3 Preface Paul Hunt – UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health For many years, economic, social and cultural rights were on the margins of national and international human rights. In the 1990s, this began to change. They began to migrate from the margins towards the human rights mainstream. It is not a coincidence that rights which have a particular preoccupation with the disadvantaged and marginal were themselves marginal for a long time. The new attention devoted to economic, social and cultural rights has generated many questions. What is the scope – or meaning – of economic, social and cultural rights, such as the rights to health, education, food and shelter? In practical terms, how can they empower the disadvantaged and marginal, such as minorities and indigenous peoples? Will measures that are daily used to promote and protect civil and political rights adequately promote and protect economic, social and cultural rights? This timely publication addresses some of these important questions. It introduces a number of specific economic, social and cultural rights and explains how they may empower minorities and indigenous peoples. Its analysis, examples and ideas will help to ensure that minorities and indigenous peoples enjoy a central role in the dynamic and growing movement for economic, social and cultural rights. It confirms the well-deserved reputation of Minority Rights Group International (MRG) as an organization that is at the cutting edge of the promotion and protection of human rights. Designed for community organizations, the publication is a practical, user-friendly, advocacy tool in relation to the economic, social and cultural rights of minorities and indigenous peoples. Of course, many individuals and communities, although unfamiliar with the language of rights, have campaigned for the substance of economic, social and cultural rights for many years. Innumerable campaigns against environmental degradation, indiscriminate logging, the eviction of indigenous peoples from their ancestral lands, the suppression of minority languages, the demolition of slums, domestic violence, corruption and so on, have not used rights language, norms and procedures. Nonetheless, these campaigns have been tackling issues that lie at the heart of economic, social and cultural rights, as well as other human rights. A major challenge is to make connections between these numerous community-based campaigns and human rights. This publication explains the relevance of economic, social and cultural rights to these campaigns. This does not mean that