Preface The present guide provides an overview of areas of international and regional human rights jurisprudence which have, or may have an impact on the protection of ethno-cultural minority groups, including indigenous peoples. It aims primarily to assess the law as it is shaped through the recent practice of judicial and quasi-judicial bodies, and to relate that practice to the relevant human rights mechanisms. The guide is the result of a pro-bono collaboration between the International Human Rights & Group Diversity Programme at Liverpool University and the Legal Cases Programme of Minority Rights Group International. As is clear from the above, the following review is not intended to generate a comprehensive analysis of the body of international standards and cases in the field. Academic monographs, textbooks and articles offer a more appropriate context for such an undertaking. Rather, it serves the more limited, practical purpose of identifying specific areas or themes which have been increasingly the subject of litigation in recent years, or which may well be considered for litigation in future, based on a range of legal and/or institutional 4 developments at the global and regional levels. They include: (1) non-discrimination; (2) education; (3) political participation; (4) land rights; and (5) women’s rights. Occasionally accounting for domestic jurisprudence and exploring cases principally within the United Nations, European, Inter-American and African systems, the present assessment discusses critical dimensions of protection, ranging from intersectional discrimination to positive action, to elements essential to minority identity promotion. The guide ends with a summary of the findings derived from the analysis of the case law and uses them to submit a set of recommendations on how best to employ judicial or quasi-judicial proceedings. It is to be hoped that the overview and commentary will be of interest and benefit to legal practitioners involved with minority issues, international and national institutions, as well as academics working in the area of minority protection. As much as possible, the case law is updated as of 30 March 2010. The authors are grateful to those MRG and external reviewers who usefully commented on an earlier draft of this text. MINORITY GROUPS AND LITIGATION: A REVIEW OF DEVELOPMENTS IN INTERNATIONAL AND REGIONAL JURISPRUDENCE