Topic > Minority Rights in Indonesia

IntroductionMinority rights are the normal individual rights applied to members of racial, ethnic, class, religious, linguistic, or gender and sexual minorities; and also the collective rights accorded to minority groups. All countries in the world include people belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, enriching the diversity of their societies. Say no to plagiarism. Get a custom-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned”?Download an Original EssayWhile there is a wide variety of minority situations, common to them all is the fact that, too often, minorities face multiple forms of discrimination that lead to marginalization and exclusion. Civilians from ethnic minority groups suffer violations and abuses, including war crimes, at the hands of Myanmar's ethnic and military armed groups in the country's northern Kachin and Shan States. These minorities suffer: Conflict, displacement, and abuse in northern Myanmar detail how Myanmar Armed Forces soldiers apply torture and extrajudicial executions, indiscriminately bomb civilian villages, and impose punitive restrictions on movement and humanitarian access. Meanwhile, some ethnic armed groups sometimes kidnap civilians seen to support an opposing party, forcibly recruit men, women and children into their fighting forces, and impose “taxes” on poor villagers caught in the conflict. More than 98,000 civilians are currently displaced in northern Myanmar due to fierce fighting between the Myanmar military and various ethnic armed groups in the area, including the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the National Liberation Army Ta'ang (TNLA), the Arakan Army (AA) and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA). The Myanmar government has exacerbated the plight of many displaced people by limiting humanitarian access to some affected areas, particularly those controlled by armed groups. Humanitarian officials said this compromised their ability to respond quickly to emergency situations and provide needed humanitarian assistance such as shelter, access to water and sanitation. Nearly 100,000 people have been uprooted from their homes and farms by conflict and human rights abuses in northern Myanmar. All parties must protect civilians in the conflict, and Myanmar authorities must immediately end restrictions on humanitarian access that have further harmed this already vulnerable population. (Matthew Wells)Relationship of the country Indonesia to the topicThe Republic of Indonesia is a vast archipelago of almost 14,000 islands, which is divided into two levels. The main islands of the more densely populated southern part include Sumatra, Java, Bali and Timor. The northern tier includes Kalimantan (most of Borneo), Sulawesi, the Moluccas, and Papua (the western half of New Guinea). Sumatra lies west and south of Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore, across the narrow Strait of Malacca. Kalimantan, the Indonesian section of Borneo, is bordered to the north by Sarawak, Sabah and Brunei. To the north of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi lies the Celebes Sea and beyond this the Philippines. Indonesia's geographic location has made it a gateway for human migration throughout history. Humans may have inhabited parts of present-day Indonesia from 2 million to 500,000 years ago, but most Indonesians today are of Austronesian stock whose ancestors may have migrated to this part of the world in waves, perhaps starting in Taiwan around 4,000 years ago, supplanting one in the process.