Human rights
Minorities
Welcome to our section on minorities, where we explore the diverse experiences and struggles of marginalized communities around the world.
Here we strive to tell the untold and underreported stories of some of the most vulnerable communities living at the sharp end of state repression, discrimination and violence from Roma people in Europe to Indigenous communities in the Amazonian rainforest.
Our coverage aims to amplify marginalized voices, highlighting stories of resilience and resistance by communities fighting to hold onto their land, language and culture. Explore articles from the magazine around the topic of minorities below.
Tackling Canada’s opioid crisis
Karin Goodwin reports from Vancouver on how reconnecting with their Indigenous culture is helping women heal.
Africa is beginning to hold social media companies to account
A court case shows the continent’s demand for social media companies to be accountable for their impact offline, columnist Resebell Kagumire writes.On your watch
Asma Hafiz reports on the intrusive surveillance being forced on often lower caste sanitation workers in many Indian cities.
Is China detaining a million Uyghur Muslims?
The country’s economic influence may be buying silence on a massive human rights violation. Nithin Coca reports.
Ukrainian police connive with far-right hate
Attacks on Roma and others have been ignored by law enforcement. Now two lie dead. Madeline Roache reports.
Paying for your own eviction
The Sumarins face removal from their own home in East Jerusalem. Amy Hall reports.
Kids at work: a Dalit activist
Ravali Medari was moved to take up political activism alongside her academic work. Meena Kandasamy looks at how caste and class intersect in her busy life.
A football world cup for unrecognized nations
London is hosting an alternative ‘World Football Cup’ of unrecognized nations in June 2018. Alessio Perrone reports.What’s sex got to do with it?
Womens’ and minority rights are disappearing since the soft coup in Brazil, reports Vanessa Baird.No celebration of colonization
Why First Nations people boycotted Canada’s 150th anniversary of confederation. Sian Griffiths reports.
Is the West complicit in the Rohingya crisis?
Britain has provided support to the Burmese military, writes Steve Shaw.VIDEO: ‘This is cultural genocide’
Colombia’s Indigenous communities fight for cultural survival. Hazel Healy reports.‘Libya needs to start again from scratch’: Interview with the President of the Amazigh Supreme Council
Khaire Elhamesi, the elected chair of Libya’s Amazigh representative body, explains to Karlos Zurutuza how to cope with the ongoing turmoil in the country.
Sign language is our rightful mother tongue
Jill Jones explains why signing is particularly vulnerable to dying out – and why this basic human right must be protected.
Who are the Roma people?
To counter some of the recent accusatory news coverage, Philip Brown shares a few facts.
Does multiculturalism have a future in Britain?
Inspired by the rightward lurch of British politics, The Prisma newspaper set up a debate to try to answer this question. Amy Hall reports.
Introducing the Palestinian Freedom Riders
On 15 November, six Palestinian activists challenged Israeli ‘apartheid’ policies by boarding a segregated bus...and were promptly arrested.
Into the vortex of identity
With Dinyar Godrej, whose personal journey as an immigrant reveals some of the faultlines of multiculturalism, making the case for looking beneath the smokescreen of ‘culture clash’.
Free Binayak Sen!
The arrest of a doctor who works with poor communities in central India, on trumped-up charges of associating with ‘terrorist’ Naxalites, has sparked worldwide protest. Mari Marcel Thekaekara appeals for support.
No sanctuary
In 1996, in the midst of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, my cousin Saboor, a fresh-faced and ambitious 20-year-old, left Afghanistan to seek refuge in Iran. He was hoping to find work and save enough money to migrate to Europe and get an education. He was never heard from again.
White Nation: Fantasies of White Supremacy in a Multicultural Society
Pakistanis in the British midlands, North Africans in urban France, Indo-Chinese in suburban Australia: all have felt the sting of betrayal that comes by living in what might officially be a ‘multicultural’ nation.