Annual review 2005A fair chance for all

minorityrights groupinternational

Education andopportunity 3

Protectingland rights 4

Challengingdiscriminationagainstwomen 5

Reducing thepoverty of thepoorest 6

Preventingconflict,protectingcommunities 9

Financialreport 2005 10

Staff anddonors list 12

Getting ourmessageacross 13

Minority Rights GroupInternational (MRG) is a non-governmental organization (NGO)working to secure the rights ofethnic, religious and linguisticminorities and indigenous peoplesworldwide and to promotecooperation and understandingbetween communities.

Our activities are focused oninternational advocacy, training,publishing and outreach. We areguided by the needs expressed byour worldwide network of partnerorganizations which represent

minorities and indigenous peoples.MRG works with over 150organizations in over 50 countries.Our governing Council, whichmeets twice a year, has membersfrom eight different countries.

MRG has consultative status withthe United Nations Economic andSocial Council (ECOSOC), andobserver status with the AfricanCommission on Human andPeoples’ Rights (ACHPR). MRG isregistered as a charity and acompany limited by guaranteeunder English law.

Front cover: Grandfather, born on Diego Garcia,with his grand-daughter, born in Mauritius afterthe inhabitants of the Chagos Islands weredeported to make way for an American militarybase in the 1960s. Tim Dirven/Panos Pictures

Threats to the rights of minorities andindigenous peoples around the worldremained undiminished in 2005. Gravehuman rights violations continue.Entrenched discrimination means that,in many parts of the world, minoritiesremain the poorest of the poor and yetare denied access to justice or todevelopment opportunities to enablethem to challenge their discriminationand break out of long-term cycles ofpoverty. And, as the global securityagenda retains its focus on the ‘waragainst terror’, many governments aretaking the opportunity to clamp downon the rights and freedoms of theirminority communities.

Minority Rights Group International(MRG) is a unique global voice forthe rights of minorities andindigenous peoples. In the face of thesechallenges we need to think carefullyhow our limited resources can bedeployed to the greatest effect. Followingextensive consultation and research, weagreed a new four-year strategy, startingfrom 2005, concentrating efforts onwhere our contribution can make themost difference.

Achieving lasting improvements in thelives of minorities and indigenous

peoples on the ground is our priority.Our campaigning will be driven byspecific goals, including educationreform, protecting land rights andcountering discrimination againstminority women. In order to helpprotect minorities and indigenouspeoples from human rights violations, agreater focus will be placed on actionat the level of national governments,including by using international law.Improving our ability to monitorchanges in the situation of minoritiesaround the world and to respond tocrises, MRG will seek to raise theprofile of minority rights amonginternational policy-makers and in thekey national and international media.

MRG is committed to working with ourpartner organizations to counter theprejudice faced by their communities,and to promote social justice andappropriate development. We believethat promoting cooperation betweencommunities contributes to thecreation of more stable societies thatare more able to negotiate tensionsbetween groups without resorting toviolence. And we will increase ourwork to promote the recognition ofminority rights as a key tool in theprevention of conflict.

The coming period is also a time ofopportunity. Whether it is in thedevelopment of new regionalinstitutions for Africa, the accessionprocess of the European Union, thereadiness of major developmentdonors to implement a human rightsapproach, the establishment ofinstitutions of international justice, oran agenda for positive United Nationsreform, there are major opportunities toinfluence international change in a waythat will bring improvements to thelives of minorities and indigenouspeoples on the ground.

This annual review highlights the keythemes in our work in 2005 and for thenext three years. We believe that morepeople should have the chance to livefree from racism, on equal terms withtheir neighbours, without fear ofviolence, and without their education orfuture being blighted by discrimination.We believe in a fair chance for all.

Mark LattimerDirector

Director’s reportA fair chance for all

1

...education is astarting point forbreaking thepoverty cycle forRoma. Education isclosely linked towelfare status, andthe living conditionsfaced by manyRoma in Centraland SoutheastEurope are direWorld Bank

Education is so central to the life chancesof minority communities that it is almostimpossible to determine whether it ispoverty that leads to lack of education orlack of education that leads to poverty. Inpractice, minority communities are oftencaught in a vicious circle where they aredenied access to the skills they need topull themselves out of poverty. Conversely,the benefits of quality education arerevealed not just in improved literacyrates, they also have the effect ofimproving opportunities and increasingaccess to economic and social justice.

MRG’s new strategy includes tacklingcurrent barriers preventing minority andindigenous children from attending orcompleting primary school. As well asdiscrimination in the classroom, accessproblems include physical exclusion,poor provision of teachers and resourcesin minority regions, and denial of theright to be taught in your own language.Education is, after all, a right – recognizedin the Convention on the Rights of theChild and other international treaties –and the achievement of universalprimary education is one of theMillennium Development Goals.

