A/HRC/49/46 identifying and addressing the exclusion, discrimination, inequalities and hate experienced by identity-based groups, such as minorities, in conflict-prone contexts – as put forward by the Independent Expert and by the United Nations/World Bank in their joint report – is usually missing altogether from efforts to tackle many of the world’s violent conflicts. It should perhaps then be no surprise that the number of conflicts globally is increasing, since there is little or no focus on preventing specifically what many would argue are the main drivers of contemporary conflicts. 39. The submission of one European Member State to the Special Rapporteur for the present report, for example, highlighted a large number of significant “peacebuilding” initiatives around the world, dealing especially with young people and women, but none that pointed directly to minorities or that addressed the usual drivers of conflicts, such as grievances of exclusion, discrimination and inequalities. Only at one point was it suggested that perhaps these initiatives could help to raise awareness of the multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination faced by certain minority groups, and that perhaps other regional organizations, such as OSCE, the European Union, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the African Union, could play an important role in encouraging Member States to develop national policies to recognize and strengthen the rights of minorities. Strictly speaking, however, there was nothing in the submissions that related to the main drivers of exclusion, discrimination and inequalities, the impact they have in contexts where they are mostly likely to lead to instability, violence and eventually conflict, or how addressing those drivers could help to prevent contemporary conflicts. Many of the submissions received for the present report can thus be described as (a) only generally referring to the human rights regimes in the country, and implying that such regimes are useful to help to prevent conflicts, and (b) referring to specific rights of minorities being protected in the country as examples of good practices in addressing exclusion, discrimination and inequalities, and indirectly, even if not necessarily consciously, conflict-prevention practices. 40. The submission of Guatemala was more to the point, highlighting national initiatives to deal with areas of possible tension and conflict involving mainly indigenous communities in minority positions. 36 These initiatives were directly identified as conflict prevention measures and structures; it was noted that many, such as the Presidential Commission for Peace and Human Rights, the directorate for addressing conflict and the Presidential Commission on Dialogue, were intended to address indigenous grievances. Some initiatives were also identified as tools to prevent and deal with conflicts, such as the protocol for addressing social and community conflicts through dialogue, and the methodological strategy for intervening in conflicts and social conflict through dialogue, both of the Presidential Commission on Dialogue. Many more initiatives were identified, including measures to assure the use of indigenous (Mayan, Kaqchikel and Garífuna) languages in the criminal justice system, but the central points are the clear recognition of the direct connection between conflict prevention and possible grievances of exclusion, discrimination and inequalities of (mainly) indigenous peoples, and the essential role of human rights in this respect. D. Exclusion, discrimination, inequalities and hate: human rights and the main grievances driving contemporary conflicts 41. In 1992, the heads of OSCE States established the position of High Commissioner on National Minorities as an instrument of conflict prevention at the earliest possible stage to provide “early warning” and, as appropriate, “early action” at the earliest possible stage in regard to tensions involving minority issues that have the potential to develop into a conflict. 37 Among the first tools developed by this conflict prevention mechanism was a 36 37 10 Human Rights Committee case law and the concept of a minority as clarified by the Special Rapporteur in his 2019 and 2020 reports to the General Assembly (A/74/160 and A/75/211) confirm that indigenous peoples and minorities are not identical categories, but that indigenous peoples can also constitute numerical ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities in some countries. OSCE, “Establishment of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities”, document from the Helsinki Summit of Heads of State, 9–10 July 1992, p. 8. Available at https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/7/0/22252.pdf.