THE SEVENTH SESSION OF THE UN FORUM ON MINORITY ISSUES PREVENTING AND ADDRESSING VIOLENCE AND ATROCITY CRIMES TARGETED AGAINST MONORITIES 24-26 NOVEMBER 2014 PRESENTED BY PASTOR ESTHER IBANGA I want to start first of all by thanking Almighty God for giving me this opportunity and also appreciate the United Nations Forum on Minority Issues for inviting me. A minority group is referred to as a sociological category within a demographic Area. Rather than a relational "social group", as the term would indicate, the term refers to a category that is differentiated and defined by the social majority, that is, those who hold the majority of positions of social power in a society. (Wikipedia) In short; the haves vs the have not.(my addition) However in the Encyclopedia Britannica; a minority group is defined as a culturally, ethnically, or racially distinct group that coexists with but is subordinate to a more dominant group. As the term is used in the social sciences, this sub ordinancy is the chief defining characteristic of a minority group. As such, minority status does not necessarily correlate to population. In some cases one or more so-called minority groups may have a population many times the size of the dominating group, as was the case in South Africa under apartheid (c. 1950–91). It is therefore safe to say that Women, Children; tribes and even ethnic groups may be regarded as minority groups in terms of social power and the dominance of a few who have used particularly political and therefore economic power to take undue and unfair advantage of minorities. I have however redefined a Minority group in my own country Nigeria as anyone outside of the ruling Political Party or Government where the winner takes all; whether in allocation of Resources or adequate representation in Governance and the accompanying injustice of exclusion and the impunity which goes with it that leaves us with violence as the usual platform of expressing anger and bitterness against such powers. But the worst is when the violence is being perpetrated by those who hold the majority of political and economic power and use it to oppress or subjugate minorities. The violence and atrocity crimes targeted against Minorities especially in the middle belt of Nigeria has gone on unabated largely because of a weak and faulty judicial system both at the local and international level that has failed to bring to book perpetrators of crimes against humanity and even genocide thereby encouraging impunity. In Plateau State where I live thousands of people have lost their lives in religious conflicts for over a decade but no one has been brought to book in spite of the so called panels of enquiry that was set up.7TH march 2010 in a village called Dogon na Hauwa; over 500 Women and Children were massacred by Islamic militants; till