In September we published an importantreport on current failures in national

strategies to address Roma poverty inSouth-East Europe. In Serbia, forexample, less than 20 per cent of Romachildren aged 12 have reached grade 5at school, compared with 80 per cent ofthe majority population. The unemploy-ment rate for Roma in Serbia is overdouble that for the majority population,and reaches as high as 82 per cent forRoma women of school-leaving age.Under our Roma Advocacy Programme,educational projects were designed andimplemented by young Roma advocates,including a campaign for universityscholarships for Roma youth in Bulgaria.

MRG’s new programme on religiousminorities in Asia promotes the revisionof educational curricula to be moreinclusive and to increase religiousdiversity and pluralism in textbooks.The project will collect and designalternative curricula and materials inseveral countries, including Bangladesh,India, Pakistan and Indonesia. This willhelp to promote the right of childrenfrom religious minorities to educationon an equal footing with other children.New programmes we designed in2005 with the Batwa in central Africaand with minorities in Turkey also focuson practical methods of securing theright to education.

MRG has always believed in the value ofeducation and training as a vital tool fordeveloping communities and promotingsocial justice. Over the last seven yearswe have provided intensive training onhuman rights law and implementationto over 1,000 directors and other seniorrepresentatives of minority andindigenous organizations from over 70countries. The graduates of MRG’sprogrammes now constitute many ofthe most effective advocates for minorityrights in the world today. Many have goneon to train others, with our support, andhave published reports and educationalmaterials in 42 different languages.

Education andopportunity

Left: Roma children inNovosel, Albania.Kaspar JansenRight: Boy at agovernment school inUttar Pradesh, India.Ami Vitale/PanosPictures 3

The Endorois people have lived forcenturies in the Lake Bogoria region ofKenya. In the 1970s, the Kenyangovernment forced the community offtheir traditional lands to create a gamereserve. The Endorois now live in semi-arid areas on the edge of the reserve,divided and displaced, not just fromtheir grazing lands and livelihood, butalso from their cultural and spiritualheritage. The community has not evenreceived adequate compensation, asrequired by both national andinternational law.

MRG is working closely with a KenyanNGO, the Centre for Minority RightsDevelopment, and the communityitself, in order to obtain justice for theEndorois. The legal case was declaredadmissible by the African Commissionon Human and Peoples’ Rights in May2005, meaning that it will become thefirst case to be heard by theCommission on the rights of anindigenous people to their ancestrallands. The Endorois have alreadyregained discretionary access to thegame reserve and intimidation againstthem has decreased.

Although indigenous communities haveoften occupied their lands for centuries,their practice of collective ownershipand lack of written records ofownership was held by former colonialpowers, and now often by currentgovernments or corporations, to meanthat they have no rights. Once the landis wanted for economic development(for example, for the construction of

dams, mining, oil or tourism) they are alltoo easily forced off their land anddriven to live in poverty. Displacedminorities too often lack writtenevidence of ownership, whether in partsof Africa, the Balkans, Turkey or SouthAsia. Through legal action or advocacy

with governments, MRG is working toensure that communities that havebeen expelled from their land orproperty recover it or receivecompensation; and communities thatare under threat of loss of land orproperty have their rights protected.

Protectingland rights4

While most people agree that womensuffer discrimination, women who aremembers of a minority or indigenouscommunity are often particularlymarginalized. They face multiplediscrimination on account of theirethnicity or religion and because theyare women. This can come from bothoutside and inside the community. Forexample, minority women may lackpositions of influence or be atparticular risk of sexual violence insociety as a whole, but they may alsoexperience domestic violence or bemarginalized by customary practices intheir own community.

In January, MRG launched a ground-breaking report on Gender, Minoritiesand Indigenous Peoples at the UnitedNations (UN) in New York. We sought topersuade UN human rights monitors toaddress multiple discriminationsystematically in their work. Later in theyear, in Ethiopia and Tanzania, we ranthree training events to encouragerepresentation and electoralparticipation by women fromPastoralist communities.

MRG also worked in 2005 onensuring that gender issues are

mainstreamed within all our activitiesand in developing a new programmeon women’s rights. The programme isplanned to promote educationreform and combat violence againstwomen for three minoritycommunities, each of which is oneof the most disadvantaged in itscontinent: the Dalits in India andNepal, the Roma in Central andSouth-East Europe and the Batwa inCentral Africa. The programme willdevelop the skills of minority andwomen’s NGOs in these regions topromote their rights.

