expand in violation of international old Palestinian boy was seriously wounded in law. There are currently 340,000 Israelis living Jalazone Refugee Camp by a gunshot to the in these illegal settlements in Area C and head fired by Israeli security personnel. The that number is set to rise. The Israeli NGO UN reported that a total of 56 Palestinians had PeaceNow has reported that during the peace been killed during incidents with Israel’s security talks that spanned August 2013 to March forces in the West Bank during 2014, double 2014 the Israeli government promoted plans the number for 2013, and 5,868 injured – the and tenders for at least 13,851 housing units highest annual figure since records began in in the settlements in the West Bank, including 2005. Almost half of these injuries were recorded East Jerusalem – a significant increase on the in Jerusalem, where tensions were stoked by same period from the previous year. Settlement the murder of a 16-year-old Palestinian by growth comes at the expense of living standards Israeli settlers in retaliation for the murder of for Palestinians throughout the West Bank, the three Israeli teenagers. Israel’s suppression and communities in Area C are particularly of Palestinian protests and decision to limit vulnerable to the neglectful provision of public access for Muslims to the city’s holy sites led to services and infrastructure, specifically electricity, an increased number of violent clashes between water and sewerage. According to the UN, more Palestinian youth and the Israeli military. than 70 per cent of these communities are not House demolitions in general also increased to connected to the water network and depend on unprecedented levels in 2014, with more than tankered water, at significantly greater expense.

234 Middle East and State of the World’s Minorities North Africa and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Daily water consumption in some areas is as little structures. The designated ‘relocation’ sites as 20 litres per capita, just a fifth of the World include three new townships to be developed Health Organization’s recommended minimum. in Area C. As there is limited grazing land at At even greater risk of displacement due to the proposed sites, the resettlement will likely Israel’s settlement expansion policies are the threaten the traditional livelihoods and culture. Bedouin communities of the West Bank. There These communities have been specifically are around 7,000 Palestinian Bedouins and targeted as they are in an area designated for the herders, some 60 per cent of them children, expansion of Israeli settlements as part of the living in 46 small residential areas in Area C. so-called E1 Plan. This controversial proposal, Over 3,600 have been displaced since 2008. which has been widely condemned by the UN In September, Israel published plans to move and rights groups for violating international six communities from the vicinities of Jericho, humanitarian law, would see the construction of Ramallah and Jerusalem. Over a dozen others thousands of residential and commercial units are also under threat of displacement and have linking settlements in East Jerusalem to the endured months of eviction orders, as well as large Ma’ale Adumim settlement, creating a bloc the destruction of their homes and livelihood spanning much of the central West Bank.

State of the World’s Minorities Middle East and 235 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 North Africa off on three sides and with little land zoned for Case study by Tom Palmer construction, there is a severe housing shortage and residents have no choice but to build without permits. Many have been issued with demolition Life in a divided city orders and some have lost their homes already. In this regard, conditions in Al-Isawiyyah are – one Palestinian typical of many Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem and their struggle with Israel’s community under draconian planning restrictions. However, the village also faces the threat of another form of threat in East Israeli planning that has been used repeatedly to limit the development of Palestinian Jerusalem neighbourhoods and even expel Palestinians from their land – the zoning of supposedly ‘vacant’ areas in East Jerusalem as parks and protected While 35 per cent of land in East Jerusalem green spaces. has been expropriated for the establishment of In September 2014, the Israeli National a dozen Jewish settlements, housing around Planning Committee announced controversial 200,000 Israeli citizens, under the current Israeli plans to build a new ‘national park’ on the slopes master plan only 13 per cent of East Jerusalem is of Mount Scopus, where Al-Isawiyyah is based. zoned for Palestinian construction, even though The plans as they currently stand would lead to 300,000 Palestinians reside in the area. Decisions the confiscation of 700,000 square metres of land regarding planning policy are unofficially based belonging to Al-Isawiyyah and another Palestinian on the Jerusalem 2000 Outline Plan, despite the neighbourhood, At-Tur. News of the proposal fact that it has not been submitted for public provoked widespread condemnation from rights review. While it does allocate areas for expansion, groups and community residents. these tend to be places that are already built up Though the committee has so far refused due to unpermitted construction. In combination to cancel the park, it has conceded that its with the deliberately labyrinthine application boundaries should be re-examined due to procedures, this has led to a third of Palestinian insufficient consideration of the needs of the homes being built without the mandatory Israeli- two adjacent Palestinian neighbourhoods. issued building permit, placing over 90,000 residents at risk of eviction. As well as causing practical problems, this has a considerable psychological impact. The practical effects of these policies can perhaps be best appreciated at a local level. A typical example of a once thriving village, dating back centuries, is the Palestinian village of Al-Isawiyyah. A large part of the district, including the built-up area, fell under Israeli control from 1967 and much of this area has since been expropriated from residents. Today, cut off from other areas of East Jerusalem by a web of Israeli-built development that includes military camps, the Hebrew University campus and the Eastern Ring Road, it is a crowded enclave with a population density 2.5 times higher than neighbouring Israeli settlements. Blocked

236 Middle East and State of the World’s Minorities North Africa and Indigenous Peoples 2015 The decision regarding these boundaries Israel’s barrier has intensified the separation of has been referred back to a lower-level East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank, planning committee. The Israeli non- incorporating 13 checkpoints through which profit organization, BIMKOM – Planners Palestinian residents in the remainder of the for Planning Rights, which provides Palestine require special permits to cross. The legal representation for an association of barrier’s circuitous route has been planned as Al-Isawiyyah residents – is now hopeful that such in order to include the large majority of the plans for the park will be curtailed. Israeli settlements. As a result, some Palestinian If this is the case, it will be a rare positive communities such as Kafr ’Aqab and Shu’fat development in a history of long-running refugee camp are now situated within the disputes with Israeli authorities, whose Jerusalem municipal boundary, on the West planning policies have been a recurring source Bank side of the barrier, and therefore required of tension for the community. In 2008 the to pass through checkpoints to access health Jerusalem Municipality began to advance care and other services. On the other hand, an plans for a solid waste dump to the north estimated 1,400 West Bank residents are now which would leave the community completely caught on the Jerusalem side of the barrier, but surrounded. And should the E1 Plan be still denied residency rights, employment or implemented, the result will be even more services in East Jerusalem. exclusionary development – leaving it more The barrier is not the only example of divisive isolated and overcrowded than ever. Israeli infrastructure. The light rail has also been Though the story of Al-Isawiyyah would be a target of Palestinian anger and resentment since be tragic even if it was unique, the problems its completion in 2011, reflected in multiple facing the community are shared by many attacks against rail commuters during the year. other Palestinian neighbourhoods – problems Running from West Jerusalem to the Israeli that, without a significant shift in Israel’s urban settlement of Pisgat Ze’ev on the eastern edge policy, will only become worse in future. ■ of the municipality, the light rail was initially portrayed by Israel’s leadership as a symbol of Below: A Palestinian boy walks on the rubble coexistence and unity. However, its importance of his demolished house in an East Jerusalem to the projection of Israeli sovereignty over the neighbourhood, November 2014. REUTERS/ entirety of Jerusalem has since been explicitly Ammar Awad stated by public figures such as the city’s mayor Nir Barkat. For Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem, the light rail has been seen as another expression of the occupation, and a 2010 resolution from the UN Human Rights Council declared its route to be in clear violation of international law. The lack of government investment in East Jerusalem has resulted in significant discrimination and overcrowding for Palestinian residents. Besides neglected municipal services such as rubbish collection and lighting, there is a severe shortage of public buildings and facilities like schools or playgrounds. The June announcement of a five-year plan for East Jerusalem was only a partial step forward: NIS200 million will be invested in infrastructure, education, welfare and employment, while NIS95.4 million will go towards security. And commentators noted

State of the World’s Minorities Middle East and 237 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 North Africa that the government’s express intention is to and social unrest. This has been exacerbated strengthen its control over East Jerusalem, rather by Israel’s policy towards African migrants than to secure the rights of Palestinians living and asylum seekers, who are assigned to social there. housing in neglected neighbourhoods that lack In densely populated Gaza, on the other hand, the necessary welfare services, infrastructure or restrictions on the importing of construction personal safety measures to cater for the increased materials imposed by blockade, enforced by both population. Israel and Egypt, make any systematic planning More broadly, Arab minorities in Israel have very difficult. To make matters worse, 118,000 been subjected to policies resulting in significant housing units were destroyed or damaged during housing inequality. The most recent statistics Operation Protective Edge in addition to schools, show that in 2013, the Israel Land Authority hospitals and the enclave’s sole power plant. issued tenders for the construction of more Their repair will depend on all parties upholding housing units in the illegal settlements in the the terms of the ceasefire and implementing the Palestine than it did in the Arab communities temporary Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism in Israel, despite there being more than double which has since been set in place. Ultimately, the number of inhabitants in these villages than Israel will have the final say about what materials Jewish residents living in the occupied West will be allowed into Gaza and who will supply Bank. Arab communities make up just 2.5 per them. However, as HRW has reported, Israel’s cent of the territory of Israel and this has barely policy in the past has been to impose blanket increased since 1948. Annually, 12,000 new restrictions ‘unconnected or disproportionate housing units are required to close the housing to security considerations [which] unnecessarily gap; in 2013, however, only 3,547 housing units harm people’s access to food, water, education, in Arab communities were marketed out of a and other fundamental rights in Gaza’. total of 27,840. As a result, in contrast to the Israel has also employed discriminatory extensive planning and development of Jewish planning policies to marginalize minorities localities, Arab neighbourhoods in Israel have within its own borders. Despite the welcome urbanized without any overarching strategy in freezing towards the end of 2013 of the legislative place to meet the needs of the population. process behind the Prawer plan to forcibly remove 70,000 Bedouin living in unrecognized Saudi Arabia villages in the Negev (Naqab in Arabic), civil Sunni Muslim-majority Saudi Arabia is home to rights groups fear that they are still in danger of a large Shi’a minority, comprising an estimated displacement due to the appropriation of large 10–15 per cent of the population. Most belong parts of their land. Amnesty International reports to the Twelver sect and are concentrated in the that the enactment of the Regional Master Plan country’s oil-rich Eastern province, although for the Be’er Sheva Metropolitan Area, approved there are also an estimated 700,000 Isma’ilis in August 2012 despite outstanding objections and smaller numbers of Zaydis living primarily by the Bedouin community, would result in in Najran and other areas along the Yemeni the eviction and destruction of most of the 35 border. In a country where Sunni Islam is the unrecognized villages. In the meantime, the official religion and other forms of religious Bedouin and herding communities are prone to expression are strictly prohibited, Shi’a Muslims house demolitions because of the obstacles to are subject to restrictions on their religious obtaining building permits. practice and widespread discrimination. Shi’a Other discriminated communities include are also officially discriminated against in Ethiopian Israelis and Mizrahim, who are Jews public sector employment – a key component from Arab countries. A lack of investment or of social status in Saudi Arabia – including in policies directed at improving social cohesion in the judiciary, military and education. For Shi’a urban areas, such as south Tel Aviv, where large women, religious discrimination compounds the numbers from these groups reside, has resulted problem of finding a job in a country in which in poor living conditions, high levels of crime employment opportunities for women are already

