E/CN.4/Sub.2/AC.5/2001/2 page 2 submitted to the Working Group at its fifth session in 1999.2 Additional comments were made during that session and at the sixth session in 2000.3 The Working Group requested me on that basis to finalize the Declaration and to ensure its publication in the planned United Nations manual on minorities. This final text therefore draws on written work or oral contributions by many experts, Governments and international and non-governmental organizations, and thus takes into account a broad body of opinion. The ultimate responsibility for its content rests, however, with me as its main author. II. PURPOSES OF THE DECLARATION: ADVANCING HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE PRINCIPLES OF THE CHARTER OF THE UNITED NATIONS 3. The purposes of the Declaration, as set out in the General Assembly resolution 47/135 and the preamble to the Declaration, is to promote more effective implementation of the human rights of persons belonging to minorities and more generally to contribute to the realization of the principles of the Charter of the United Nations and of the human rights instruments adopted at the universal or regional level. The Declaration is inspired by article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The General Assembly holds that the promotion and protection of the rights of minorities contribute to the political and social stability of the States in which minorities live and contribute to the strengthening of friendship and cooperation among peoples and States. 4. The Declaration builds on and adds to the rights contained in the International Bill of Human Rights and other human rights instruments by strengthening and clarifying those rights which make it possible for persons belonging to minorities to preserve and develop their group identity. The human rights set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights must at all times be respected in the process, including the principle of non-discrimination between individuals. The State is obliged to respect and ensure to every person within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction, without discrimination on any ground, including race, ethnicity, religion or national origin, the rights contained in the instruments to which that State is a party. 5. It is in the light of these purposes and principles that the articles of the Minority Declaration must be interpreted. III. INTERPRETATION OF AND COMMENTS ON THE TITLE AND THE INDIVIDUAL ARTICLES The title and the scope of the Declaration Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities 6. The beneficiaries of the rights under article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which has inspired the Declaration, are persons belonging to “ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities”. The Declaration on Minorities adds the term “national minorities”. That addition does not extend the overall scope of application beyond the groups already covered by article 27. There is hardly any national minority, however defined, that is not also an ethnic