A/HRC/43/47 activities from July to December 2019. The activities prior to this period are identified in his 2019 annual report to the General Assembly (A/74/160). 15. On 23 July 2019, the Special Rapporteur was the keynote presenter at the opening of the 18th World Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf, held in Paris. The overarching theme of the Congress was sign language rights for all, and in his presentation at the opening session, before more than 2,000 participants from 137 countries, the Special Rapporteur referred to his confirmation at the Forum on Minority Issues, held in Geneva in December 2017, that users of sign languages were members of linguistic minorities because sign languages were fully fledged languages. 16. On 1 August 2019 in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, at the 9th National Conference on Non-discrimination, with the theme of achieving unity in a plural society, the Special Rapporteur gave the keynote address, entitled “Minorities and nondiscrimination in international human rights law: unity, respect and inclusion”. His address described, among other things, his mandate and raised a number of topical human rights concerns involving minorities, including the potential for millions of members of religious minorities to become stateless in Assam, India. The previous day, on 31 July, the Special Rapporteur visited the offices of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) and had an exchange with a number of commissioners on his role and mandate and on the significance of minority rights and issues in Malaysia. He also held courtesy meetings on the same day with high ranking Malaysian officials, including the Minister for National Unity and Social Well-being, Y.B. Waytha Moorthy, and at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 17. On 2 August 2019, the Special Rapporteur held a seminar entitled “United Nations special procedures and the role of the United Nations in the protection of human rights” at the University of Malaysia Sabah in Kota Kinabalu. 18. On 20 and 21 September 2019, the Special Rapporteur was a speaker at the AsiaPacific Regional Forum on Education, Language and the Human Rights of Minorities, which was held at Mahidol University in Bangkok. There were some 70 registered participants, including representatives from eight States, who met to develop a recommendation aimed at reflecting the conditions and challenges relating to the teaching of and education in minority languages. 19. On 30 September 2019, the Special Rapporteur gave the opening statement at the round table on the International Year of Indigenous Languages, entitled “Writing the future in indigenous languages”, held at the 85th PEN International Congress in Manila. The annual congress, whose theme for 2019 was “Speaking in tongues: literary freedom and indigenous languages”, brought together some 250 writers, essayists, playwrights and poets from around the world. In addition, on 1 October 2019, the Special Rapporteur participated in a panel discussion on the human rights of minorities in South-East Asia. 20. On 7 October 2019, the Special Rapporteur was the keynote speaker at the 26th Annual International Law and Religion Symposium, convened by the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, United States. The theme was “Human dignity and freedom of religion or belief: preventing and addressing persecution”, and the Special Rapporteur spoke on the challenge of confronting hate speech worldwide, particularly in social media, which appears to increasingly target religious and other minorities. He also emphasized the importance of strengthening international human rights mechanisms. 21. On 25 October 2019, the Special Rapporteur gave the keynote address, on the United Nations main principles and actions on language rights, at the European Forum on Language Rights, organized by the Conseil régional de Bretagne, the European Language Equality Network and Kevre Breizh. The next day he spoke on the strategic use of United Nations and other human rights mechanisms to protect and implement the rights of minorities during the annual European Language Equality Network General Assembly. Both events were held in Rennes, France. 22. On 28 and 29 October 2019, the Special Rapporteur participated in the AfricaMiddle East Regional Forum on Education, Language and the Human Rights of Minorities, held in Tunis. Some 50 participants met to develop recommendations aimed at reflecting 4