State of the world’s minorities and indigenous peoples 2015

This impressive volume put together by
Minority Rights Group International (MRG)
highlights the continued failure of many
municipal officials, city planners and other
urban decision makers to recognize and support
their minority and indigenous populations.
Furthermore, it draws attention to the limited
understanding among rights activists of the
specific implications that urbanization has
for minority and indigenous communities. In
Canada, where the majority of the country’s
First Nations population now live in urban
areas, entrenched exclusion and discrimination
have pushed young community members into
criminal gangs. In Bangladesh, Dhaka’s Dalit
population are mostly concentrated in isolated
and unsanitary ‘colonies’ where basic services
such as water access are largely absent. In
Uganda, poverty and crop failure have driven
many Karamajong to migrate to Kampala,
where community members can end up engaged
in begging, prostitution or being exploited in
other ways. Though each example is unique, the
common thread between them is the particular
challenges that urban areas present for these
groups.