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Minorities Rights at Risk: A Global Survey
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1989
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EthnicityNationalismEducationEthnic Group RelationSocial SciencesRaceAfrican American StudiesCivil RightsMinority RightPolitical ScienceRacial GroupEthnic StudiesState StructureRacial EquityEthnic GroupsPublic PolicyContemporary WorldHuman RightsMulticulturalismEthnic IdentityHuman Rights LawVulnerable PopulationBernard NietschmannMinorities RightsNational IdentitySocial Justice
As many as 5,000 distinct communities in the contemporary world might claim that they are national peoples on grounds that they share common ancestry, institutions, beliefs, language, and territory, according to one geographer, Bernard Nietschmann. Using more stringent criteria, Nielsson and Jones identified 575 ethnic groups that are actual or potential nations.3 Only a few of these groups enjoy international status as sovereign nationstates. Most of the 168 states in the modern world are mosaics of distinct peoples whose identities and aspirations may or may not be accepted and protected by those who hold state power. This study focuses on 261 nonsovereign peoples who are both numerically significant and accorded separate and unequal treatment. We refer to them by the shorthand term of minorities because most are outnumbered by other groups within the jurisdiction of the states they inhabit. More precisely, they are differentially treated communal groups.