PREVIEW
What specific challenges might ethnic and indigenous minority groups face?
Ethnic and indigenous minority groups may face racism. Racism is oppression based on ideas about different races and ethnicities and what status different groups have in relation to each other.
There is no one universal definition of what race is. People often shape their racial identity based on things like skin colour, but it can also include factors such as nationality, citizenship status, birth place, ancestry, indigenous status and mother-tongue.
Racism is closely related to the idea of white supremacy, which is the belief that people who are categorised as ‘white’ are better than people categorised as ‘brown’ or ‘black’. People might be categorised as belonging to different ‘racial’ groups by government actors, other people and by themselves. These processes of categorisation are often based on people’s skin colour. Racism was invented to justify and sustain imbalances of power among groups of people. Racism gives privilege to ‘white’ people.
There are also other serious forms of oppression that are not based on white supremacy but may still target ethnic and indigenous minority groups. Colourism is based on the idea that people with lighter skin are better than people with darker skin. Xenophobia is hatred and fear of and discrimination against people who are or are believed to be foreigners.
Groups with more power -- often the majority or a foreign group -- might intentionally move to geographic areas mainly inhabited by ethnic and indigenous minority groups. This is called settler colonialism.
They might do this to gain control or influence; for example, over land, local politics or the local economy. Ethnic majority groups sometimes discriminate against ethnic minority groups based on a belief that they are better than these groups. This form of discrimination is called ethnocentrism. Groups living in urban cities might also discriminate against ethnic and indigenous minority groups living in rural areas based on a prejudiced belief that groups in rural areas are ‘less modern’ or ‘less developed’. This discrimination may give urban privilege to groups living in cities and towns.
However, ethnic and indigenous minority groups may face challenging living conditions or fewer opportunities because of where they live. They might live in rural areas or historical territories, which might have less infrastructure and government-provided social services, such as education and healthcare. These areas might also have less economic opportunity because of a lack of jobs or because natural resources have been forcefully extracted, with little or no benefits going to ethnic and indigenous groups living there. This might cause members from ethnic and indigenous minority groups to leave a particular geographic area to search for jobs and income elsewhere.
Ethnic and indigenous minority groups may have traditional knowledge relating to their ways of life. Examples of traditional knowledge include justice mechanisms, land management methods, education systems, and agricultural and medicinal practices. Sometimes this traditional knowledge is not properly recognised and respected by the majority group. Sometimes members of the majority group profit off this traditional knowledge without giving credit and compensation to ethnic and indigenous minority groups. In some cases, companies may patent traditional knowledge, and this may make the traditional knowledge less accessible to, or even illegal to use by, ethnic and indigenous groups.
The social practices of ethnic and indigenous minority groups may be negatively portrayed, looked down on, misused or made fun of by members of the majority group and in popular culture. Examples of social practices include customary clothing, language, song and dance, marriage and other ceremonies.
Ethnic and indigenous minority groups may have a mother-tongue that is different from the language used by the majority group. If children from these groups are enrolled in formal education, they might face barriers in the school because of the language of instruction.
REFLECTION/DISCUSSION
Have you ever seen, heard of or experienced any oppression based on ethnic or indigenous identity? If yes, describe the oppression.
FOCUS ON MYANMAR:
Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC)
Indigenous people have a right to decide over their lands and natural resources. This right is reflected in the principle of FPIC, which refers to ‘free, prior and informed consent’. It means that governments, militaries and armed groups, international organisations and companies who want to use lands or natural resources in territories where indigenous groups live need to have the approval of these groups first. This approval (consent) must not be coerced and it needs to be given before any natural resource extraction or development project starts. Indigenous groups also need to be given all relevant information about the project, in order to make an informed decision whether to allow the project or not.
The FPIC principle is often thought not to apply to all ethnic groups, but is often reserved only for indigenous groups. It is designed to protect rights of indigenous groups to their culture, lands and natural resources, and to pursue their own priorities for development, as part of their fundamental right to self-determination.
Governments, militaries and armed groups, international organisations and companies may prefer to conduct free, prior and informed consultation rather than consent. This means that their representatives meet with and listen to indigenous groups. However, in this case the indigenous groups are not the final decision-makers.
Although the FPIC principle is not fully enshrined in Myanmar law, it is mentioned in the 2015 Ethnic Rights Protection Law, which is also known as the Indigenous Persons’ Rights Protection Law. In 2016, the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business (MCRB) released a publication, Briefing Paper: Indigenous People’s Rights and Business, in which indigenous minority group representatives reported that there is a lack of consultation and rarely any consent with indigenous groups before projects begin on their lands. Representatives also said that the information given by companies during consultations only mentions the positive aspects of a project and does not give all relevant facts (MCRB 2016).
REFLECTION/DISCUSSION
Why do you think governments, militaries and armed groups, international organisations and companies often prefer to conduct free, prior and informed consultation rather than free, prior and informed consent?
အမျိုးသားရေးဝါဒီ
လှုပ်ရှားသွားလာနိုင်မှု
အမွေအနှစ်
ကိုလိုနီဝါဒ