238 Middle East and State of the World’s Minorities North Africa and Indigenous Peoples 2015 severely limited by strict gender segregation prison term. policies, restricted mobility and cultural mores. There are fears that the atmosphere of The Saudi government has a zero-tolerance increased polarization of sectarian identities policy for dissent and has cracked down harshly that has taken hold of the wider region over the on Shi’a activists and others calling for reform. last year could have negative repercussions for In a troubling development, authorities passed Saudi Arabia’s Shi’a minority. On 3 November, a sweeping anti-terrorism law in January 2014 a bloody attack carried out against Shi’a that made a host of vague and undefined charges, worshippers observing the religious occasion such as ‘insulting the reputation of the state’, of Ashura in Al-Ahsa governorate confirmed prosecutable offences. Throughout the year, the some of these fears. Masked gunmen attacked Saudi authorities imposed harsh prison sentences the worshippers as they were leaving their place on a number of minority rights activists. In of worship in al-Dalwa village, killing at least April, Fadhil al-Manasif, who documented seven, including children, and leaving dozens abuses against protesters in the Eastern province injured. The Saudi authorities arrested a number in 2011, was sentenced to 15 years in prison, a of people in connection with the incident and lengthy travel ban and a fine. In August, Shi’a have indicated that the attackers were led by cleric Tawfiq Al-Amer was sentenced to eight a Saudi national who had recently returned years in prison, as well as a travel ban and a from fighting in Iraq and Syria. However, in a prohibition on giving sermons. Al-Amer had positive development, the Saudi public, as well called for political reforms in his speeches, as leading government and religious figures, including moving towards a constitutional were unanimous in condemning the attack and monarchy, and better treatment of Shi’a citizens. presenting a united front of solidarity with the In November, Mikhlif al-Shammari, a Sunni victims. Interior Minister Prince Mohammed activist who advocated for equality between bin Nayef visited the wounded in the hospital Sunni and Shi’a citizens, was sentenced to and paid his condolences to the families of those two years in prison and 200 lashes following killed. accusations which included meeting with Shi’a While sectarian violence in Iraq and Syria activists in the Eastern province. has added a new dimension of fear, the Several activists were also sentenced to death marginalization of Saudi Arabia’s Shi’a citizens during the year for their activities, including Rida is much more deep-seated in nature and has Al-Rubh, the son of a Shi’a cleric, in May, for his long-term roots. Driven by the discovery involvement in protests in 2011 and for allegedly of oil, Saudi Arabia has undergone massive shooting at security officers. The same week, Ali social and economic changes over the last few Mohammed Baqir Al-Nimr also received the decades, including a rapid transformation over death sentence in connection with the protests, several decades into a largely urban population. despite the fact that he was 17 years old at However, this development process has been the time. HRW asserts that the trials of these uneven, with Saudi Shi’a claiming that the activists were rife with due process violations, government has favoured Sunni-majority areas including forced confessions. On 15 October, for development projects while neglecting prominent Shi’a cleric and activist Sheikh Nimr cities such as Qatif, which has a large Shi’a Baqir Al-Nimr was sentenced to death. Al-Nimr population. Residents claim that there is only had a wide following and often criticized the one government hospital to serve the population, government’s treatment of the Shi’a minority in exceeding half a million, whereas Sunni towns of his sermons. He called on Shi’a citizens to resist a similar size typically have many more hospitals discrimination through peaceful means and was and specialized health centres. Shi’a-majority involved in organizing protests in 2011. News of cities also lack universities, whereas even small his sentencing sparked street riots in the Eastern Sunni towns boast new university campuses. province. The following week, two more activists Moreover, Shi’a face difficulties in obtaining were sentenced to death in connection to the permits to build mosques, constraining their 2011 protests and a third was given a 12-year religious practices in many areas.

State of the World’s Minorities Middle East and 239 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 North Africa Migrant workers represent another excluded all civilians, majority and minority communities sector of the population. Despite forming alike. At times, however, minorities including the backbone of the private sector workforce Alawis, Christians, Druze, Ismailis, Kurds, and playing a vital role in construction, Turkmen, Twelver Shi’a and Yezidis have been they are often the last to benefit from urban targeted by opposition militias on the assumption, development. In Saudi cities, migrants are often whether accurate or not, that they support the segregated from other residents and confined regime. Alawis are among the groups most in to overcrowded, low-cost living arrangements. danger of violent persecution by armed opposition In Mecca, for instance, multi-billion-dollar groups due to their perceived association with projects to expand and modernize the Holy the Assad regime, although in general minority Mosque, the Masjid al-Haram, and surrounding areas have transformed the city centre into a haven for wealthy pilgrims, replete with luxury hotels, restaurants and shopping malls, while marginalizing the city’s poorer inhabitants and destroying much ancient heritage in the process, including numerous Sufi shrines. Rents in the city have skyrocketed and the government has not invested in affordable housing, leading to the growth of slums populated largely by migrants. Migrant workers in Saudi Arabia already live a precarious existence due to the sponsorship system, which leaves them vulnerable to exploitation, violence and sexual abuse by their Saudi employers, as they do not benefit from minimum wage regulations and other protections afforded to Saudi nationals.

Syria Fighting in Syria intensified throughout 2014, with at least 7.6 million Syrians internally displaced and another 3.7 million refugees by the end of the year. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that more than 76,000 people had died during the year, bringing the death toll of the conflict so far to over 200,000. The conflict has been strongly urban in nature, focused particularly on cities such as Aleppo and Damascus, with civilians especially vulnerable as regime forces deliberately target schools, hospitals, mosques and other non- military targets. Both the government and armed opposition groups have also denied civilians in besieged areas access to food, water, electricity, medical care and other essential services. Women are at particular risk due to the increasing use of gender-based violence as a weapon of war in the conflict. The brutal and destructive nature of the conflict in Syria has caused untold suffering for

240 Middle East and State of the World’s Minorities North Africa and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Below: Women mourn near graves of Kurdish executed in Zanuba, Hama province, while a fighters who died in Kobane, Syria. REUTERS/ series of car bombings in Alawi areas of Homs Kai Pfaffenbach/Files between March and June led to high civilian casualties. Many Alawis worry for their future in political allegiances are divided between support Syria, fearing they will be reduced to second-class and opposition. Alawis and other Shi’a Muslims citizens if a Sunni-dominated regime takes power were exposed to several brutal attacks during or forced to negotiate their minority status along the year. In February, rebel fighters attacked with the rest of Syria’s religious minorities. The the village of Maan in Hama province, killing Assad regime has been accused of attempting to 40 Alawis. In May, an entire Alawi family was manipulate minorities by encouraging fears of

State of the World’s Minorities Middle East and 241 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 North Africa sectarian division. Ma’aloula in December 2013, were released in Furthermore, as extremist groups such March following negotiations between Jabhat as Jabhat an-Nusrah and ISIS have risen in an-Nusra, which was holding them captive, and influence over the year, minorities have been Syrian, Lebanese and Qatari officials. targeted because of their faith. Since some of The Druze community, whose adherents these communities are already small in number, follow a monotheistic religion with roots in there are fears that continued attacks could lead Islam, has largely attempted to stay removed to their exodus from the country. Members from the conflict but were nonetheless drawn of Syria’s Yezidi minority, for instance, are at into the fighting this year. In August, Druze risk following ISIS’s brutal campaign against fighters clashed with Bedouin Arabs backed by community members in Iraq. ISIS has smuggled Jabhat an-Nusrah, leading to at least a dozen unknown numbers of abducted Yezidi women deaths, including those of three spiritual leaders. and girls from Sinjar into Syria, where they have As for Syria’s ethnic Kurdish minority, long been sold as commodities, enslaved, raped and disenfranchised by Baa’thist rule, the conflict has forcibly married to ISIS fighters. provided an opportunity to carve out a sphere of Among the many areas subjected to intense autonomy. In January, Syrian Kurds established fighting over the year were several Christian- an Interim Transitional Administration in the majority towns, where attacks led to the cantons of Jazira, Kobane and Afrin. However, as displacement of the civilian population and fighting with Sunni Arab factions for control of irreparable damage to historic archaeological and territory is ongoing, Kurdish civilians continue to religious sites. In May, the Armenian Christian pay a high price. When ISIS entered the village town of Kesseb was attacked and taken over by of Tel Akhader in March, the group issued an opposition fighters, causing approximately 2,500 ultimatum to the Kurdish residents to leave or be Armenians to flee for their lives. The Assyrian killed. In May, the group kidnapped nearly 200 Christian town of Ma’aloula, one of the few Kurdish civilians from the village of Qabasin. places in Syria where the Aramaic language is The same month, they kidnapped 153 Kurdish still spoken, switched hands between government schoolboys, held nearly all of them captive in and opposition forces four times between the Minbij for five months, and showed them violent end of 2013 and April 2014, when it was retaken videos while imbuing them with the group’s by the government. According to the regime, ideology. Beginning in September 2014, ISIS many of the town’s churches and monasteries besieged the Kurdish city of Kobane, cutting off were vandalized, destroyed or looted: some of food supplies, water and electricity from the city the churches were found with extremist slogans and causing over 200,000 people to flee. scrawled on their walls and icons removed The sharpening of sectarian identities, which or defaced, although it is unclear who was continues to increase as the conflict progresses, responsible for these actions. represents a significant shift in Syria’s social Armed groups have continued to target dynamics. For much of its recent history, Syria’s Christian religious leaders for abduction and various religious and ethnic minorities have assassination. Father Frans van der Lugt, a to some extent been concentrated in different 75-year-old Dutch Jesuit priest, was shot and parts of the country. However, cities such as killed in his monastery in Homs in April by an Damascus were places where people from all sects unknown assailant. Van der Lugt had been living congregated. In this sense, cities often played a in Syria for several decades and was the founder positive role in reducing barriers and enabling of a community centre to help people with some interaction between different groups. disabilities from all religions. Meanwhile, the However, urbanization also contributed to whereabouts of the kidnapped Syriac Orthodox increasing social discontent. The years preceding Archbishop Yohanna Ibrahim, Greek Orthodox the outbreak of protests were marked by large- Archbishop Paul Yazigi and Jesuit priest Father scale population movements from the countryside Paolo Dall-Oglio are still unknown. Thirteen into the cities, following some of the worst nuns and three maids, who were kidnapped from droughts and crop failures in recent history. The

242 Middle East and State of the World’s Minorities North Africa and Indigenous Peoples 2015 to come by, as workers have been accused of Case study by Derek Verbakel harassing tourists and arrested just for resting on public beaches, while shopping malls have frequently turned away migrant workers. Everywhere Making possible these conditions is the kafala system. Introduced by the United but invisible – Arab Emirates (UAE) government in 1971, this sponsorship scheme exposes migrant the continued construction workers to systemic abuse in many forms. Under kafala, a migrant’s marginalization of residence and work visas are tied to their sole sponsoring employer. Despite slight reforms in Dubai’s migrant 2010, the ability to switch employers remains severely restricted. Migrant construction construction workers are often recruited largely in poor, rural areas in their home countries and then workers obliged to make sizeable down-payments to their prospective employer to cover the cost of their flights and visa. On arrival in Dubai Dubai’s construction boom has tranformed the terms of agreement frequently change, this desert city into a dense urban landscape however, with many employers confiscating of skyscrapers, shopping malls, roads migrant passports and forcing them to accept and swimming pools. This extraordinary lower wages, longer hours and worse work development has been made possible by the conditions than promised. This can leave many labour of many hundreds of thousands of workers without documents and in a limbo of migrant construction workers, who first began unpaid debt. arriving in the city in the 1960s and now Workers are also prohibited from number around a quarter of its population. undertaking strikes, collective bargaining or Hailing mostly from Bangladesh, India, Nepal forming associations to advocate for their and Pakistan, they typically work six days a rights. Strikes are very rare, but in May week and 11 or 12 hours each day to earn the 2013, striking workers from Dubai’s largest equivalent of just US$100–300 every month. construction firm, Arabtec, mobilized in Though a ubiquitous presence on its their thousands, resulting in nearly 500 construction sites, Dubai’s migrant workers deportations. Reports also emerged in May are largely invisible in the city centre. Largely 2014 of a similar incident that had occurred sequestered in labour camps guarded by in October 2013, when more than 3,000 private security on the outskirts of the city, employees of a major UK-based construction migrant construction workers have little choice company working on Abu Dhabi’s Saadiyat but to suffer sub-standard living conditions. Island went on strike to protest over low pay. Settlements such as Sonapur, with some Some, having stayed in their accommodations 300,000 inhabitants – the world’s largest at Camp 42 in Dubai’s Jebel Ali industrial labour camp – are populated almost exclusively zone, were handed over to police by company by men, who live in overcrowded rooms in management and subsequently deported. In cramped and unsanitary conditions. Each day, this context, many migrants have turned to workers are bussed from their living quarters to work in the informal economy, rather than construction sites, then back again. Workplace reporting abuse and taking their chances with accidents are not uncommon and deaths tend the biased judicial system. to go unreported, as safety oversight is lax and The UAE government has largely failed conditions are harsh. Relaxation can also be hard to address any of these issues and continues

