interests of persons belonging to minorities. Ironically, ‘legitimate’ interests of minorities are frequently quashed by ‘more legitimate’ national interests. Developmental burdens are often imposed on politically marginalised communities and legitimised in the name of national economic growth and prosperity. 5. On the other hand, Article 5(2) calls upon development agencies, financial institutions, and others involved in international cooperation to plan and implement their programmes of cooperation and assistance in a way that pays attention to legitimate minority interests. The neoliberal economic agenda of these development actors generally acts as an important catalyst for land grabbing, forced displacement, and overall economic marginalisation of minorities, especially in postcolonial states. While Article 5(2) of the Declaration makes sense in this context, to what extent the provision is likely to have any deterrence on powerful financial institutions and their neoliberal economic agenda is a different question. 6. Developmentalism: As the horrific experiences of numerous minorities and indigenous peoples tell us, they are routinely the foremost victims of development activities, even as various atrocities against minorities are justified in the name of economic growth. Here we are talking about the political ideology of developmentalism that is put in place to justify gross violations of human rights or even genocide against minorities. The recent persecution of Rohingya minorities in Myanmar would be a pertinent example here. The formal merger in the 1980s of the development discourse with human rights, in the form of the right to development, put the liberal individual at the centre of the development discourse, while majoritarian elites continued to maintain the centrality of the national state. In this dichotomy of the state and the individual, minorities and their life, culture, and livelihood are frequently sacrificed at the altar of economic growth. 7. In the current era of neoliberal economy, the situation of minorities has only worsened. Development-induced persecutions of the minority cannot be fully addressed in isolation from the hegemonic neoliberal economic structure at the global scale. Gross violations of human rights and the destruction of life and nature take place in the name of market liberalisation, privatisation of lands, and the promotion of foreign direct investment. This is a global phenomenon. Global actions and solidarity are required. It is also essential to problematise and challenge the dominant idea of ‘development’ as the ultimate end of human progress, to counterbalance its tendency to commodify, and to 2/4