Minority Rights Group Europe Service Providing Non-Profit Private Limited

Minority Rights Group Europe (MRGE) was established in 1996 in Budapest as an independent organization under the wider Minority Rights Group family. Our aim is the promotion and protection of minority and indigenous peoples’ rights with a primary regional focus on Europe and Central Asia. Recently, however, we have also focused on South Asia and the bordering regions of the Southern Mediterranean and the Middle East and North Africa.

Our work addresses the exclusion of ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities through capacity development and empowerment, media advocacy and networking. Our portfolio of work includes training activists and media professionals, developing narratives that counter hate speech, producing authoritative materials on key minority rights issues and supporting activists in getting their voices heard. Additionally, we operate with an intersectional lens, paying particular attention to how intersectional identities shape the human rights experiences of minorities and indigenous peoples.  

Our programmes are designed to strengthen civil society by providing financial, technical and legal support, building capacity and supporting advocacy. Currently, we hold strong relationships with many partners in Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, the Balkans, the Caucasus, Turkey and Central and South Asia. Increasingly, we act as a facilitator that bolsters collaboration between Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) at national and regional levels.  

In Europe, for example, we established the Eastern Partnership Minorities Network counting 80 member organizations, a network of 200+ journalists in Central Europe, and the first ever network of minority organizations in Turkey. We are also active members of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum and the Civic Solidarity Platform. Meanwhile in Asia, we have supported the emergence of regional collaboration among religious minority organizations such as the South Asia Collective.  

As our work expands, so does our presence. We are closely connected to a wide range of regional and international human rights mechanisms. To maintain dialogue with these actors, our work is supported by advisors in Brussels close to EU institutions, in Geneva close to UN institutions, as well as in Budapest for the OSCE. Our network of regional correspondents also includes representatives in Kyrgyzstan and Georgia, to stay abreast of developments in Central Asia and the Caucasus, respectively. Our office and advisors in Budapest serve as an advocacy focal point for multiple CSO networks, European Institutions, the OSCE and Council of Europe consultation bodies.