State of the World’s Minorities Middle East and 243 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 North Africa to obstruct rights organizations working on These organizations have also aided migrant behalf of migrant workers from monitoring construction workers in navigating the complex or documenting these abuses. Nevertheless, legal issues surrounding visas and supported a small number of informal civil society those accused of ‘absconding’ or attempting groups have had some success in pushing for to reclaim withheld wages from employers. positive developments and providing social They also raise funds to provide transport to services to those migrants most in need. hospitals in case of emergencies and plane

244 Middle East and State of the World’s Minorities North Africa and Indigenous Peoples 2015 tickets to return home for those trapped Below: Arabtec workers on strike in without means. One example is the Indian Dubai, in protest of low wages. Workers Resource Centre, a welfare centre for Getty Images/Brent Stirton Indians connected to the Embassy of India, which has targeted construction workers with information campaigns on rights, financial issues and health care. ■

State of the World’s Minorities Middle East and 245 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 North Africa largely Sunni rural migrants settled down in respectively. Towards the end of 2014, news also sprawling, overcrowded neighbourhoods which emerged of plans by the Canadian government grew out of the suburbs of Syria’s major cities, to prioritize Syrian refugees from minorities increasing the strain on urban infrastructure for resettlement, on the basis that these groups and public resources such as water. Meanwhile, experienced higher levels of persecution. The government-led, modified neoliberal policies proposal was strongly criticized by rights groups, created enormous wealth for the ruling elite, in who argued that preferential selection would be stark contrast to the neglected countryside. After discriminatory and could further inflame sectarian protests against the regime began in rural Dera’a tensions within Syria. in 2011, these resentments fed into the uprising. The rising influence of extremist groups over the Yemen course of 2014, especially ISIS, has dramatically The year 2014 began with the completion of changed the urban landscape in cities under their Yemen’s ten-month-long National Dialogue control. The town of Al-Raqqa has become the Conference (NDC) in January. With 565 informal capital of ISIS’s self-declared caliphate. In representatives invited to attend and the final February, ISIS released an edict giving the small outcomes of the process agreed for inclusion in number of Christians living in the town one of the country’s new Constitution, scheduled for three choices: conversion to Islam, the payment a referendum by 25 January 2015, the NDC’s of a tribute or the risk of death. Those under ISIS conclusion was welcomed by many observers as rule are subject to a host of restrictions on their an important milestone in the country’s transition religious practice, with prohibitions on church to democracy. However, the process was renovation, the display of crosses and other acts undermined by the failure to fully represent the of public worship. ISIS also subjects the Muslim country’s various minorities, including Yemen’s population of the town to a brutal regime of tiny Jewish minority, which was left out despite control, regularly carrying out public beheadings, previous promises that they would be included. stonings, crucifixions and amputations for Also sidelined were Yemen’s Muhamasheen, transgressing the group’s authority. In addition, literally ‘marginalized ones’, a visible and much militants have destroyed cultural and religious discriminated minority known commonly as sites belonging to minorities, including the Shi’a Akhdam or ‘servants’. Despite accounting for mosque of Uwais Al-Qarni and tombs dating around 10 per cent of the population, they back to the 7th century in Al-Raqqa in May. The were represented by just a single delegate in control of extremist groups over urban centres and the NDC proceedings. Nonetheless, one of the districts has had particularly severe consequences NDC outcomes stipulated the establishment of for women, with restrictions on their dress and ‘fair national policies and procedures to ensure movement in areas under their control. marginalized persons’ access to decent housing, With continued waves of displacement, many basic public services, free health care, and job Syrians face the challenge of adapting to new opportunities’, including placement in 10 per cent urban environments, both inside and outside of public jobs. The NDC Final Communiqué of Syria. Outside the country, an estimated 70 also affirmed the need to preserve elements of per cent of Syrian refugees are based in urban national heritage and cultural rights, such as the areas. Only a small proportion of minorities Mahari and Socotri languages. have registered with UNHCR, with more than However, the NDC received a fatal blow 90 per cent of refugees identifying as Sunni with the withdrawal of the Houthi movement Muslims. However, fear of attacks from other from the process and the subsequent spread groups or reprisals by the government on their of its armed insurgency across Yemen. The return may be discouraging minority refugees Houthis, based in the north, are comprised from registering. Some receiving countries have overwhelmingly of Zaydis, a branch of Shi’a made special arrangements to protect minorities, Islam that represents the country’s largest with Jordan and Turkey establishing separate minority group and accounts for a quarter to a procedures for Alawi and Turkmen refugees third of the country’s population. Houthis have

246 Middle East and State of the World’s Minorities North Africa and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Below: An abandoned Jewish village on the to Aden, where they battled forces loyal to the southern outskirts of the Yemeni capital Sana’a, president, whose government they had effectively April 2014. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah deposed. With mounting air strikes on Houthi targets by a Saudi-led coalition of Arab states, by presented their rebellion as an effort to challenge the beginning of April, Yemen – already the Arab years of marginalization by the government world’s poorest country – was in the throes of a in Sana’a, as well as an attempt to counter the major humanitarian crisis. As of January 2015, growing influence of ultraconservative Sunni an estimated 334,100 people were internally Salafism in the north. The uprising has tipped displaced, with numbers rising further in the the country into a state of profound upheaval months that followed. and led to the effective withdrawal of government Following their initial successes, Houthis were control over large parts of the country. also targeted by suicide bombings and clashed The advance of the armed group in the with al-Qaeda-affiliated Sunni extremists towards months following their departure from the NDC the end of 2014. One of the deadliest attacks, saw Houthi forces overtake a number of key however, took place on 20 March 2015, when strategic positions in the centre and south of the two suicide bombings targeted Shi’a mosques in country. By September, they had taken control Sana’a frequented by Houthi supporters, killing of a number of cities including Sana’a, seizing 137 people in the first major attacks in Yemen ministries and other government buildings, and claimed by ISIS. Incidents such as these have severely weakened the leadership of Yemen’s raised concerns about the threat of the country president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. Their sliding into sectarian violence. progress continued into 2015, with Houthi forces However, largely excluded from this picture advancing through southern Yemen all the way are Yemen’s other minorities, including its Jewish

State of the World’s Minorities Middle East and 247 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 North Africa population. Long-established as a historical Muhamasheen and other minorities they have presence in the country, and reaching a peak often deepened existing forms of discrimination population of more than 50,000 in the early-to- while also creating new patterns of exclusion. mid 20th century, Yemen’s Jewish community has Urbanization in Yemen has been fuelled by the dwindled severely in recent years to less than 100 country’s population growth, one of the highest people, due in part to harassment and persecution. rates worldwide, as well as rising investment, This situation has not improved in the wake of construction and labour migration in recent Houthi political gains due to the conflation among years. This has led to acute pressure on basic Houthi sympathizers, as well as Yemenis more services and housing in major urban centres such generally, of the Jewish faith with Zionism. In a as Sana’a, one of the world’s fastest growing rare show of official support, however, Yemen’s cities, with some projections suggesting it could Minister of Culture, Arwa Othman, dedicated be the first national capital to run out of a viable a major human rights award she received in water supply. September to Yemen’s Jewish population and In this context, minorities, migrants and other called for greater tolerance in the country. marginalized groups have been disproportionately Other religious minorities also continued to affected. Yemen’s Muhamasheen have been face discrimination during the year. A Yemeni forced to make their homes overwhelmingly in Bahá’í named Hamed Kamal bin Haydara slums, within or on the outskirts of the country’s remained in prison throughout 2014, where expanding urban centres, often in settlements he faced various forms of torture and abuse. In housing many inhabitants in a single room and not the first case of its kind, he was accused of lacking basic amenities such as plumbing and committing the crimes of proselytizing the Bahá’í electricity. Squalid living conditions, including faith and collaborating with Israel. It was not unsafe drinking water, with only nine per cent until January 2015 that he was finally indicted. of Muhamasheen homes having a piped supply, Muhamasheen continued to struggle during have contributed to widespread health problems. the year for greater political inclusion, access While there have been instances of to justice and an end to discrimination. In integration into the Yemeni working and April 2014, dozens of Muhamasheen staged middle classes, Muhamasheen have largely a demonstration near Jabal Habshi, Ta’izz, faced protracted urban poverty and limited to protest government inaction regarding the livelihood opportunities, with many engaged in demolition and torching of 16 Muhamasheen menial labour such as street sweeping and trash homes eight months prior. According to the collection. Yet as rural poor, other migrants National Organization for Defending Rights and those uprooted by conflict have in recent and Freedoms (HOOD), the attacks were a years rushed to Yemen’s urban centres in greater response to the intended marriage of a young numbers, competition for even these low-level Muhamasheen man with a young woman from jobs is growing. a nearby tribe, and were believed to be carried Yemen’s Jewish community has also been out as a gesture of disapproval by members of the forced to migrate to urban areas due to girl’s tribe. Following the demonstration, some insecurity, with the majority having moved from Muhamasheen families fled the area due to fears the north to Sana’a in 2007 after being driven of further attacks. from their homes in the wake of the Houthi One factor in their ongoing exclusion is the takeover of Sa’dah. Those in Sana’a are now lack of national identification cards and birth living in a guarded compound, and at the end certificates issued to Muhamasheen who, when of 2014 the only other Jewish community in located at both the social and geographical Yemen, numbering no more than a dozen or margins of Yemen’s urban centres, have so families, remained in the town of Raida in faced difficulties accessing state institutions. ‘Amran governorate. ■ While urban centres can offer opportunities for upward mobility and improved access to services such as education and health care, for

