Briefing: Conflict, Structural Discrimination & Minorities: Towards A Road-Map for Inter-Agency Cooperation – World

Introduction

Introduction In opening the 77th UN General Assembly in September 2022 Secretary-General António Guterres stated:

Geostrategic divides are the widest they have been since at least the Cold War. They are paralyzing the global response to the dramatic challenges we face. Our world is blighted by war, battered by climate chaos, scarred by hate, and shamed by poverty, hunger, and inequality.
Conflicts and unrest continue to rage.

Emphasizing how the pandemic had ‘supersized’ inequalities against the backdrop of the climate crisis, the Secretary-General had already called for renewed attention to the surge in mistrust and misinformation in polarizing and paralysing societies in opening the 76th General Assembly. He captured the essence of the frustration that continues to reverberate in many parts of the world, stating:

When people see promises of progress denied by the realities of their harsh daily lives… When they see billionaires joyriding to space while millions go hungry on earth…. The people we serve and represent may lose faith not only in their governments and institutions — but in the values that have animated the work of the United Nations for over 75 years.

The loss of faith in governance the Secretary-General refers to and the urgent need to rebuild a social contract anchored in human rights prioritized in his report entitled Our Common Agenda is heightened by current geo-political realities that emphasize persistent and systemic governmental failures in tackling the deeply entwined agendas of the environment, sustainable development, peace & security and human rights. The growth in scapegoat politics is fostering internal fragmentation in many countries, heightening the risk of physical conflict against minorities while forming a distracting drumbeat to pressing issues that require urgent attention. The link between minorities and conflict is the focus of the Special Rapporteur of minority issues’ latest report, which builds on those of his predecessors who emphasized how the protection of minorities can assist conflict prevention, while also documenting the disproportionate impact on minorities of the humanitarian crises that emanate from conflict. The UN system itself is deeply aware of the potential of how ethno-religious conflict can rapidly escalate into crimes against humanity, war crimes and even genocide, as captured in the mandate and work of the UN Office on Genocide Prevention and Responsibility to Protect. This awareness is also reflected in the thinking of the World Bank and UNDP which recognize the link between intensive marginalization and conflict, and is captured in the UN Human Rights Council’s resolution on minorities which notes, with concern, how:

…disregard for the identity of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, their political and socioeconomic marginalization, hate speech and the denial of their human rights often precede violence and should therefore serve as early warning signs of a risk of serious crimes and conflict.

The exploding inequalities within and across countries and growing wealth disparities have enabled very wealthy individuals to gain control over large segments of the world’s media; these serve as conduits to sow mass polarization among disenfranchised people. In a significant number of States the ‘scapegoats’ are people of different ethnic, religious, linguistic backgrounds, indigenous peoples, racialized groups and migrants. Wanton greed has generated poverty, conflict and destruction of circular economies by overexploitation of nature, while enabling the building of significant monopolistic businesses housed in established or fast emerging powerful countries.

The unleashing of political forces designed to capture votes by sowing hatred against a population segment (most usually ethnic or religious minorities) is generating artificial majorities and enabling the emergence of regimes often closely connected with the billionaires the SecretaryGeneral refers to above. Closely aligned with large corporate interests including within extractive industries, these governments have little motivation to seriously tackle environmental or development questions; exponentially raising the risks posed by climate change or megadevelopment projects. Their preference lies in system preservation with minor tweaks, while far greater emphasis is placed on nurturing identity politics to polarize and paralyze societies craving radical system change. Some have invested in rewriting histories to back their narrative, while others have never contemplated the bias and inaccuracies of their officially disseminated histories.

While there are ample and articulate treatises exploring the problems of these times of crisis, there are fewer articulations of a vision for what the world could be, and even fewer that discuss pathways to it. From the perspective of the entities that form the UN, this presents a significant dilemma on how to proceed from critique to re-construction. This brief paper is offered to mark the 30th Anniversary of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities (henceforth the Declaration). It seeks to animate dialogue within the UN about the extent to which existing frameworks and plans can be sharpened to combat racial discrimination and protect minorities against looming threats to international peace and security. This is framed in response to the vision articulated by the Secretary-General of addressing the challenges of racial discrimination through the protection of minorities, most specifically in the UN peace, security and humanitarian responses to conflict. This is backed by the Human Rights Council resolution on minorities which explicitly calls on States to undertake initiatives to implement the rights contained in the Declaration in designing, developing and implementing measures to realize the full, effective and equal participation of minorities.9 Finally, this is also fully in line with the central promise of the key UN framework for the Decade of Action (2020-2030), the 2030 Agenda and its pledge to not only reach those who are being left behind, but to prioritize reaching those furthest behind first – who all too often belong to minorities. Towards this aim the paper ends with a set of potential avenues for effective change to stimulate greater internal debate and collective action at the United Nations.