Challenges and the Future of Minority and Indigenous Rights Protection Conference, University of Stirling, 5-7 March 2025

This global conference of 60+ academic experts on minority and indigenous rights reflected on the rights of indigenous peoples and ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, and the need to fundamentally rethink and recommit to their protection.

Since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, a number of international legal instruments have been established with the objective of protecting the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples.

Notable instruments include the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, considered the foundation of many other related treaties and declarations which have followed them.

Relevant treaties and declarations have also been established at the regional and national levels. They incorporate international principles while also taking into account the specific needs of the minority and indigenous populations within the regions for which they are intended to provide protection.

This conference provided an opportunity to assess the contributions and challenges that these various instruments and other forms of solutions have brought to bear on minority and indigenous communities, which they are designed to protect and provide redress for.

Clare MacGillivray, Member of IACD International Committee and Director of Scottish NGO Making Rights Real, attended along with members of the Nacken (Scottish Gypsy Traveller Community) who presented about Gypsy Travellers' campaign for an apology for the 'Tinker Experiments'. Clare provided information to global delegates on IACD, and the use of a rights based approach to community development, promoting the recent Practice Insights Human Rights edition, which features two examples of Scottish practice.