A/HRC/43/47
I. Introduction
1.
The mandate of the Special Rapporteur on minority issues was established by the
Commission on Human Rights in its resolution 2005/79 of 21 April 2005. It was
subsequently extended by the Human Rights Council in successive resolutions, the most
recent being resolution 34/6, which extended the mandate under the same terms as provided
for in resolution 25/5.
2.
The Special Rapporteur, Fernand de Varennes, was appointed by the Human Rights
Council on 26 June 2017 and assumed his functions on 1 August 2017. His term in office
may be renewed for one three-year period.
3.
The Special Rapporteur is honoured to be entrusted with the mandate and thanks the
Human Rights Council for its trust in him. He also wishes to thank the Office of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) for its support in the
implementation of the mandate.
4.
The present report is the third submitted by the Special Rapporteur to the Human
Rights Council. Section II provides an overview of the activities of the Special Rapporteur
in 2019, including an update on the Forum on Minority Issues. In section III, the Special
Rapporteur reports on education, language and the human rights of minorities. In section
IV, the significance of raising awareness and increasing the visibility of minority issues is
highlighted. Section V refers to the recommendations and other documentation emanating
from the Forum on Minority Issues and those of three regional forums, which for the first
time were organized under the mandate of the Special Rapporteur in order to provide more
accessible and context-relevant consultations and exchanges in different parts of the world.
The final section of the report contains the main recommendations of the Special
Rapporteur.
II. Activities of the Special Rapporteur
5.
The Special Rapporteur wishes to draw the attention of the Human Rights Council
to the information published on the web page of the Special Rapporteur, which provides
general information on the activities associated with the Special Rapporteur, including
communications, press statements, public appearances, country visits and thematic reports. 1
6.
The second year of the Special Rapporteur’s mandate has been focused on raising
awareness and increasing the visibility of minority issues, both within United Nations
institutions and more generally with other regional and international organizations and
members of the public, and on exploring new approaches in order to improve the
accessibility of the Special Rapporteur’s activities, such as the Forum on Minority Issues.
This has included two main initiatives:
(a)
Developing, in cooperation with the Tom Lantos Institute and numerous
regional minority and human rights organizations, a series of three regional forums (Africa
and the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, and Europe) on the same theme as that of the
2019 Forum on Minority Issues;
(b)
Clarifying, for the purposes of the mandate, a working definition of the
concept of a minority.
A.
Country visits
7.
In pursuance of his mandate to promote the implementation of the Declaration on
the Rights of Minorities and to identify best practices in every region, the Special
Rapporteur looks forward to continuing a dialogue with Cameroon, India, Jordan, Kenya,
1
2
www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Minorities/SRMinorities/Pages/SRminorityissuesIndex.aspx.