A/HRC/41/43/Add.1 discrimination set up to investigate and provide remedies for gender-based discrimination. However, the lack of any complaints of sexual harassment or discrimination based on sex under the 2015 Act in over two years seems to indicate that the full potential of the new law is not being realized. The Government should therefore take additional steps to enhance awareness of the Gender Equality Act, including its complaint mechanism. XII. Ethnic minorities 69. Thailand has a rich and ethnically diverse population, with ethnic minorities making up around 15 per cent of the population. Although the Government recognizes the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, it does not consider ethnic minorities as indigenous peoples. The Government recognizes “five main language families that belong to a total of 62 ethnic groups” (see CERD/C/THA/1-3). That includes: (a) the Tai language family with 24 ethnic groups; (b) the Austroasiatic language family with 22 ethnic groups; (c) the Sino-Tibetan language family with 11 ethnic groups; (d) the Austronesian or Malayopolynesian language family with 3 ethnic groups; and (e) the Hmong-Mien language family with 2 ethnic groups. In its most recent report to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Thailand classified ethnicities into four main groups by “geographical characteristics of locality, way of living, culture and the condition of problems”. The main groups include (a) persons in the highlands (a population of 1.2 million living in 3,881 villages); (b) Moken (sea gypsies); (c) Malayu-descended Thais; and (d) other ethnic groups, including groups from the north-east or the Korat Plateau, displaced Thais, persons who have not been included in a survey, persons with status problems, rootless persons; and (d) alien populations (ibid.). 70. The Government informed the Working Group about a national framework under which the rights of people from ethnic groups were promoted and protected without discrimination, in accordance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, including the 1997 Constitution, the 20-year national strategy, the national reform plan on social issues and the plan for promoting coexistence in a multicultural society. 71. Overall, people from ethnic minorities live in a lower socioeconomic bracket than other Thais. For example, those living in the north-eastern region of the country continue to be the poorest population and suffer lower education levels and health standards. The Government therefore needs to step up efforts to ensure that ethnic minorities are prioritized in development strategies, policies and programmes. That would be in line with the aspiration of “leaving no one behind” under the Sustainable Development Goals. 72. The Working Group also learned that ethnic minorities were disproportionately affected by large-scale development projects, with a significant negative impact on the environment, the right to health and their livelihoods and cultural way of life. A serious concern expressed by ethnic minorities (including the hill tribes) related to the lack of meaningful consultation before development projects were approved and/or special economic zones created. The Working Group was told how members of ethnic minorities who had toiled on the land for generations, through rotational farming, were now being regarded as trespassers and were being criminalized, harassed and intimidated. 73. The Government informed the Working Group of its efforts to review systematically laws, policies and measures aimed at humans living harmoniously in the forests, including the approval of the Community Forest Act and the National Parks Act by the National Legislative Assembly on 15 February 2019 and 7 March 2019, respectively, and the establishment of the National Land Policy Committee. 74. Since the life, livelihood and culture of ethnic communities is intrinsically linked to land and natural resources, the Government’s land management and forest conservation policies should be rooted in meaningful consultation and the participation of those communities in decision-making processes, as set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. 15