Minority Rights

Being Black in the EU – Experiences of people of African descent

In 2023, 45% of people of African descent in the EU experienced racial discrimination in the past 5 years. Only 9% reported the incident. Jobs, housing, and education remain key areas. This report is a reminder that there is still much work to do to achieve equality.

fra.europa.eu/en/publicati...

Being Muslim in the EU - Experiences of Muslims

Nearly 1 in 2 Muslims in the EU (47%) report they’ve experienced racism or discrimination in the past 5 years. 

Most victims are women wearing religious clothing, job‑seekers, and those born in the EU.

This report shows a sharp rise since 2016.

Read more: fra.europa.eu/en/publicati...

‘Jaguar’ by Camila Berrio From Vietnam to the Colombian Sierra Nevada and the Caribbean island of Isla Fuerte, Barrio portrays the communities living in these territories, preserving their ecosystems and cultures.

Jaguar” by Camila Berrio is a photographic journey across three territories that’s aimed to share the voices of local ethnic minorities. Camila’s work let her “witness how land & language are passed down like sacred knowledge”.

Explore it at: https:// www.vogue.com/article/jaguar-by-camila-barrio

Gideon Horváth (interdisciplinary artist):

“Being different has been demonised: we are moving backwards in the emancipation process...
...Fidesz named the LGBTQ+ community as their enemy number two, after migrants.”

Queer Budapest: Hungarian artists on uniting the LGBTQ+ scene as islands in an ocean of oppression Amid rising homophobic rhetoric, Hungary’s LGBTQ+ artists are forging the country’s queer art scene

Islands in a sea of oppression. 🇭🇺

In Hungary, LGBTQ+ artists are working under increasing restrictions: from constitutional bans on gender recognition to cultural institutions that shy away from queer themes.
Yet in Budapest, a small but resilient community is using art to push back.

Read here:

Ethnic discrimination in Russia is often written right into government contracts Russian organizations, both public and private, often impose discriminatory requirements on contractors, a new post from RFE/RL’s Russian investigative unit, Systema, highlights. Many official tender ...

“Must have Slavic appearance.” - a phrase still found in Russian job ads, even state tenders. 🇷🇺

A reminder of who belongs and who doesn’t. For minorities and migrants, exclusion starts long before the interview. When discrimination is printed in contracts, it becomes the system itself.

Read here:

Being intersex in the EU

2025 EU Agency for Fundamental Rights report shows intersex people face serious risks: 15%suffered physical/sexual assault, 74%harassment, 61%discrimination, 39% experienced conversion practices, and 57% underwent medical interventions without consent.

Full report: fra.europa.eu/en/publicati...

Unequal treatment and gender stereotypes persist, and women and girls from national minorities face intersectional discrimination. @coe.int highlights challenges: gaps in gender data, violence, unequal access to education, and underrepresentation in public life.

🌐 rm.coe.int/prems-128125...

(PDF) Visible Minorities in Japan- the Overlooked Struggle PDF | In Japan, individuals who stand out from the majority, especially those with darker skin, experience notable racism in their everyday experiences.... | Find, read and cite all the research you n...

In Japan, people of color experience everyday discrimination in transportation, workplaces, and other public spaces.

Read Imi Lo’s article titled “Visible Minorities in Japan – the Overlooked Struggle” to learn more about the topic: www.researchgate.net/publication/...

In the recent post, we highlighted the impacts and needs of preserving a minority language, as it is a major contributor to the community’s history and culture.

Discover the study of minority and minoritized languages within the European Union at: www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etud...

UN Decries ‘Structural Discrimination’ Facing Serbs and Roma in Croatia The Roma community in Croatia complains of ghettoisation and segregation in schools, while Serbs still face discrimination in employment three decades after the Croatian war.

Croatia is often seen as an EU success story, yet Serb and Roma minorities still face persistent barriers. 🇭🇷

The gap between rights on paper and reality shows that EU membership doesn’t automatically ensure equality.

Read more:

When Coexistence Becomes Parallel Existence: “Two Schools under One Roof” | Balkan Diskurs What began as a temporary arrangement, “two schools under one roof” has now become an enduring example of segregation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with profound implications for long-term peace and…

In parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croat and Bosniak children often attend the same school building, but enter through different doors, follow separate schedules, and rarely meet.

Generations growing up side by side, yet apart. 🇧🇦

Read more here:

The Global Meanings of Indigeneity, and What to Learn from them For Our Ecological Crisis: Reflections on Indigenous Peoples Day 2025 The views expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights or Harvard Kennedy School. These perspectives have been presented to enc...

In The Global Meanings of Indigeneity, Mathias Risse shows how Indigenous worldviews help us rethink our relationship with the Earth.

Long-term ties to the land foster unique local knowledge rooted in reciprocity, care, and connection with nature.

Read more here👇

#ClimateAction #Sustainability

A drawing of three people from different backgrounds holding hands and talking.

The preservation of minority languages in an increasingly globalized world is a major challenge. With the disappearance of a language, the
community’s cultural expression also starts to fade.

📖 Learn
more about the impacts and preservation strategies here: medium.com/@RetalhosMAG...

The image shows the Indigenous communities in the Arctic, population of the Bering Strait, where the Russian and US coasts are very close to each other. Children and adults wear their traditional costumes at a community gathering. They are particularly vulnerable to the consequences of the war in Ukraine.

Russia’s Arctic Indigenous peoples face the highest per capita losses in the war in Ukraine, often recruited disproportionately due to targeted campaigns, poverty, and systemic exclusion. Their communities risk disappearing within a generation.

