The First United Nations Mandate on Minority Issues

Across the world, ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities are subjected to hate crimes, systematic discrimination and marginalization. Religious minorities have recently faced particular threat in certain regions, while in other parts of the globe identity based on race or ethnicity has been used as a basis for exclusion.

In The First United Nations Mandate on Minority Issues, Gay McDougall curates a selection of reports she produced as UN Independent Expert on Minority Issues. The collection, with her introductory analysis, reveals the challenges and opportunities faced in her attempt to highlight the plight of these oppressed communities around the world and to shape an important new mechanism for the UN’s protection of their rights.

Gay McDougall, J.D. Yale; LL.M. London School of Economics, was UN Independent Expert on Minorities (2005-2011), Member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (1997-2001) and is currently at the Leitner Center of Fordham Law School.

"This is a very commendable enterprise because it offers a comprehensive view on the endeavours by the UN in this field in a period in which minority issues had not a really strong standing on the international scene."
-Peter Hilpold, Europa Ethnica