To every humanrights violation,there is a genderelementUN Secretary-General Kofi Annan

Challengingdiscriminationagainst women

Above: Dalit womanin Nepal. Tomas vanHoutryve/PanosPicturesLeft: Woman in theNiger Delta village ofPepe-ama, Nigeria.Tim A. Hetherington/Panos Pictures

5

In the majority of less-developedcountries, minorities and indigenouspeoples are among the poorest of thepoor, yet they are often denied access todevelopment assistance. This is partlybecause the same prejudice that afflictsminorities in society at a national levelalso operates to exclude them fromdevelopment plans. But it is alsobecause the international system fororganizing development cooperationhas failed to take account of the linksbetween poverty, minority status andthe denial of human rights. Povertyreduction strategies have consequentlynot been as successful for minorities andindigenous peoples as for other groups.

Building on the success of ourprogramme on minority rights anddevelopment, MRG is now working toensure that the main tools used inplanning development are sensitive tothe needs and aspirations of minoritiesand indigenous peoples. We promote theinclusion of minorities in the process andoutcome of poverty reduction strategies,the key national vehicles for planningdevelopment. We support data onminorities being monitored in progressreports for the Millennium DevelopmentGoals, the worldwide targets agreed forreducing poverty. And we provide

technical assistance and training todevelopment agencies in drafting andimplementing policies on minorities.

In 2005 MRG worked with a partnerorganization in Nigeria to push forparticipation of the Ogoni in communitydevelopment projects run in the Nigerdelta. MRG supported participants fromindigenous communities in Nepal andIndia to take part in discussions at theUN on eradicating hunger and povertyand promoting primary education. Arange of in-country events wassubsequently organized in Nepal topromote the results. At the end of the

year, we published a major study of howthe ‘good governance’ policies of inter-national development agencies werefailing the indigenous peoples of Asia.

In Croatia, our partner organization wassupported to look at how to overcomepractical problems in housing andemployment faced by refugeesreturning to urban centres. Thesustainable return of refugees and theirparticipation in their country’s futuredevelopment are essential requirementsfor achieving justice and reconciliationin Croatia and other countries in theformerYugoslavia. Throughout South-East Europe, MRG aims to supportminorities to document the real impactof development programmes on theircommunities, to improve their ability toadvocate for their economic and socialrights, and to participate fairly innational plans for development.

Following the publication of MRG’sreport Poverty Reduction StrategyPapers, Minorities and IndigenousPeoples, we have now planned aproject with partners in five countriesto pilot best practices in the design andimplementation of poverty reductionprogrammes with minorities andindigenous peoples.

Reducingthe povertyof thepoorest

Above: Tharuchildren, Nepal.Carlos Reyes-Manzo/Andes Press AgencyRight: Turkana cattleherders, Kenya.Crispin Hughes/PanosPictures6

MRG is found to have been a pioneer inseeking to enhance minority rights indevelopment... It has been able to exploit newwindows of opportunity due to flexibility and aninnovative perspective... policy analysis andadvice have been outstandingIndependent evaluation of MRG’s programmeon minority rights and development

The promotion andprotection of therights of personsbelonging to nationalor ethnic, religiousand linguisticminorities contributeto political and socialstability and peace,and enrich thecultural diversity andheritage of societyUN World Summitin New York,September 2005

The war in Iraq and continuinginter-group violence dominated theheadlines in 2005. But over 20 furthermajor armed conflicts were ongoing inother parts of the world last year, aswell as a larger number of low-intensityconflicts. In three-quarters of thesewars, including in Iraq, violence wastargeted at specific ethnic orreligious groups

Yet many of these conflicts could havebeen prevented if minority andindigenous rights had been respected.If minorities are able to live withoutfear of persecution, practise theircultures and have some say ingovernment, they will feel a sense ofbelonging in a state, just as much asmajorities do. MRG promotesinternational action to protect minorityrights, believing that it will help preventwider conflicts. We seek to learngeneral lessons on what should bedone to prevent ethnic and religiousconflict, and apply these to warn aboutdangerous situations and promotepreventive action.

Our continuing work in Iraq aims toencourage cooperation betweencommunities and stability in the longterm through the promotion ofconstitutional arrangements thatensure the participation of all Iraq’scommunities. During 2005 MRGpublished educational materials onbest practice in constitution-drafting,

based on international standards andcomparative law. These were providedto key decision-makers in Iraq,including members of theconstitution-drafting committee of theNational Assembly, and MRG providedexpert advice at relevant trainingevents. The Iraqi Constitution adoptedin October incorporated some positiveprovisions protecting minoritycommunities, but also containedmajor deficiencies which wehighlighted in an advocacy briefpublished in December, calling foramendments to strengthen inter-community cooperation and providebetter protection for the smallerminority communities and for women.