📖 blogs.lse.ac.uk/crp/2025/08/...

📸Heiner Kubny

@minorityrights.bsky.social

They have never caused any war - Minority Rights Group As the Roma say: Khetane ame Zorale. Together we are stronger.

“Khetane ame Zorale. Together we are stronger.” Learn more about the additional challenges Roma communities in Uzhhorod face after the war, including statelessness, marginalization, and displacement.

📷 Karol Grygoruk

#minority #minorityrights #roma #ukraine #uzhorod #minorities

Two women standing in front of a building in traditional folk wear standing next to each other looking towards camera

Read an open access chapter from Erőss, Kovály, and Tátrai on how war shapes ethnic dynamics, migration, and demographics for Ukraine’s Hungarian minority, and how their lives and coping strategies transcend borders.

📖 dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781...

📷 Adrien Vautier

#minority #ukraine #academicsky

Image of four people sitting behind desk with nametags. The woman in the middle with black short hair and glasses looks towards the camera whilst the two women to her left look down at the desk and the man on her right looks ahead with his hand up to this face

“As I crossed the border into Zakarpattia a couple of hours ago, I heard Ukrainian, I heard Slovak, I heard Hungarian. And I knew I was standing not only in Ukraine, but in the very heart of Europe.” Marta Kos, Commissioner, visited Uzhhorod. Read her speech below.

🎤 ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

EU Enlargement Commissioner meets with the Council of National Minorities to discuss Ukraine’s EU Integration path - Council of Europe Office in Ukraine - www.coe.int Kyiv, Ukraine 7 October 2025

EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos attended a meeting of the Council of Public Associations of National Minorities of Ukraine to discuss implementing the new “Law on National Minorities” in the context of European integration. Read more below.

#europe #eu #ukraine #minority #minorities

Black and white photo of a woman with long black hair in a white dress wearing gloves covered in paint in a vehicle looking towards camera

Black and white photo of a woman with long black hair in a white dress wearing gloves covered in paint in a vehicle looking and positioned towards camera with an open mouth showing teeth

Explore Selma Selman’s selected works and an interview on her Flowers of Life exhibition, where she explains how trauma and pain can be transformed into resistance and how art serves as a tool for communication.

📖 www.selmanselma.com/activism

📹 www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxSI...

📷 Selma Selman
#art

Selma Selman - Secondary Archive The work of artist and activist Selma Selman, born in 1991 into a Roma community in Bihać, Bosnia, draws heavily from her personal experiences to inform her internationally-recognised artistic practic...

Explore the work of Selma Selman, a Roma performance artist and painter from Bosnia who “challenges stereotypes and critiques oppressive systems.” Read about her inspirations, feminism, and how she highlights Roma histories.

📖 secondaryarchive.org/artists/selm...

📖 artreview.com/how-selma-se...

Image of two flags, one of Bosnia and Herzegovina which is a blue rectangle with a yellow triangle in the middle with 9 white stars across the triangles base and the European Union flag which is blue with a circle of stars blowing in the wind

See how lack of change has hindered Bosnia and Herzegovina’s EU accession, as noted in the 2019 Commission Opinion (point 4f), requiring “equality and non-discrimination of citizens, notably by addressing the Sejdić-Finci ECtHR case law.”

📖 enlargement.ec.europa.eu/document/dow...

📷 Shutterstock

Painting of a woman looking forward with two hands framing her face. An eye peeks from above a green material

Almir’s poems reveal the daily prejudice Roma face in Bosnia and Herzegovina, stemming from political under-representation, inadequate language policies, and failure to implement the Sejdić-Finci ruling, hindering equality and EU accession.

📖 minorityrights.org/bosnia-roma/

🎨 Selma Selman
#bosnia

Man looking towards camera with gray hair wearing a suit and blue tie.

See the 2009 ruling declaring the Bosnian constitution discriminatory, violating Article 1 of Protocol No. 12 and Article 14 with Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 due to the applicants’ ineligibility to run for the Presidency and House of Peoples.

📖 hudoc.echr.coe.int/fre#{%22item...

📷 MRG
#bosnia #law

Bosnia, Roma and empty paragraphs - Minority Rights Group As long as young people like Almir in Bosnia and Herzegovina can write poems about being invisible but cannot even dream of holding the highest offices, this country will not join the European Union. ...

“That Sejdić guy – he’s not fighting just for himself. He’s fighting for all of us. Even for you, and you weren’t even born when this started.” (Human Rights Watch)

📖 minorityrights.org/bosnia-roma/

#minority #minorityrights #bosnia #sejdic #academicsky #law #humanrights #roma

@madelinepotter.bsky.social

@madelinepotter.bsky.social

People standing in a crowd in front of a building holding white signs with black handwritten text on them

Tomoka Sato’s article examines China’s language assimilation policy and its use of ‘unity,’ drawing parallels between Inner Mongolia, Tibet, and Xinjiang, and showing how Mongolian-language education has been eroded despite official claims of equality.

📖 doi.org/10.1080/0306...

📷 Byamba-Ochir

China: Draft ‘Ethnic Unity’ Law Tightens Ideological Control A newly proposed law in China would provide a broad legal framework to justify existing repression and force assimilation of minority populations throughout the country and abroad.

China’s draft law raises concerns that it masks assimilation as unity, targeting religious and ethnic minorities. Human Rights Watch @humanrightswatch.bsky.social warns that such claims have previously justified repression of language rights and the persecution of Tibetans and Uyghurs.

#minority