248 Middle East and State of the World’s Minorities North Africa and Indigenous Peoples 2015 result of migration from neighbouring Arab Case study by Rania El Rajji countries where they were declared personae non gratae following the 1948 creation of the state of Israel. In Beirut, the city’s Jewish population The disappearance was centred in the neighbourhood of Wadi Abu Jmil, west of the city centre. The eruption of Wadi Abu Jmil, of the war in 1975 led the last of the city’s Jewish population into exile, while an unknown Beirut’s Jewish number – estimated by some to be between 200 and 500 individuals – remained, but disguised district their religious identity, or in some cases converted, to avoid being targeted during the years of civil war. Wadi Abu Jmil was emptied Lebanon’s wars have had a lasting impact on the of its population and the beautiful synagogue country’s urban fabric. The infamous ‘green line’ of Maguen Abraham, once the centre of the which divided Beirut into East and West between community, was closed down and subsequently 1975 and 1990 forced various religious groups – damaged by Israeli bombardment during the primarily Muslims and Christians, but also other war. smaller minorities who found themselves drawn In 1994, the privately owned Lebanese into the conflict – to resettle on either side of the Company for the Development and city for their own safety. With a few exceptions, Reconstruction of Beirut Central District, many of the city’s once diverse neighbourhoods otherwise known as Solidere, took on the task were left homogenized by the increasingly of reconstructing and developing the city centre. sectarian nature of the conflict – a legacy that Since then, the controversial organization sadly persists to this day. has been strongly criticized for its role in Beirut as a city has always been a haven for exacerbating social divides in Beirut as well as refugees, dating back to the arrival of persecuted displacing yet again the original inhabitants and Armenians in 1915, the subsequent wave of shop owners in the city’s downtown. Although Palestinians from 1948 and more recently, an it is impossible to know the exact number influx of Syrians displaced since 2011. The of Lebanese Jews who still live around Wadi Lebanese war also caused a large wave of internal Abu Jmil or own property within the area, displacement, accompanied by an exodus from Solidere’s reconstruction of Wadi Abu Jmil has rural areas. All of these movements led to the transformed it, like other parts of central Beirut, multiplication of informal settlements and the into an upmarket ‘urban village’ with clubs and occupation of land within or on the fringes of other facilities that are unattainable for anyone Beirut. Due to Lebanon’s religious diversity, but the city’s most affluent population. Despite these migrations contributed to the remapping numerous efforts to complete its restoration, of the city into increasingly segregated districts. the area’s synagogue has yet to be opened to the The confinement of particular religious groups public. in different parts of Beirut, such as the largely The city centre, as a result of Solidere’s Shi’a southern suburbs of Dahieh or the policies, has therefore become a ghost town, predominantly Sunni Palestinian camps of deprived of its original religious diversity Shatila, Bouj Al Barajneh and Mar Elias, has and the many inhabitants who once gave it reinforced their separation. life. Redevelopment, like the conflict before Meanwhile the smaller religious minorities, it, continues to erase the rich history of particularly the Jewish population of Beirut, Beirut’s Jewish community – a process that, became undocumented casualties of the war. if it continues, could make its disappearance During the 1960s, Lebanon’s Jewish population complete. ■ numbered a few thousand and even grew as a

State of the World’s Minorities Middle East and 249 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 North Africa Peoples under Threat 2015 Mark Lattimer and Derek Verbakel Introduction Its fragility was demonstrated by a prolonged ISIS assault on Kobane in autumn 2014 that emptied The 2015 release of the Peoples under Threat the city and surrounding countryside of its index marks the 10th year that Peoples under inhabitants, until it was retaken by Kurdish and Threat has sought to identify those communities opposition forces in January 2015. around the world that are most at risk of Iraq headed the table when the Peoples under genocide, mass political killing or systematic Threat index was first published in 2006 and it violent repression. has never been far from the top of the index in A number of the countries which rose most the intervening years, despite earnest protestations sharply in the index last year, including Syria, from the Iraqi government and its international Yemen and Ukraine, saw escalating violence over partners that the security situation was coming the course of 2014–15 and the killing, in total, of under control. An increase in killings in 2013 was tens of thousands of civilians. followed by a catastrophic upsurge in violence This year again the publication uses current over the last year, with the advance of ISIS first indicators from authoritative sources to highlight into Anbar in western Iraq and then across where the risks are highest and where they have Ninewa in the north. Over 14,000 civilians risen most significantly over the last year. It also were killed in 2014, many of them in massacres provides an opportunity to review risk factors perpetrated by ISIS as it expelled minority over the last decade and the predictive power of communities, including Chaldo-Assyrians, the index itself. Shabak, Turkmen and Yezidis, from Mosul, Sinjar and the Ninewa plain. Thousands of Yezidi Rising threats women and girls remain in ISIS captivity. The risk remains acute not just for minority groups The list of major risers in the Peoples under Threat and for Shi’a communities threatened by ISIS, index in 2015 features countries from every major but also for Sunnis at risk of retaliation from Iraqi world region except the Americas. Four out of Security Forces and allied Shi’a militias seeking to ten are from the Arab world. Most of the civilian recapture territory. killing in the region is currently perpetrated by Conflict in the Central African Republic (CAR) governments or government-backed forces, but continued between the largely Muslim former the threat levels have also increased with the Séléka rebels and anti-balaka militias comprised expansion of attacks attributed to the opposition mainly of Christians. In the aftermath of the extremist group Da’ash or the Islamic State of Iraq January ouster of the ex-Séléka from Bangui, the and al-Sham (ISIS), including attacks in Lebanon, country’s new interim government and African Yemen, Egypt and Libya. Union, European Union (EU) and United With over 200,000 people now dead in Nations (UN) peacekeepers failed to quell the the conflict and up to half of the population violence. While both sides have been accused of forced from their homes, the crisis in Syria committing mass atrocities against civilians and continues to worsen. The situation has become reprisal attacks have been widespread, in the wake highly fractured, with the military involvement of an ex-Séléka withdrawal to the north and east of neighbouring states, foreign armed groups of the country, members of the Muslim minority including ISIS and Lebanese Hezbollah, and US- – regarded as Séléka sympathizers by virtue of led air strikes. The extreme sectarianism which their religion and language – have faced a violent characterizes ISIS and related jihadi groups, as campaign by Christian militias to extirpate them well as the pro-government Shabiha militias, has from the CAR. Upwards of 850,000 people now infected much of the country. Nearly all – nearly one-fifth of the country’s population – the remaining Christian communities in Syria were refugees or internally displaced at the end of live in enclaves in government-held areas. Only 2014, and many tens of thousands more fled their in the Kurdish-held regions of the north in al- homes in the first months of 2015. With fighters Jazeera, Kobane and Afrin has there been a serious on the ground still out of control, and without attempt at establishing an inclusive democracy. the backing of the transitional government, the

State of the World’s Minorities Peoples under Threat 2015 251 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Major Risers since 2014

Rank Rise in rank Country Groups Total since 2014

1 +2 Syria Political targets, Shi’a/Alawis, Christians, Kurds, Palestinians 24.95 4 +1 Afghanistan Hazara, Pashtun, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Turkmen, Baluchis, Kuchis 20.50 5 +1 Iraq Shi’a, Sunnis, Kurds, Turkmen, Christians, Mandaeans, Yezidis, Shabak, Faili Kurds, Bahá’ís, Palestinians 19.90 9 +3 South Sudan Murle, Nuer, Dinka, Anuak, Jie, Kachipo 18.37 10 +4 Central African Muslims, Christians; Kaba (Sara), Mboum, Mbororo, Republic Gula, Aka 18.35 16 +3 Russian Federation Chechens, Ingush and others in North Caucasus; indigenous northern peoples, Roma, Jews 14.82 17 +8 Libya Black Libyans, Sub-Saharan migrants, Tebu, Berbers 14.78 20 +3 Egypt Copts, Shi’a, Bahá’í; Nubians, Bedouin 13.76 21 +39 Ukraine Tatars, Krymchak and Karaites in Crimea; Russians, Hungarians, Moldovans and other national minorities 13.70 29 +15 China Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongols, Hui, religious minorities 12.21

UN, or France, a controversial peace agreement the rise in risk in two of the world’s major powers: was signed in April 2015 between ex-Séléka and China and Russia. anti-balaka leaders in Nairobi. In China, there was a severe escalation in Egypt rose another three places in the index the tactics used by Uyghur militants seeking this year. Former army chief Abdul Fattah el-Sisi independence in the Xinjiang Uyghur became president in May 2014, leading to a further Autonomous Region. Public train stations as crackdown on opposition groups and human well as police stations were targeted in attacks, rights activists. Hundreds of sentences of death, including suicide bombings, both in Urumqi or life imprisonment, were imposed on members and also outside Xinjiang in Hunan, Yunnan of the banned Muslim Brotherhood. While under and Guangdong. Hundreds of people were pressure from escalating military operations, killed, many others detained in mass arrests Islamist militants based in North Sinai enlarged and dozens of death sentences handed down. the scope and scale of their attacks against security Little was done, however, to address the legacy personnel and other government targets, and of under-development and exclusion of Uyghur in November pledged loyalty to ISIS. Ongoing communities that lies behind the unrest, with fighting and toughening security measures have the authorities placing further restrictions on affected the lives of Sinai Bedouin, who have long association and religious activities during the suffered political and economic marginalization. last year. The government’s strategy of labelling Human rights activists also continued to Uyghur human rights activists as terrorists has criticize the government for doing too little to forestalled attempts to improve the situation. provide security for Coptic and other Christian The return of a more autocratic style of communities, especially in Upper Egypt, where government in the Russian Federation is individuals, their homes and places of worship regularly denounced by President Putin’s critics, regularly came under attack. and it coincides with rising xenophobia in The dominance of Middle Eastern and African Russian society against migrants, whether from states in the Peoples under Threat table this year abroad or from the Caucasus. But the threat was perhaps inevitable, but of equal concern is is greatest in the North Caucasus itself, where

252 Peoples under Threat 2015 State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 regular clashes continue between Russian forces had referred the situation to the Court back in and Islamist separatists in Chechnya, Ingushetia, 2005. It was symptomatic of a wider failure by Kabardino-Balkaria and, particularly, Dagestan. the international community over Sudan, where While the rising threat level in Russia has left hundreds of thousands of civilians have been minorities there living in fear, Russia’s proxy killed since 2003 in campaigns of repression by war with Ukraine has seen whole communities government-backed forces against insurgencies in in Donbas and other areas of eastern Ukraine Darfur and, more recently, in South Kordofan sheltering in their basements or pushed from and Blue Nile states. Government forces their homes. Some 2 million Ukrainians have repeatedly targeted civilians over the last year, now been displaced within the east or have fled including bombing hospitals and schools, leaving to Russia, Belarus or Poland. Even in the heart of thousands dead. The re-election of President Europe, objective monitoring of the situation of Omar al-Bashir in April 2015 signalled a policy populations on the ground has been submerged of no change. He won 94 per cent of the vote by waves of allegation and counter-claim issued in an election boycotted by the main opposition by the different parties to the conflict. In parties and widely criticized as unfair. Russian-annexed Crimea, the voices of human In the Democratic Republic of Congo, a rights activists have been suppressed, including a series of rapidly mutating conflicts involving prominent activist from the minority Tatars, who local Mayi-Mayi militias, Ugandan and Rwandan was prevented from testifying to the UN and the rebels, and Katangan separatists, continued to OSCE when he was attacked on the street and his claim hundreds of lives, even as limited progress documents stolen in September. was made in the demobilization of fighters of the former M23 rebellion. The UN mission Peoples at greatest risk MONUSCO continues to undertake operations in support of Congolese armed forces who Although Peoples under Threat is designed to themselves have repeatedly been accused of assess the risk or threat of future events, in those committing atrocities. states that occupy the very top of the table, mass The contested outcome of the presidential killing is already under way. election in Afghanistan in 2014 brought a Ongoing armed conflict involving the extremist period of worrying uncertainty and fears over group al-Shabaab continues to secure the place of ethnic politics, so it was with some relief in the Somalia near the top of the Peoples under Threat international community that defeated candidate table. Due to advances by the Somali National Abdullah Abdullah was appointed ‘chief Army and the African Union mission AMISOM, executive officer’ in President Ashraf Ghani’s throughout 2014 al-Shabaab lost much of the new national unity government in September. territory previously under its control. Still, Civilian casualties reached record levels in 2014, particularly in South-Central Somalia, al-Shabaab rising 22 per cent overall compared with the persisted in launching numerous deadly assaults previous year and including nearly 3,700 deaths, on AMISOM and Somali forces, as well as according to the UN mission. NATO declared assassinations of political figures associated with the end of its combat role in December 2014, the federal government and attacks on significant but a new status of forces agreement, as well a government buildings in Mogadishu and the bilateral security agreement between the US and compound housing AMISOM’s headquarters. Afghanistan, mean that up to 18,000 foreign Severe political instability continues to exacerbate troops will stay. Fighting between Taliban and the vulnerability of minorities including Bantu Afghan forces rose during the year, and the and Benadiri. Taliban gained ground in parts of the country. In December the Prosecutor of the Hazara continued to face targeted killings International Criminal Court suspended and the Taliban presence in peace talks has investigations into war crimes and crimes against raised fears over what the future may hold for humanity in Darfur in Sudan in the face of Afghanistan’s minorities. In April 2015 ISIS was inaction by the UN Security Council, which blamed for a suicide bomb attack on government

