This situation is not peculiar to Anywa community, but a common pattern that affects minorities during humanitarian crises. Crises and disasters that hit minority areas mostly go unrecognized and attract little to no attention. Especially if those disasters in one way or another involve national governments, deliberate efforts will be made to conceal them from national or international attention. Therefore, as we discuss “minorities in situations of humanitarian crises”, it is very important to look at what constitute humanitarian crises, who defines and declares a situation as a “humanitarian crises”, because mostly the definitions of these terminologies in themselves are very discriminatory towards minorities. Mr President, To come back to the linkage between respect for minority rights and prevention or mitigation of humanitarian crises, there are a lot that can be said, but I would like to highlight the following four points in the interest of time. First, minorities’ meaningful participation in all decisions making bodies at all levels is key to preventing violent conflicts from happening in the very first place. It is well documented that exclusion and discrimination against minorities are at the heart of many conflicts around the world. Minorities demand for participation in decisions that affect their lives and wellbeing are most often met with further repressions and intimidations. These methods are not only contrary to international human rights laws and standards, but practically they have also proved to be counterproductive. It is time for national governments to change course. Meaningful participation and representation of minorities does not only reduce incidences of violence, but also facilitates national development for all citizens. Although this in itself is not disputed, the challenge for minorities most often lies in the quality and modalities of these participation and representation mechanisms. In Ethiopia, we have a federal constitution in place since 1994 that upholds right to self-determination and grants right to self-governance for all ethnic groups including minorities. However, although the new system brought many visible changes in terms of political representation of minorities and indigenous communities in local and regional administrations, the actual decision making power remained in the hands of the central government. Behind the formal governance structures, the central government uses parallel informal systems, such as advisors and federal security agents through which it maintains its grip on local governments particularly minority regions. These types of symbolic participations do not help. Minorities need genuine representations not only just of their faces, but also of their voices, needs and long-term interests. Therefore, when discuss minority representation, it is vital to look into the processes of how minorities’ representatives are elected, who elects them and the powers of the offices into which they are elected. In situations where specific institutions