Respecting minority rights as a means of preventing or mitigating the impact of humanitarian crises: Case of Anywa Community, Gambella Ethiopia Ojot Ojulu Mr. President, distinguished delegates, ladies & gentlemen, It is an honour to address this Forum on Minority Issues and I would like to express my gratitude to the SR for giving me this opportunity. My intervention will shed light on the contribution of respect for minority rights to prevention and mitigation of humanitarian crises instigated by violent conflicts. In my presentation, I will draw up on my personal experience from the Gambella region of Ethiopia and I also bring some reflections from my professional background as a former OHCHR’s Minority Fellow and currently as Advocacy Officer for the Lutheran World Federation. Mr President, In most cases, minorities suffer from “hidden humanitarian crises”. My first interaction with the UN human rights was 11 years ago when I came to voice the human rights situation of the Anywa community to then ‘Working Group on Minorities’. Anywa is a minority ethnic group located in the Gambella region of Ethiopia with some in the Republic of South Sudan. Historically, this community, like any other lowland communities, have been politically disenfranchised, economically marginalized and socially discriminated against. Despite some notable progress being made after the introduction of federalism in 1991, minority regions in general continue to lag behind in terms of economic development and political inclusion. As a consequence, ethnic tensions, conflicts and insecurity have been synonymous with the Gambella region. However, on December 13, 2003, these long-simmering ethnic tensions erupted into a massacre of the Anywa community in which according to Human rights watch, 424 Anywa civilians were massacred in Gambella town in single day, over 400 houses belonging to them were burned to the ground and their entire neighbourhoods ransacked and looted. Throughout 2004, as this violence turned into broad-based military operation on the entire Anywa population, over 15,000 fled to South Sudan and more than 50,000 became internally displaced. This is more than 60% of the entire Anywa population. For them this was the biggest ‘humanitarian crisis’ ever in their history as a community. Regrettably, despite the magnitude of this crisis to this community, no one came to their aid, except for few international organizations, because this was not recognized as a humanitarian crisis. After all, it was affecting a tiny minority group in a remote region.