At a crucial stage in the peacenegotiations for Aceh in Indonesia,which were partly spurred by theimpact of the tsunami, MRG publisheda report criticizing the role of army-runbusinesses in Aceh and showing howthe army’s profiteering contributed tothe conflict and to the impoverishmentof local communities. The peace dealconcluded in August in Helsinkiprovides for far-reaching autonomy forthe province and, although imperfect,represents its best hope for peace fora decade. MRG was also part of aworldwide lobbying movement that ledto the appalling situation in Darfur inSudan being referred in May to theInternational Criminal Court by the UNSecurity Council.

Although MRG has an important rolein specific country situations, thebulk of our work on conflictprevention has focused onpersuading international bodies suchas the UN of the need to approachminority rights and conflict issues ina systematic way:

■ Following a three-year MRGcampaign, a new role of UNIndependent Expert on MinorityIssues was established in April,following the creation of the post ofSpecial Adviser on the Prevention ofGenocide last year;

■ The UN Committee on theElimination of RacialDiscrimination adopted in Augusta set of indicators for monitoringgenocide risk, based on the workof MRG;

■ The UN World Summit inSeptember confirmed theimportance of minority rights forpeace and stability and agreed a‘responsibility to protect’populations from genocide, warcrimes, ethnic cleansing and crimesagainst humanity.

As the UN human rights institutionsface major reform in 2006, MRG willcontinue to work for effectiveprotection for minorities andindigenous peoples living under threat.

Preventing conflict,protectingcommunities 9

Left: Yezidi women,Iraq.Fatih Pinar/Anzenberger/Eyevine

Financialreport 2005

Minority Rights Group (limited by guarantee)Balance sheet

31 December 2005 2005 2004£ £

Fixed assetsTangible fixed assets 40,980 58,643Investments 182,574 158,857

223,554 217,500

Current assetsStock 14,683 9,417Debtors 428,704 400,257Cash at bank and in hand 146,593 204,733

589,980 614,407

Creditors: amounts due within 1year 183,581 238,196

Net current assets 406,399 376,211

Net assets 629,953 593,711

FundsRestricted funds 339,172 330,499Unrestricted funds

General funds 290,781 263,212

Total funds 629,953 593,711

Income/expenditure growthin millions of GBP Income Expenditure

These summarized financial statements contain information from both the Statement of Financial Activities and the BalanceSheet for the year ended 31 December 2005, but are not the full statutory report and accounts. The full financial statementswere approved by the Trustees on 22 April 2006, and subsequently submitted to the Charity Commission and to CompaniesHouse. They received an unqualified audit report and copies may be obtained from MRG’s London office.

£2.0

£1.8

£1.6

£1.4

£1.2

£1.0

£0.8

£0.6

£0.4

£0.2

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 200510

Minority Rights GroupStatement of financial activities (incorporating an income and expenditure account)

For the year ended 31 December 2005 2005 2004Restricted Unrestricted Total Total

£ £ £ £Incoming resourcesDonations, legacies and similar incoming resources – 459,291 459,291 447,162Activities in furtherance of the charity’s objects:

Advocacy and projects 1,384,415 – 1,384,415 1,409,433Publications – 19,780 19,780 11,684Consultancy – 6,654 6,654 3,393Cost recovery – 44,329 44,329 55,197

Activities to generate funds:Copyrights and literary fees – 457 457 1,186

Investment income – 4,773 4,773 9,506

Total incoming resources 1,384,415 535,284 1,919,699 1,937,561

Resources expendedCosts of generating funds:

Fundraising – 87,960 87,960 87,726

– 87,960 87,960 87,726Charitable expenditure

Advocacy and projects 1,387,535 228,183 1,615,718 1,644,206Advocacy support – 28,389 28,389 23,825Project support – 15,610 15,610 34,215Publications – 32,954 32,954 90,483Support costs – other – 101,415 101,415 101,147Consultancy – 5,884 5,884 –Management and administration – 19,244 19,244 19,603

Total resources expended 1,387,535 519,639 1,907,174 2,001,205

Net incoming/(outgoing) resources before gains and transfers (3,120) 15,645 12,525 (63,644)

Unrealized investment gains – 23,717 23,717 20,565

Transfers between funds 11,793 (11,793) – –

Net movement in funds 8,673 27,569 36,242 (43,079)

