A/67/293
Report of the Independent Expert on Minority Issues
Summary
The present report is submitted to the sixty-seventh session of the General
Assembly in accordance with General Assembly resolution 66/166 of 19 December
2011. This is the first report to the Assembly prepared by the current mandate holder,
Ms. Rita Izsák. The mandate of the Independent Expert was created by the
Commission on Human Rights in its resolution 2005/79 of 21 April 2005 and
renewed by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 7/6 of 26 March 2008 and
subsequently in resolution 16/6 of 24 March 2011.
In 2012, the United Nations marks the twentieth anniversary of the Declaration
on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic
Minorities. In all regions, minorities face challenges to the full enjoyment of their
rights and further national measures are required to implement the Declaration in
practice. The present report focuses on the value of institutional attention to minority
issues within governmental organs, national human rights institutions and other
relevant national bodies as a means of promoting minority rights and mainstream
attention to minority issues across all relevant bodies. It considers essential elements
of institutional attention to minority issues and provides an overview of some
practices adopted by States and the functions, roles and activities of institutions in
respect of promoting and protecting the rights of minorities. A key recommendation
is that States consider institutional attention to minority rights as an essential
component of their human rights, equality and non-discrimination obligations and as
a means of implementing practically the Declaration.
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