State of the World’s Minorities Peoples under Threat 2015 253 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Peoples most under threat – highest rated countries 2015

Rank Country Group Total

1 Syria Political targets, Shi’a/Alawis, Christians, Kurds, Palestinians 24.95 2 Somalia Minorities incl. Bantu, Benadiri and ‘caste’ groups (Gaboye etc.); clan members at risk in fighting incl. Hawiye, Darod, etc. 23.58 3 Sudan Fur, Zaghawa, Massalit and others in Darfur; Ngok Dinka, Nuba, Beja 20.68 4 Afghanistan Hazara, Pashtun, Tajiks, Uzbeks, Turkmen, Baluchis, Kuchis 20.50 5 Iraq Shi’a, Sunnis, Kurds, Turkmen, Christians, Mandaeans, Yezidis, Shabak, Faili Kurds, Bahá’í, Palestinians 19.90 6 Dem. Rep. of the Congo Hema and Lendu, Hutu, Luba, Lunda, Tutsi/Banyamulenge, Batwa/Bambuti, other groups 19.80 7 Pakistan Shi’a (incl. Hazara), Ahmadi, Hindus, Christians and other religious minorities; Baluchis, Mohajirs, Pashtun, Sindhis 19.01 8 Burma/Myanmar Kachin, Karenni, Karen, Mons, Rakhine, Rohingyas, Shan, Chin (Zomis), Wa 18.40 9 South Sudan Murle, Nuer, Dinka, Anuak, Jie, Kachipo 18.37 10 Central African Republic Muslims, Christians; Kaba (Sara), Mboum, Mbororo, Gula, Aka 18.35 11 Yemen Zaydi Shi’a, Sunni tribes, al-Muhamasheen, Southerners 17.49 12 Nigeria Ibo, Ijaw, Ogoni, Yoruba, Hausa (Muslims) and Christians in the North 17.33 staff and military personnel in Jalalabad. will ease their grip on power. Members of the Following the collapse of peace talks in country’s ethnic nationalities appear sceptical Pakistan, the military intensified its offensive in about whether this will actually happen, or June against the Pakistani Taliban (TTP) in the whether it would make much difference if it country’s north-west, where more than a million did. After seven rounds of talks, a draft ceasefire people were displaced during the year. Across the agreement between the government and country religious extremism has grown while the representatives of 16 ethnic armed groups was situation faced by both Muslim and non-Muslim concluded in March 2015, even while conflict minorities has become more perilous, characterized continued in Kachin state and martial law was by growing intolerance and hate crimes, as well declared over a new crisis in Kokang. Meanwhile, as political and social marginalization. Extremist the Rohingya and other Muslims in Burma face groups continue to perpetrate mass killings with continued violence from Buddhist nationalists. apparent impunity: MRG reported in June that some 700 Shi’a had been killed over the previous Predicting persecution: year. Ahmadis and Hindus have also been targeted. The threat to Christians was underscored in 10 years of Peoples under Threat March 2015 when a TTP splinter group bombed In one sense, the position of Syria at the head of two churches in Lahore. the Peoples under Threat table this year does not Multi-party elections in Burma scheduled for tell us anything new. We already knew that things late 2015 have raised hopes, not least among were very bad, and if the sectarian dimension to supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National the conflict has grown over time, with Syria rising League for Democracy, that the Burmese generals continuously in the index over the last four years

254 Peoples under Threat 2015 State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 (see graph), it is still only one facet of a deadly Sunni militas brought concerns of violence combination of forces in the country. escalating along sectarian lines. March 2015 The value of the index is clearer where then saw the first major attack in Yemen by significant rises in the index appear to anticipate ISIS – suicide bombings of two Shi’a mosques in episodes of mass killing, particularly if they the capital. As Houthis engaged in fierce clashes provide a form of early warning that is otherwise with Hadi loyalists in Aden, a coalition of Arab absent in the international system. Sri Lanka, for states led by Saudi Arabia launched country- example, rose sharply in the index in 2007 and wide air strikes on Houthi targets. Yemen’s slide continued to rise until 2009 when a bloodbath into humanitarian catastrophe continued with of Tamil civilians accompanied the final stages al-Qaida seizing the port city Mukalla in April. of the Sri Lankan government’s war against the The creation of the state of South Sudan in Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. 2011 was marked by much celebration among The year 2007 also witnessed a jump in the the population as well as international human place of Pakistan in the index. Within a year, rights activists, but also by the new country’s increased militancy in Pakistan’s tribal areas entry straight into the uppermost levels of the (itself partly a response to US air strikes) led Peoples under Threat index. Two and half years to the formation of the Pakistani Taliban. In after independence, a dispute between the Baluchistan, hundreds of political activists were president and his deputy triggered a spate of mass forcibly disappeared in the course of 2008. The ethnic killing. Neither the threat of famine nor country has been found in the critical level of the the imposition of US sanctions in 2014 brought index ever since. a reconciliation between the mainly Dinka The country that has climbed most consistently forces of the government of President Salva in the index over the past decade is Yemen. In Kiir Mayardit and the opposition forces, largely 2014 the state fell apart. Having taken control of recruited from ethnic Nuer, of former Vice- numerous cities including Sana’a by September, President Riek Machar. al-Houthi (Shi’a) rebels succeeded in deposing Libya is another case of a country whose rise President Hadi’s government. Fighting with in the Peoples under Threat index has at times

Selected countries, 2006-2015 30.00

Pakistan Sri Lanka Syria South Sudan

25.00 Pakistani Taliban At least 10,000 Syrian uprising Tens of thousands Syria formed, killings Tamils killed begins dead in Dinka- escalate Nuer violence

20.00 Pakistan South Sudan

PUT Yemen

15.00 Libya

Sri Lanka

10.00 Yemen State implodes, divides along Libya sectarian lines 5.00 Ghaddafi overthrown; one million migrants expelled

0.00 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Year

State of the World’s Minorities Peoples under Threat 2015 255 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 appeared to run against the grain of international beheadings of Ethiopian and Egyptian Christians. public opinion. Libya re-entered the index It is feared that tens of thousands of refugees in 2010, a year before the war that removed may die seeking to cross the Mediterranean from President Gaddafi from power, but then steadily Libya to Europe unless EU search-and-rescue rose in the table as Libya held its first democratic operations are restored. ■ elections in 2012 and many international actors hailed a new era of democracy for the country. In Additional research by Kara Chiuchiarelli and fact the revolution had seen the expulsion from Umamah Basit their homes of up to 1 million migrant workers and black Libyans in the context of public attacks Visit www.peoplesunderthreat.org – a new on sub-Saharan Africans and the rise to power online map presenting information from of unaccountable, and at times openly racist, the Peoples under Threat index. View data armed militias. As Libya rises again in the index by year or by country and links to reports, this year, these forces are now tearing the country press releases and further information on apart in renewed civil war. In early 2015, a group the communities under threat. pledging allegiance to ISIS publicized its mass

How is Peoples under Threat all, episodes of mass ethnic or religious killing calculated? occur during armed conflicts. War provides the state of emergency, domestic mobilization and Since the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, our justification, international cover, and in some ability to identify those situations most likely to cases the military and logistic capacity, that enable lead to genocide or mass killing has improved. massacres to be carried out. Some massacres, A number of comparative studies of the factors however, occur in peacetime, or may accompany preceding historic episodes of political mass armed conflict from its inception, presenting a killing had been undertaken since the 1970s, problem to risk models that focus exclusively on but it was not until the 1990s that researchers current conflicts. In addition, severe and even pioneered quantitative longtitudinal analysis of a violent repression of minorities may occur for wide range of such factors, enabling the testing of years before the onset of armed conflict provides different causal hypotheses. This research enabled the catalyst for larger scale killing. the identification of those preconditions that The statistical indicators used all relate to were most likely to lead to genocide and political the state. The state is the basic unit of enquiry, mass murder (politicide). rather than particular ethnic or religious groups Minority Rights Group International has at risk, as governments or militias connected to drawn on these research findings to construct the the government are responsible for most cases of Peoples under Threat table, although responsibility genocidal violence. Formally, the state will reserve for the final table is exclusively our own. Peoples to itself the monopoly over the legitimate means under Threat is specifically designed to identify the of violence, so that where non-state actors are risk of genocide, mass killing or other systematic responsible for widespread or continued killing, violent repression, unlike most other early it usually occurs with either the complicity of the warning tools. Its primary application is civilian state or in a ‘failed state’ situation where the rule protection. of law has disintegrated. Certain characteristics Indicators of conflict are included in the table’s at the level of the state will greatly increase the construction, however, as most, although not likelihood of atrocity, including habituation to

256 Peoples under Threat 2015 State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 illegal violence among the armed forces or police, prevailing impunity for human rights violations, official tolerance or encouragement of hate speech against particular groups, and in extreme cases, prior experience of mass killing. Egregious episodes of mass killing targeted principally at one group have also seen other groups deliberately decimated or destroyed. However, some groups may experience higher levels of discrimination and be at greater risk than others in any given state. Minority Rights Group International has identified those groups in each state which we believe to be under most threat. (This does not mean that other groups or indeed the general population may not also be at some risk.) It should be noted that although these groups are most often minorities, in some cases ethnic or religious majorities will also be at risk and in relevant cases are therefore also listed in the table. In some cases, all the groups in the country are at risk of ethnic or sectarian killing. The overall measure is based on a basket of ten indicators. These include indicators of democracy or good governance from the World Bank; conflict data from the Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict Research and the Center for Systemic Peace; data on the flight of refugees, internally displaced persons and other populations of concern from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees; indicators of group division or elite factionalization from the Fund for Peace and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; the US State Failure Task Force data on prior genocides and politicides; and the country credit risk classification published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (as a proxy for trade openness). For citations and further information, see the notes to the table. For a fuller discussion of the methodology, see State of the World’s Minorities 2006. Based on current indicators from authoritative sources, Peoples under Threat seeks to identify those groups or peoples most under threat in 2015. ■

