Mission:  To identify those countries around the world where communities face the greatest risk of genocide, mass killing, or systematic violent repression.

Background: Minority Rights Group International was founded in 1969 by David Astor, the former editor and proprietor of the Observer newspaper in the United Kingdom. He sought to publish information about human rights violations and discrimination in order to shame governments into improving their records. To that end, he secured a grant from the Ford Foundation and launched the Minority Rights Group, "an organization for the defense of oppressed minorities worldwide," which has campaigns with approximately a hundred and fifty partners in more than fifty countries working to ensure that disadvantaged minorities and Indigenous peoples have a voice. The group's programs, publications, advocacy, legal cases, and training and education initiatives work to support minority and Indigenous people as they strive to maintain their rights, including to the land they live on, the languages they speak, equal opportunities in education, and employment, and full participation in public life. In June 2020, Minority Rights Group International and the Ceasefire Centre for Civilian Rights launched the 2020 edition of the Peoples under Threat Index, which uses authoritative indicators to identify those countries most at risk of genocide, mass killing, or systematic violent repression. The latest version also focuses on how the COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating conflicts and threatening minorities.

Outstanding Web Features: The interactive map shows at a glance whether a country is assessed to have low or high risk of genocide or mass killing. By clicking on a country, visitors can view its profile, which includes its ranking in the Peoples under Threat Index and how many places in the ranking that country has fallen or risen since the previous year's index. Each profile lists the particular communities at risk and directs the visitor to a country-specific page that details significant threats for that area. Visitors also can utilize a drop-down menu to see changes year-over-year since 2005 that have provided early warnings of potential mass atrocities. For more information, visitors can view the map as a table, download the Peoples under Threat 2020 briefing for a detailed explanation of how the index is calculated, and read the full press release for the 2020 data to view a summary of the index's findings.