Mr Chair, Mr Vice-President of the Human Rights Council, High Commissioner for Human Rights, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is my great pleasure to welcome you all to this 9th session of the Forum on Minority Issues. This time is indeed a special occasion, given that this is the last time I am guiding the Forum in my official capacity, as my term as mandate holder will come to an end next year. During the next two days, we will focus our attention to the human rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities where they find themselves in situations of humanitarian crises, such as conflict or disasters brought about by natural or man-made hazards. I decided to address my thematic report to the General Assembly this year to this important topic and to have the Forum elaborating on it further in light of my observations, during the course of my mandate, that minorities can be disproportionally affected during a crisis or in the aftermath, owing to their minority status. The current global humanitarian context is alarming. Ongoing and protracted conflicts are leading to massive displacement crises: there are unprecedented numbers of refugees and internally displaced persons, and inter-ethnic and interracial tensions and conflicts are erupting in nearly every region of the world. These conflicts are often rooted in power struggles, identity politics, competition for resources, rising income disparities and socioeconomic inequalities, and increasing polarization of societies, making minorities particularly vulnerable; indeed, many of the persons who flee their countries for fear of persecution are members of minority groups targeted precisely because of their minority identity. Furthermore, with the impact of climate change, disasters are becoming all too frequent and widespread, further affecting minorities who often may reside in remote and marginal areas that are more susceptible to disasters, or have fewer resources to evacuate easily. Overall trends do indicate a correlation between the impact of crises and minority status. In Iraq, Yezidis, Christians and other religious and ethnic minorities have been targeted by the Islamic State precisely on the basis of their identity. During my latest visit to Sri Lanka, I carefully listened to the testimonies of many Muslims who suffered of massive displacement during the conflict between the Sinhala and Tamil populations because of their distinct religious identity. In the late 1990s, during the armed conflict in Kosovo, Roma families have been placed in camps with lead and other forms of toxic contamination of the surrounding areas, which led to death and serious health consequences of the Roma IDPs. The opinion of the Human Rights Advisory Panel of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo still awaits implementation to hold the Mission accountable for leaving Roma families exposed to lead poisoning. In 2014, I called on the Government of Nigeria and the international community for a swift and stronger response to the plight of some 3.3 million people displaced in the country due to violence since 2010, many of whom are persons belonging to ethnic and religious minorities. An analysis of emergency responses to natural disasters in South Asia demonstrated that Dalits have suffered from discrimination throughout all the phases of disaster response, from rescue to rehabilitation. Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which wreaked havoc across the United States Gulf Coast, and which led to one of the greatest episodes of internal displacement in United States history with over a million people forced from their homes and communities, had a