State of the World’s Minorities Peoples under Threat 2015 257 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Christian neighbourhoods of Azizieh, Siryan, Case study by Mark Lattimer Sulaimaniyah and Midan (numbered 1–4 on the map) can readily be appreciated from the geography. A relatively small change in the Aleppo, Syria frontline could have catastrophic effects for the communities living there. Although there are Christian individuals who are prominent in both The general threat to civilian populations the Syrian government and in the opposition, increases according to a known set of conflict- Christians often state that they have not taken and governance-related indicators, but within the sides in the conflict. Nevertheless, their remaining city environment risk levels are also affected by communities in Syria, including in Aleppo, patterns of settlement and the structure of the are now almost all located in government- or urban space. Kurdish-held areas. This has not protected them Aleppo is Syria’s largest city and boasts a history from bombings. But what the Christians fear of continuous civilization and cultural diversity most is the advance of ISIS. going back thousands of years. Many Armenians The Kurdish enclave of Sheikh Maksoud is who fled the Ottoman genocide during the First controlled by Kurdish forces. It has avoided being World War settled in Aleppo. By the turn of the target of government shelling and a truce has the last century, Sunni Arabs lived side by side also been agreed with the opposition. This has with communities of Kurds, Christians, Alawis led the neighbourhood to become a haven for and Druze (although nearly all Syria’s Jewish thousands of IDPs, including Arabs from eastern population had left in the decades following Aleppo as well as Kurds. Humanitarian conditions independence). When Aleppo was named within Sheikh Maksoud are difficult, however. Islamic cultural capital of the year in 2006 by the If political control in Aleppo city is finely Organization of the Islamic Conference, a Syrian balanced, it is also highly unstable. Given recent official statement praised the city as ‘an example events, almost any change will result in threats to of coexistence among religions, communities and the population. In April 2015, rebel shelling of races’. Sulaimaniyah led to dozens of reported deaths. Neighbourhoods of central Aleppo around the The extremist group Jabhat al-Nusra attempted Citadel display a typical maze of unplanned and an incursion in Sheikh Maksoud in May. And in often very narrow streets, with high population June, the UN special envoy for Syria condemned density. At the start of the battle for Aleppo in the death of at least 70 civilians from barrel July 2012, this helped the eastern part of the city bombs dropped by government helicopters in fall quickly under rebel control and made it hard Aleppo, including on a market in the eastern for government forces to retake. Heavy civilian neighbourhood of Al Shaar. ■ casualties have been recorded in the attempt, including thousands killed by indiscriminate government shelling. The situation as at March 2015 is shown in the map. Territory still controlled by the government extends in the shape of a claw from the south into central Aleppo, but is surrounded by opposition- held areas. The zones of greatest destruction are focused on the current and former frontlines and, in particular, the opposition strongholds of east-central Aleppo with mostly Sunni Arab neighbourhoods. Meanwhile, ISIS threatens along a separate wide front further east. The precarious situation of the predominantly

258 Peoples under Threat 2015 State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 CES aksoud ay 2013 une, 2014 ence maps efe r heikh M S R UCTION TEST 5 6 ISIS VERNMENT nternational, M AREAS OF GRE A DEST R G O OPPOSITION ISIS KURDISH FO R yan zizieh idan i r ulaimaniyah A S S M Amnesty I 1 2 3 4 NEIGHBOURHOODS amage Assessment of Aleppo, J , D T UNOS A T N NM E R V E G O ch 2015) a r 4 3 1 6 2 5 uction in Aleppo ( M est r ION T ol and D POS I O P abaj oana D olitical Cont r y J B P

State of the World’s Minorities Peoples under Threat 2015 259 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Country Group Conflict indicators

A. Self- B. Major C. Prior genocide/politicide determination armed conflict Peoples under Threat 2015 conflicts

Syria Political targets, Shi’a/Alawis, 5 2 1 Christians, Kurds, Palestinians

Somalia Minorities incl. Bantu, Benadiri and 4 2 1 ‘caste’ groups (Gaboye etc.); clan members at risk in fighting incl. Hawiye, Darod, etc.

Sudan Fur, Zaghawa, Massalit and others 5 2 1 in Darfur; Ngok Dinka, Nuba, Beja

Afghanistan Hazara, Pashtun, Tajiks, Uzbeks, 4 2 1 Turkmen, Baluchis, Kuchis

Iraq Shi’a, Sunnis, Kurds, Turkmen, 5 2 1 Christians, Mandaeans, Yezidis, Shabak, Faili Kurds, Bahá’í, Palestinians

Dem. Rep. of the Congo Hema and Lendu, Hutu, Luba, 4 2 1 Lunda, Tutsi/Banyamulenge, Batwa/Bambuti, other groups

Pakistan Shi’a (incl. Hazara), Ahmadis, 5 2 1 Hindus, Christians and other religious minorities; Baluchis, Mohajirs, Pashtun, Sindhis

Burma/Myanmar Kachin, Karenni, Karen, Mons, 5 2 1 Rakhine, Rohingyas, Shan, Chin (Zomis), Wa

South Sudan Murle, Nuer, Dinka, Anuak, Jie, 0 2 1 Kachipo

Central African Republic Muslims, Christians; Kaba (Sara), 0 2 0 Mboum, Mbororo, Gula, Aka

Yemen Zaydi Shi’a, Sunni tribes, 5 2 0 al-Muhamasheen, Southerners

Nigeria Ibo, Ijaw, Ogoni, Yoruba, Hausa 5 2 1 (Muslims) and Christians in the North

Ethiopia Anuak, Afars, Oromo, Somalis, 5 1 1 smaller minorities

Israel/ Palestine Palestinians in Gaza/West Bank, 5 2 0 Israeli Palestinians, Bedouin

Iran Arabs, Azeris, Bahá’ís, Baluchis, 4 0 1 Kurds, Turkomen

Russian Federation Chechens, Ingush and others 5 2 1 in North Caucasus; indigenous northern peoples, Roma, Jews

Libya Black Libyans, Sub-Saharan 2 2 0 migrants, Tebu, Berbers

Zimbabwe Ndebele, Europeans, political/ 2 0 1 social targets

Mali Tuareg, Arabs, Maure, and others 4 2 0 in the north

Egypt Copts, Shi’a, Bahá’í; Nubians, 5 1 0 Bedouin

Ukraine Tatars, Krymchak and Karaites 5 2 0 in Crimea; Russians, Hungarians, Moldovans and other national minorities

260 Peoples under Threat 2015 State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Indicators of population flight/group division Democracy/governance indicators Total

D. Flight of E. Legacy of F. Rise of G. Voice and H. Political I. Rule of law J. OECD refugees and vengeance factionalized accountability stability country risk IDPs – group elites classification grievance

0.4370 10.0 9.6 -1.773 -2.685 -1.477 7 24.95

0.2104 9.3 10.0 -2.190 -2.748 -2.443 7 23.58

0.0757 9.9 10.0 -1.775 -2.201 -1.252 7 20.68

0.1178 8.7 9.4 -1.288 -2.474 -1.671 7 20.50

0.0698 10.0 9.6 -1.096 -1.989 -1.471 7 19.90

0.0497 9.6 9.5 -1.467 -2.230 -1.549 7 19.80

0.0078 10.0 9.5 -0.831 -2.595 -0.879 7 19.01

0.0168 9.3 8.6 -1.497 -1.155 -1.220 7 18.40

0.1557 10.0 10.0 -1.407 -1.759 -1.440 7 18.37

0.2762 9.5 9.7 -1.529 -2.146 -1.834 7 18.35

0.0136 9.3 9.4 -1.353 -2.349 -1.159 7 17.49

0.0004 9.8 9.5 -0.744 -2.079 -1.158 5 17.33

0.0013 8.9 8.7 -1.293 -1.394 -0.622 7 16.38

0.0086 9.7 8.1 -0.869 -1.900 -0.440 7 15.63

0.0013 8.8 9.4 -1.600 -1.269 -0.983 7 15.28

0.0007 8.5 8.1 -1.013 -0.750 -0.784 4 14.82

0.0131 7.5 8.1 -0.996 -1.810 -1.363 7 14.78

0.0084 8.1 10.0 -1.386 -0.690 -1.568 7 14.12

0.0272 7.5 4.9 -0.302 -1.685 -0.750 7 13.95

0.0003 8.6 9.4 -1.040 -1.620 -0.602 6 13.76

0.0016 6.4 8.0 -0.326 -0.758 -0.825 7 13.70

State of the World’s Minorities Peoples under Threat 2015 261 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Country Group Conflict indicators

A. Self- B. Major C. Prior genocide/politicide determination armed conflict Peoples under Threat 2015 conflicts

Philippines Indigenous peoples, Moros 5 2 1 (Muslims), Chinese

Cote d’Ivoire Northern Mande (Dioula), 3 1 0 Senoufo, Bete, newly-settled groups

Burundi Hutu, Tutsi, Batwa 0 0 1

Lebanon Druze, Maronite Christians, 2 1 0 Palestinians, Shi’a, Sunnis

Equatorial Guinea Bubi, Annobon Islanders 1 0 1

Sri Lanka Tamils, Muslims 4 0 1

Chad ‘Black African’ groups, Arabs, 2 0 0 Southerners

China Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongols, Hui, 5 1 1 religious minorities

Kyrgyzstan Uzbeks, Russians 2 1 0

Thailand Chinese, Malay-Muslims, Northern 5 2 0 Hill Tribes

Eritrea Afars, Saho, Tigre, religious 0 0 0 minorities

Colombia Political/social targets, Afro- 2 2 0 descendants, indigenous peoples

Algeria Berbers, Saharawi 2 1 1

Uganda Acholi, Karamojong, Basongora, 2 0 1 Batwa

Angola Bakongo, Cabindans, Ovimbundu, 2 0 1 Pastoralists, San and Kwisi

Tajikistan Uzbeks, Pamiris, Russians 1 0 0

Kenya Borana, Kalenjin, Kikuyu, Luyha, 2 1 0 Luo, Muslims, Turkana, Endorois, Masai, Ogiek, other indigenous groups

Bosnia and Herzegovina Croats, Bosniac Muslims, Serbs, 2 0 1 Roma

Kosovo Serbs, Roma/Ashkali/Egyptians, 4 0 0 Bosniaks, Turks, Gorani

Bangladesh Ahmadis, Hindus, other religious 3 0 0 minorities; Chittagong Hill Tribes

Guinea Fulani (Peul), Malinke 0 0 0

Guinea Bissau Balanta, Fula (Fulani), Manjaco, 0 0 0 Mandinga, Papel, Ejamat (Felupe), Jola (Diola), Susu, Cape Verdeans

North Korea Political/social targets, religious 0 0 0 minorities

Rwanda Hutu, Tutsi, Batwa 0 0 1

Azerbaijan Armenians 4 0 0

Uzbekistan Tajiks, Islamic political groups, 1 0 0 religious minorities, Karakalpaks, Russians

Venezuela Indigenous peoples, Afro- 0 0 0 descendants

262 Peoples under Threat 2015 State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Indicators of population flight/group division Democracy/governance indicators Total

D. Flight of E. Legacy of F. Rise of G. Voice and H. Political I. Rule of law J. OECD refugees and vengeance factionalized accountability stability country risk IDPs – group elites classification grievance

