The Peoples under Threat index identifies those countries around the world where communities face the greatest risk of genocide, mass killing or systematic violent repression. Based on current indicators from authoritative sources, Peoples under Threat has been compiled every year since 2005 to provide early warning of potential future mass atrocities. The Peoples under Threat briefing is part of the State of the World’s Minorities 2007

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which proclaimed that ‘all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights’. Sadly, for many minorities and indigenous peoples around the world, this inspirational text – with its emphasis on equality and non-discrimination – remains a dream, not a reality. Ethnic or sectarian tensions are evident in many parts of our globe. In places, they have boiled over into bitter violence. The Middle East situation continues to deteriorate – with some minority communities fearing for their very survival. In Africa, the crisis in Darfur is deepening as government-sponsored militia continues to carry out massive human rights abuses against traditional farming communities. In Europe, the spotlight has fallen on Muslim minorities – with rows flaring over the Danish cartoons and the wearing of the veil and burqa. Now more than ever, world leaders must insist that the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples be respected. The participation of minorities is essential if conflict is to be prevented and lasting peace is to be built. This second annual edition of the State of the World’s Minorities looks at the key developments over 2006 affecting the human rights and security of ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities and indigenous peoples. It includes: - a preface by the UN’s Independent Expert on Minority Issues - a unique statistical analysis of Peoples under Threat 2007 - a special focus on the participation of minorities, with analysis from leading academics on electoral representation and the European system - an eye-witness report from Sri Lanka on the impact on minorities of the resurgence of conflict - comprehensive, regional sections outlining the main areas of concern as well as any notable progress. The State of the World’s Minorities is an invaluable reference for policy-makers, academics, journalists and everyone who is interested in the conditions facing minorities and indigenous peoples around the world.

This volume examines twelve Asian groups whose way of life is endangered. Some are "indigenous" peoples, some are not; each group represents a unique answer to the question of how to survive and thrive on the planet earth, and illustrates both the threats and the responses of peoples caught up in the struggle to sustain cultural meaning, identity, and autonomy.

This highly original work demonstrates the fundamental role of customary law for the realization of Indigenous peoples’ human rights and for sound national and international legal governance. The book reviews the legal status of customary law and its relationship with positive and natural law from the time of Plato up to the present. It examines its growing recognition in constitutional and international law and its dependence on and at times strained relationship with human rights law. The author analyzes the role of customary law in tribal, national and international governance of Indigenous peoples’ lands, resources and cultural heritage. He explores the challenges and opportunities for its recognition by courts and alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, including issues of proof of law and conflicts between customary practices and human rights. He throws light on the richness inherent in legal diversity and key principles of customary law and their influence in legal practice and on emerging notions of intercultural equity and justice. He concludes that Indigenous peoples’ rights to their customary legal regimes and states’ obligations to respect and recognize customary law, in order to secure their human rights, are principles of international customary law, and as such binding on all states. At a time when the self-determination, land, resources and cultural heritage of Indigenous peoples are increasingly under threat, this accessible book presents the key issues for both legal and non-legal scholars, practitioners, students of human rights and environmental justice, and Indigenous peoples themselves.

A thought-provoking volume examining the complex factors contributing to terrorism and torture, and the links between those two heinous behaviours.

America has for years been in a long spiritual battle between deceived intolerant intellectuals and Christianity. They have changed the definition of science and applied that false definition to deny the rights to Christians of free speech in public institutions, believing they can produce a superior people and society. This is the intolerance of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia. The spiritual battle is nearing a crisis. This book is chapters from a history of modern science. Intellectuals have perverted divine laws in economics, distorting supply and demand by selfish greed; in psychology, changing the nature of sex for individual lust rather than for intimacy of man and woman in marriage to produce family; in sociology, changing uniting relationships to promises of individual freedom from controls; and changing politics, to a democratic socialistic government to promote equality of all individuals, people and groups. Your future depends on understanding this. Carl W. Wilson has a degree and done years of study for reporting in science and has two degrees and experience in teaching in evangelical graduate schools and in churches on theology. He received honors for all his academic work and when he recently retired from teaching seven years in an accredited graduate school the whole faculty gave him a commendation "for concern for academic excellence and the shaping of student lives in holy ways." He has planted, been a senior pastor, and trained leaders in churches, and has been a leader in two large national Christian organizations. He has published numerous books, some on the effects of scientific philosophy on the decline of past civilizations and of America and has written a comprehensive study of the history of modem science, 1500 A.D. to present. He has been married to Sara Jo for sixty years and they have a large family.