Summary

In the present report, the Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Fernand de Varennes, provides a summary of his activities and highlights the continuing work on the thematic priorities of statelessness, education and minority languages, hate speech targeting minorities on social media and the prevention of violent conflicts through the protection of the human rights of minorities, as well as the strengthening of the protection of the rights of minorities through a regional approach. He also provides a summary of his country visits, communications and other activities.

In the thematic study on minorities, equal participation, social and economic development and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Special Rapporteur outlines the historical positioning of minority issues in relation to the Millennium Development Goals and their place in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. He highlights how in 2007 the concerns and recommendations expressed by the first Independent Expert on minority issues, Gay McDougall (see A/HRC/4/9), were taken on board (or not) in the Millennium Development Goals and pays attention to the role of the Sustainable Development Goals in the participation of minorities in social and economic development. He focuses on the continuing disproportionate exclusion of vulnerable minorities, particularly minority women, i n national activities for development and underlines the unfortunate growing invocation of development to weaken the participation of minorities and obstruct the implementation of their human rights. Finally, he warns of the danger of the failure of any specific reference to the marginalization of minorities in United Nations efforts around the Sustainable Development Goals.