0.0065 8.3 8.0 -0.012 -1.059 -0.427 3 13.16

0.0057 9.0 9.4 -0.768 -1.051 -0.932 7 13.00

0.0317 8.1 7.9 -0.965 -1.298 -1.062 7 12.68

0.0014 8.9 9.3 -0.441 -1.695 -0.776 7 12.58

0.0003 6.6 8.2 -1.962 0.081 -1.318 7 12.54

0.0085 9.3 9.4 -0.619 -0.606 -0.271 6 12.45

0.0054 8.5 9.8 -1.384 -1.101 -1.372 7 12.34

0.0002 8.6 7.2 -1.577 -0.546 -0.456 2 12.21

0.0007 8.2 8.0 -0.565 -0.910 -1.139 7 11.95

0.0000 8.0 9.5 -0.432 -1.322 -0.133 3 11.68

0.0547 6.4 8.1 -2.149 -0.776 -1.389 7 11.66

0.1249 7.7 7.7 -0.116 -1.269 -0.449 4 11.65

0.0002 7.9 7.3 -0.891 -1.170 -0.681 3 11.40

0.0016 8.3 8.9 -0.549 -0.841 -0.357 6 11.38

0.0039 7.1 7.2 -1.120 -0.372 -1.280 5 11.32

0.0002 7.0 8.4 -1.475 -1.137 -1.239 7 11.30

0.0002 9.3 9.3 -0.242 -1.148 -0.744 6 11.24

0.0429 7.4 8.7 -0.160 -0.366 -0.165 7 11.18

0.0311 8.0 8.0 -0.270 -0.985 -0.570 7 11.18

0.0002 8.7 9.3 -0.423 -1.613 -0.832 6 11.12

0.0023 8.4 9.6 -1.065 -1.226 -1.421 7 11.11

0.0015 6.0 9.6 -1.414 -0.932 -1.623 7 10.96

0.0001 6.6 8.2 -2.192 -0.530 -1.286 7 10.85

0.0082 8.5 8.2 -1.179 -0.084 -0.148 7 10.65

0.0653 6.7 7.9 -1.354 -0.410 -0.674 5 10.65

0.0002 7.4 8.8 -1.944 -0.549 -1.204 6 10.65

0.0004 6.8 7.7 -0.953 -1.077 -1.790 7 10.62

State of the World’s Minorities Peoples under Threat 2015 263 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Country Group Conflict indicators

A. Self- B. Major C. Prior genocide/politicide determination armed conflict Peoples under Threat 2015 conflicts

Djibouti Afars 3 0 0

Cambodia Cham, Vietnamese, indigenous hill 0 0 1 tribes (Khmer Leou)

Niger Djerema-songhai, Hausa, Tuaregs 2 0 0

Turkey Kurds, Alevis, Roma, Armenians 5 1 0 and other Christians

Cameroon ‘Westerners’, Southerners 2 0 0

India Assamese, Bodos, Nagas, Tripuras, 5 2 0 other Adivasis; Kashmiris, Sikhs, Muslims, Dalits

Nepal Madheshis (Terai), Dalits, Janajati, 2 0 0 linguistic minorities

Laos Hmong, other highland peoples 2 0 0

Mauritania Haratins (‘Black Moors’), Kewri 0 0 0

Vietnam Montagnards (Degar), other 2 0 1 highland peoples, religious minorities

Haiti Political/social targets 0 0 0

Serbia Bosniaks, Ethnic Albanians, Croats, 2 0 1 Roma

Georgia Adzhars, Abkhazians, South Ossetians 4 0 0

Turkmenistan Uzbeks, Russians, Kazakhs, religious 0 0 0 minorities

Belarus Poles 0 0 0

Indonesia Acehnese, Chinese, Dayaks, Madurese, 4 0 1 Papuans, religious minorities

Moldova Trans-Dniester Slavs 4 0 0

Congo (Rep.) Lari, M’Boshi, Aka 1 0 0

Guatemala Indigenous peoples, Garifuna 0 0 1

Togo Ewe, Kabre 0 0 0

Madagascar Côtier, Merina, Indians/Pakistanis 0 0 0

Ecuador Afro-descendants, indigenous 2 0 0 peoples

Notes to Table § Self-determination/autonomy conflicts in 2015 were Sources of the indicators are as follows: ranked on a scale of 0–5 as follows: 5=ongoing armed conflict; 4=contained armed conflict; 3=settled armed § Conflict indicators: The base data used was Monty conflict; 2=militant politics; 1=conventional politics. G Marshall, ‘Major Episodes of Political Violence Major armed conflicts were classified as 2=ongoing 1946–2014’ (Center for Systemic Peace, 2015) and, in late 2014; 1=emerging from conflict since 2010 or for self-determination conflicts, Monty G Marshall ongoing conflict with deaths under 1,000. and Ted R Gurr, ‘Peace and Conflict 2005’ (CIDCM, § Prior genocide or politicide: Harff, US Political University of Maryland, 2005) updated for 2014–5 Instability Task Force (formerly State Failure Task using figures from Center for Systemic Peace, MRG Force). 1=one or more episodes since 1945, updated and the Heidelberg Institute for International Conflict using MRG data. Research (Conflict Barometer 2014, Heidelberg, § Indicators of Flight and Group Division: Data for HIIK, 2015). the flight of refugees and IDPs comes from UN High Commissioner for Refugees, total population

264 Peoples under Threat 2015 State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Indicators of population flight/group division Democracy/governance indicators Total

D. Flight of E. Legacy of F. Rise of G. Voice and H. Political I. Rule of law J. OECD refugees and vengeance factionalized accountability stability country risk IDPs – group elites classification grievance

0.0013 6.4 7.6 -1.445 -0.119 -0.756 7 10.54

0.0009 7.3 8.6 -0.980 -0.156 -0.990 6 10.53

0.0020 7.5 8.9 -0.355 -1.296 -0.745 7 10.53

0.0010 9.0 7.3 -0.263 -1.195 0.080 4 10.36

0.0007 7.8 9.5 -1.042 -0.518 -1.046 6 10.25

0.0000 7.8 6.8 0.412 -1.187 -0.099 3 10.19

0.0004 9.0 8.3 -0.568 -1.141 -0.756 6 10.11

0.0011 6.0 8.3 -1.588 0.065 -0.769 7 10.06

0.0095 7.2 8.5 -0.931 -1.017 -0.947 7 9.98

0.0034 6.0 6.9 -1.336 0.224 -0.487 5 9.91

0.0075 7.0 9.1 -0.790 -0.663 -1.299 7 9.88

0.0311 8.0 8.0 0.286 -0.095 -0.343 6 9.88

0.0628 8.0 9.5 0.099 -0.464 -0.025 6 9.68

0.0002 6.9 7.8 -2.171 0.175 -1.360 6 9.56

0.0006 7.1 8.3 -1.539 -0.025 -0.889 7 9.40

0.0001 7.6 7.0 0.003 -0.500 -0.554 3 9.36

0.0009 6.2 7.8 -0.106 -0.034 -0.410 7 9.27

0.0033 6.3 6.7 -1.125 -0.466 -1.092 6 9.13

0.0010 7.6 6.0 -0.404 -0.695 -1.112 4 8.99

0.0017 4.8 7.6 -0.979 -0.427 -1.009 7 8.87

0.0000 4.9 7.6 -0.780 -0.714 -0.897 7 8.85

0.0002 7.5 8.2 -0.286 -0.195 -0.950 6 8.80

of concern by country of origin, Mid-Year Trends Data for Kosovo include some indicators relating to Serbia. 2014, as a proportion of total country population at Where separate indicators are available for Israel and the same date (population figures from UN DESA). Palestine, the latter have been used. Group division indicators are from the Fragile States Indicators were rebased as necessary to give an Index, Fund for Peace and the Carnegie Endowment approximate equal weighting to the five categories above, for International Peace, 2014. with the exception of the prior geno-/politicide indicator. § Democracy/Governance Indicators: Annual Governance As a dichotomous variable this received a lesser weighting Indicators, World Bank, 2014. to avoid too great a distortion to the final ranking. § OECD country risk classification: Organisation for Resulting values were then summed. Economic Cooperation and Development, ‘Country Risk Classifications of the Participants to the The full formula is: Arrangement on Officially Supported Export Credits’, (A/2) + (Bx1.25) + (Cx2) + (Dx10) + (E+F)/6 + January 2015. (G+H+I)/-1 + (Jx0.625)

State of the World’s Minorities Peoples under Threat 2015 265 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Reference 266 Reference State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Who are minorities?

Minorities of concern to MRG are disadvantaged ethnic, national, religious, linguistic or cultural groups who are smaller in number than the rest of the population and who may wish to maintain and develop their identity. MRG also works with indigenous peoples. Other groups who may suffer discrimination are of concern to MRG, which condemns discrimination on any ground. However, the specific mission of MRG is to secure the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples around the world and to improve cooperation between communities.

Selected abbreviations

African Charter – African Charter on Human ICCPR – International Covenant on Civl and Political and Peoples’ Rights Rights ACHPR – African Commission on Human ICERD – International Convention on the Elimination and Peoples’ Rights of All Forms of Racial Discrimination ACHR – American Convention on Human ICESCR – International Covenant on Economic, Rights Social and Cultural Rights AU – African Union IDMC – Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre CERD – Committee for the Elimination of IDPs – Internally displaced persons Racial Discrimination NGO – Non-Government Organization CESCR – Committee on Economic, Social OCHA – Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian and Cultural Rights Affairs CIS – Commonwealth of Independent States OHCHR – Office of the High Commissioner for CSO – Civil society organizations Human Rights DRD – Declaration on the Right to OSCE – Organisation for Security and Co-operation Development in Europe ECHR – European Convention on Human UDHR – Universal Declaration of Human Rights Rights UN – United Nations ECRI – European Commission against Racism UNDP – United Nations Development Programme and Intolerance UNDRIP UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous ECtHR – European Court of Human Rights Peoples FCNM – Framework Convention on the UNEP – UN Environmental Programme Protection of National Minorities UNESCO – UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural FPIC – free, prior and informed consent Organization HRW – Human Rights Watch UNFPA – UN Population Fund IACHR – Inter-American Commission on UNHCR – UN High Commissioner for Refugees Human Rights UNICEF – UN Children’s Fund IACtHR – Inter-American Court of Human WHO – World Health Organization Rights ICC – International Criminal Court

State of the World’s Minorities Reference 267 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Lucy Claridge (Urbanization, minorities and Contributors indigenous peoples: how can the law provide protection?) is Head of Law at Minority Rights Umamah Basit (Rio de Janeiro case study) recently Group International, where she manages the legal completed an LLM in Human Rights, Conflict cases programme. Her work uses strategic litigation and Justice from the School of Oriental and and advocacy to improve access to justice for African Studies (SOAS), and holds an LLB from minority and indigenous communities worldwide, the London of School of Economics (LSE). She with a particular focus on land rights, political has a keen interest in women’s rights and issues participation and wider anti-discrimination issues. relating to humanitarian intervention and conflict resolution. Shikha Dilawri (South Asia – Afghanistan and Pakistan) is a London-based researcher and MRG’s Bill Bowring (Europe – Turkey) teaches Directorate Assistant. She has been involved in human rights and international law at Birkbeck planning and implementing MRG’s work in University. He previously taught at University Pakistan. She holds a postgraduate degree in of East London, Essex University and London International Relations from the London School Metropolitan University. Bill has over 90 of Economics and Political Science and her work publications on topics of international law, focuses on issues at the intersections of gender, human rights, minority rights, Russian law and race, minority rights, migration and conflict. philosophy, all from a Marxist perspective. Sarah El-Ashmawy (MENA – Egypt) is a London- Michael Caster (East Asia) is a researcher based researcher and programme manager. Her and human rights advocate, currently an MA work focuses on freedom of religion and belief in the candidate at the Fletcher School of Law and Middle East and north Africa, and more specifically Diplomacy at Tufts University. He has an MA Egypt. She holds a master’s degree in Violence, in Conflict Studies and Human Rights from Conflict and Development from the School of the University of Utrecht and has spent more Oriental and African Studies, as well as a bachelor’s than five years working with human rights degree in Political Sciences and International Law organizations in East Asia. from the American University in Cairo.

