A/HRC/43/62 I. Introduction 1. The present report was prepared pursuant to Human Rights Council resolutions 6/15 and 19/23. It contains the recommendations of the twelfth session of the Forum on Minority Issues, held on 28 and 29 November 2019 on the theme of “Education, language and the human rights of minorities”. The work of the Forum was guided by the Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Fernand de Varennes. The Forum was co-chaired by Anastasia Crickley and Astrid Thors. About 600 participants attended, including representatives of States, United Nations mechanisms, bodies and specialized agencies, funds and programmes, intergovernmental and regional organizations and mechanisms in the field of human rights, national human rights institutions and other relevant national bodies and non-governmental organizations, and representatives of minorities, academics and experts on minority issues. 2. The recommendations in the present report draw primarily from the discussions and contributions made by participants at the twelfth session of the Forum and reflect the contributions made by the participants of the three regional forums on the same topic organized by the Special Rapporteur and coordinated by the Tom Lantos Institute and other non-governmental organizations in Brussels (for Europe), 1 Bangkok (for Asia and the Pacific) 2 and Tunis (for Africa and the Middle East), 3 which involved close to 300 participants. The recommendations are based on international law and standards and good practices in the area of education. They aim to provide guidance to further implement the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities. 3. Key elements of the legal and normative framework from a human rights perspective include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as well as the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. Specifically, on the topic of minority language education, the following instrument is also a reference: the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. 4. The recommendations of the twelfth session of the Forum are organized under the four agenda items that framed the discussion during the session. The recommendations: (a) Aim to address a wide range of situations faced by linguistic minorities around the world in area of education; (b) Highlight the primary responsibility of the State in promoting and protecting the human rights of minorities to use their own languages in education; (c) Reaffirm that, regardless of the language they speak, everyone must enjoy human rights and fundamental freedoms without discrimination, and recognize the importance of the realization of the right to education, including education in the mother tongue, to guarantee access to those rights; (d) Highlight the importance of education in the language of minorities framed by human rights standards in order to effectively achieve Goal 4 of the Sustainable Development Goals, that is to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. 1 2 3 2 The full text of the recommendations of the European regional forum, held on 6 and 7 May 2019 at the European Parliament in Brussels, are available at www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Minorities/IntegratedEuropeRecommendations.pdf. The full text of the recommendations of the Asia-Pacific regional forum, held at Mahidol University on 20 and 21 September 2019 in Bangkok, are available at www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Minorities/IntegratedAsiaPacificRecommendations.pdf. The full text of the recommendations of the Africa-Middle East regional forum, held in Tunis on 28 and 29 October 2019, are available at www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Minorities/IntegratedAfricaRecommendations.pdf.