Funds at the start of the year 330,499 263,212 593,711 636,790

Funds at the end of the year 339,172 290,781 629,953 593,711

All of the above results are derived from continuing activities. There were no other recognized gains or losses otherthan those stated above. Movements in funds are disclosed in note 13 to the financial statements. 11

Council Membersat 31 March 2006Chaloka BeyaniKevin BoyleSteven BurkemanPaul DivakarLekha KloudaMiriam HookerWim JacobsTreasurerEdward MortimerChairKlara OrgovanovaJohn Packer

CommitteeMembersat 31 March 2006Ade AdenijiPhilip Rudge

Staffat 31 March 2006Richie AndrewClive BaldwinHenrik BoejenSnjezana BokulicChris ChapmanNeil ClarkeFiona GodfreyZoe GrayFiona HarrisonNurcan KayaAleksandraKecojevicSamia LiaquatAli KhanGalinaKostadinovaMark LattimerCorinne LennoxGloria MarkAndrew MesfinAnna OryemaMarusca PerazziEster PerezKathryn RamsayIlana RapaportCynthia MorelKatrina NaomiCharles OseiTadesse TafesseShelina ThawerClaire Thomas

Regional Officesat 31 March 2006HungaryTibor MeszmannMonika Rafael UgandaJuliet NakatoMuwanga

Staff leavingin 2005/6Adrian HarperMagda SyposzDiane ChurchHeidrun FerrariGraham FoxMinnie Degawan

Volunteersand interns1Jan–31Dec 2005Bjorn AsgardSabine Benzing-BalzerLia BoothRaphaelle GuillonVictoria LegborsiDonna McDuffusJaqueline MsiphaJayshreeMangubhaiDhiraj umarMondalThais NarcisoMaria SvennXia TranPaul-Andre WiltonMadinaZhanuzakova

MRG’s donorsin 2005A & B SainsburyFundACT NetherlandsBarrow CadburyTrustCAFODCanadianInternationalDevelopmentAgency (CIDA)Charles StewartMott FoundationChristian AidCordaidDanChurchAidDanida (DanishInternationalDevelopmentAssistance)DevelopmentCooperationIrelandEuropeanCommissionEuropean RomaRights CentreFord FoundationICCOLee FoundationMinistry forForeign Affairsof FinlandNetherlandsForeign MinistryNOVIBOpen SocietyInstitute (OSI)

Royal NorwegianMinistry ofForeign AffairsSCIAFSwedishInternationalDevelopmentCooperationAgency (SIDA)Sigrid RausingTrustSwedishOmbudsmanagainst EthnicDiscriminationSwiss Agency forDevelopment &CooperationTBH BrunnerCharitable TrustThe AugustineCourtauld TrustThe EvaReckitt TrustThe PilkingtonGeneralCharitable TrustTrocaireUK Departmentfor InternationalDevelopmentUK Foreign &CommonwealthOfficeUnited StatesInstitute ofPeace

Staff anddonor list

12

MRG provides research, informationand comment on minority andindigenous issues worldwide, and newperspectives on international eventsand their impact on minorities. Lastyear, media coverage of our workappeared in Africa, Asia, the Americasand Europe, and we reached globalaudiences through the BBC, CNN andRadio France International, amongother media.

MRG publishes the State of the World’sMinorities, a major new annualpublication detailing key developmentsover the last year affecting the humanrights and security of ethnic, religiousor linguistic minorities and indigenouspeoples. The State of the World'sMinorities 2006 highlights in particularthe situation of peoples under threat,and has rapidly established itself as anessential reference work for thoseworking in development, human rightsor foreign affairs.

MRG publishes further researchreports, training manuals, studies andadvocacy briefings. These are availableon subscription or through our libraryscheme. All new MRG publications canbe accessed online. Our website had aquarter of a million visits in 2005 and91,032 copies of our publications weredownloaded. Our monthly e-bulletinkeeps 4,500 subscribers up to datewith the latest news, developments andopinion in the field of minority andindigenous rights.

If you would like to know more aboutMRG, how to support us or how to workwith us, please visit our website at:www.minorityrights.org or contact ourhead office in London.

Getting ourmessage across

Above: State of theWorld’s Minorities,MRG’s new annualpublicationanalysing currenttrends and threatsin minority rights.Richie Andrew/MRG

© Minority Rights Group International 2006www.minorityrights.orgRegistered as Minority Rights GroupCharity No. 282305Company No.1544957DesignbyTexture+44(0)2077397123Printed in the UK 13

minorityrights groupinternational

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Muslim schoolgirls, Sri Lanka.Tim A. Hetherington/Panos Pictures