Chris Chapman (Minorities and indigenous peoples Nicole Girard (Minority and indigenous women in cities – conflict and conciliation) is Adviser/ and urbanization; Southeast Asia – Cambodia, Researcher on Indigenous Rights at Amnesty Vietnam, Thailand; South Asia – Bangladesh, International, where he supports research and India, Sri Lanka) is the Programme Coordinator advocacy on land rights, free prior and informed for the Asian component of MRG’s Minority consent, and violence against indigenous women, Realities programme. She has been researching among other issues. From 2000 to 2013 he was and writing on issues facing minority and at Minority Rights Group International, most indigenous communities in Asia for over 10 years. recently as Head of Conflict Prevention. The views expressed in this chapter do not necessarily Mariah Grant (North America) is a freelance represent those of Amnesty International. human rights consultant with expertise in migration and migrant workers’ rights, and Kara Chiuchiarelli (Trujillo case study) holds specializes in government and NGO anti-human an HBA in Communications and is currently trafficking policy and programme analysis. Her studying an MSc in Emerging Economies regional experience spans the Americas, Middle and Inclusive Development at King’s College East/North Africa and Asia-Pacific. Currently London’s International Development Institute. she resides in Bangkok, Thailand where she has She is interested in public-private partnerships, undertaken a range of consultancies with NGOs, inclusive business, data for development, human rights institutions and intergovernmental and access to information issues. organizations.

268 Reference State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Alfredo Gutierrez Carrizo (South America) is state relations in Central Asia and Eurasia. He an experienced urban ecological architect who is currently a social development specialist in has worked in Argentina, Ireland and the UK. the Europe and Central Asia division of the In Argentina he designs ecological housing World Bank. and works with indigenous communities on ecological design for community projects. He Shorena Kobaidze (Europe – Georgia) has twelve is also an experienced translator and has worked years of professional experience working for the with international agencies and NGOs translating development, poverty reduction, integration and reports and publications from Spanish to English. promotion of the rights of the least protected groups. Since 2008 she has been working on Hanna Hindstrom (Southeast Asia – Burma, projects that aim to enhance good governance on Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines ) is a national minority issues in Georgia. Since 2013 freelance journalist and researcher specializing in she has been coordinating the implementation Burma and Southeast Asia. She has been reporting of the joint three-year Eastern Partnership from the region since 2011 and is currently Minorities Network. working as the Asia Information Officer at MRG. Mark Lattimer (PUT) is the Executive Director Paul Iganski (Europe – Greece) is Professor of MRG. Formerly he worked with Amnesty of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the International. Lancaster University Law School, UK. He specializes in research, writing, teaching and Corinne Lennox (Minority and indigenous peoples’ public engagement on the problems of hate rights in urban areas) is a Senior Lecturer in speech and hate crime as global phenomena. His Human Rights at the School of Advanced Study, latest book, Hate Crime: A Global Perspective University of London. Her research focuses on (with Jack Levin) is published by Routledge, minority and indigenous rights protection and New York in 2015. on human rights and development. She has previously worked as a human rights practitioner Rita Izsák (Foreword) is the UN Special and consultant, including for MRG, the UNDP Rapporteur on minority issues. Prior to this, she and the OHCHR. worked with a variety of minority and human rights organizations in various European countries, Rebecca Marlin (Endorois case study) is currently in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Somalia. She the Legal Fellow at MRG in London. She served as Chief of Staff at the Ministry of Justice earned her B.A. from Wellesley College and and Public Administration of Hungary. She was her J.D. from Fordham University School of President and CEO of the Tom Lantos Institute Law. During her time at MRG she has been (TLI) in Budapest, Hungary. Rita holds a Masters working extensively with the Endorois to achieve in Law diploma from the Péter Pázmány Catholic implementation of the 2010 African Commission University, Hungary. decision granting them rights to Lake Bogoria.

Paige Wilhite Jennings (West and Central Vanessa Mazzei (Bolivia case study) holds a BA Africa) has worked with inter-governmental in Politics and International Relations and was organizations and NGOs in Central Africa, a Publications and Communications Intern Central and South America and the Caribbean at Minority Rights Group. Her research and on a range of human rights concerns. In recent interests focus on human rights, international years her work has focused particularly on development and post-authoritarian transitions. minority and children’s rights. Michelle Minc (Mogadishu case study) is a Alisher Khamidov (Bishkek case study) humanitarian activist who focuses on the specializes in ethnic relations, religious activism, participatory design and management of programs social movements, political economy and inter- in the Horn of Africa. She has worked across a

State of the World’s Minorities Reference 269 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 variety of sectors, including education, protection, Languages Project, he documented the Nungish and youth empowerment, and she has a particular languages of north-west Yunnan in collaboration interest in gender perspectives. She studied with the community. He has written widely on Political Science and International Relations at the minority languages and cultures, often with a University of California, Berkeley (B.A.) and the focus on China, and currently serves as Assistant London School of Economics (M.Sc). Director of the Endangered Language Alliance in New York. Matthew Naumann (Central Asia) is a writer and researcher with fourteen years of Federica Prina (Europe – Latvia and Russia) is experience of analysis and writing on human Research Associate at the School of Social and rights, socioeconomic, peacebuilding and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow. She humanitarian issues with non-governmental and is currently working on the research project international organizations. He has a geographical ‘National Minority Rights and Democratic focus on Central Asia and the former Soviet Political Community: Practices of Non- Union and lived in Kyrgyzstan for seven years. Territorial Autonomy in Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe’. From 2011 to 2013 she Nataliya Novakova (Europe – Ukraine and was senior researcher at the European Centre for Crimea case study) has been working for a Minority Issues, Flensburg (Germany). number of years in international NGOs in Ukraine, dealing with public policy, community Miriam Puttick (MENA – Iraq and Syria) development and human rights. She is currently works as Civilian Rights Officer for the Ceasefire pursuing an MPA degree at Central European Project at Minority Rights Group International. University School of Public Policy. She is a She holds a bachelor’s degree in International member of the Ukraine International Partnership Relations from the University of Western for Human Rights and a junior fellow of the Ontario and a master’s degree in Comparative European Stability Initiative. Politics from the London School of Economics.

Janet Oropeza Eng (Central America) has a Rajiv Shah (Ahmedabad case study) is based master’s degree in Political Science from the in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, and is editor University of Waterloo, Canada. For the past of Counterview and former Political Editor four years, she has worked in Fundar, Center of the Times of India. He also works as a for Analysis and Research, a Mexican civil consultant with three NGOs, namely Navsarjan society organization. She has also worked in Trust, Centre for Social Justice and Janvikas. various international organizations, including the Rajiv previously served in Moscow as special International Development Research Centre in correspondent for the Delhi-based daily Patriot Canada and the UNDP-Mexico. and weekly Link.

Tom Palmer (MENA – Israel/OPT and East Carolyn Stephens (The indigenous experience Jerusalem case study; Europe – Bulgaria and of urbanization; South Americas) is Honorary France) is a freelance writer and consultant based Professor of Global Health and Ecology in the in Gaziantep, Turkey. He has lived and worked UCL Institute of Health Equity, and Visiting throughout the Middle East. He is an expert Full Professor in the University of Tucumán in in the conflict in Israel and Palestine and also Argentina. She has worked with indigenous and provides support to national and international minority groups for over 25 years and specialised NGOs implementing rights-based humanitarian in urban environmental epidemiology for her and development projects. PhD. She has also worked with NGOs and UN agencies, mostly recently with UNICEF Ross Perlin (Trung case study) is a writer and Argentina and UNICEF India on indigenous and linguist based in Brooklyn. From 2009 to 2011, tribal health. as a grant-funded researcher with the Himalayan

270 Reference State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Linda Szabó (Budapest case study) is a Jacqui Zalcberg (Oceania) is a Human Rights PhD candidate at the Sociology and Social Officer at the United Nations Office of the High Anthropology Department of Central European Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), University. She has been doing research focusing where she supports the mandate of the UN on the interplay between urban restructuring Special Rapporteur on minority issues. She and ethnic diversity in a Central Eastern has previously worked for the UN Special European context, with a particular interest in Rapporteurs on the human rights of migrants Budapest and Pécs. and indigenous peoples. The views expressed in the chapter are those of the author and do not Inga Thiemann (South Africa) is a human rights necessarily reflect the views of the UN. researcher and advocate, working on issues of gender and racial discrimination. She is currently completing a PhD on human trafficking and Editor’s migration at University College London, UK. Inga holds postgraduate qualifications from acknowledgements Johns Hopkins University SAIS, Italy, and King’s College London, UK. With thanks to Carl Soderbergh for considerable editorial input, Kristen Harrison and Kate Anne-Marie Tupola-Plunkett (Pacific case Nic Dhomhnaill for production coordination study) is of Samoan descent, an independent and picture research, interns Katerina Avina, scholar living in New York who has advised Umamah Basit, Kara Chiuchiarelli, Vanessa and consulted for various UN agencies about Mazzei and Olga Mun for all their wonderful indigenous and urban indigenous peoples and is research support, Sophie Richmond for copy currently contributing to a climate change project editing, Jacqui Lewis for proofreading and Tom with the American Museum of Natural History Carpenter for design. and the Museum of Samoa. In addition to the MRG staff who provided their feedback on earlier drafts, we would like to Derek Verbakel (MENA – Yemen and Dubai thank all the anonymous reviewers who provided case study; PUT) is a London-based researcher invaluable input to first drafts. and analyst whose work focuses on the politics of conflict, security and development, particularly in the Middle East. He holds a postgraduate degree in International Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

Dobroslawa Wiktor-Mach (Warsaw case study) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of European Studies at the Cracow University of Economics in Poland. She holds a PhD in sociology and her current research interests include Islamic diversity, Turkish-origin Islamic movements and urbanization.

Laura A. Young (East Africa) is an attorney and independent consultant focused on human rights and rule of law issues in Africa, with a specific interest in women’s rights; minorities and indigenous peoples; and transitional justice. She lives and works in Nairobi, Kenya.

State of the World’s Minorities Reference 271 and Indigenous Peoples 2015 Minority Rights Group International

Minority Rights Group International (MRG) World Directory of Minorities and is a non-governmental organization (NGO) Indigenous Peoples working to secure the rights of ethnic, religious The internet’s leading information resource on and linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples minorities around the globe: worldwide, and to promote cooperation and www.minorityrights.org/Directory understanding between communities. Our activities are focused on international advocacy, training, publishing and outreach. We are guided by the needs expressed by our worldwide partner network of organizations which represent minority and indigenous peoples. MRG works with over 150 organizations in nearly 50 countries. Our governing Council, which meets twice a year, has members from nine different countries. MRG has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), observer status with the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights, and is registered with the Organization of American States. MRG is registered as a charity and a company limited by guarantee under English law. Registered charity no. 282305, limited company no. 1544957.

Discover us online:

MRG website Visit our website for news, publications and more information about MRG’s work: www.minorityrights.org

Minority Voices Newsroom An online news portal that allows minority and indigenous communities to upload multimedia content and share their stories: www.minorityvoices.org

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272 Reference State of the World’s Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2015