Minority and indigenous rights

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Protections for groups who differ from or were dispossessed by the majority — their culture, language, land and self-determination, held collectively.

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Because individual rights alone cannot stop a majority assimilating or dispossessing a whole people — the threat is to the group as a group.

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The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2007), recognising rights to land, culture and self-determination — but non-binding.

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A people's right to govern their own affairs — a say over decisions that affect the group, central to indigenous rights.

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It shows global recognition of indigenous rights (progress) but is non-binding, so struggles over land and consent continue (its limits).

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A group's right to preserve traditions can conflict with an individual member's rights (e.g. a woman's or a dissenter's), so the two must be balanced.

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They are strongest where there has been dispossession and colonisation — returning land and voice is a matter of justice, not 'special treatment'.

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The culture, language, religion and equal treatment of groups outnumbered by the majority.

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That they may entrench division, are hard to define (who is a member?), or give 'special' treatment majorities resent.

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Where individual rights fail a people AND the group rights also protect the individuals within the group.

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Minorities and indigenous peoples are usually the less powerful, so these rights try to protect them from the majority and from states and companies.