A/76/162 F. Awareness-raising and other activities 18. The Special Rapporteur considers awareness-raising activities as an essential component of his mandate, particularly in the light of the need to highlight and emphasize the increasing marginalization of minorities around the world, their greater vulnerability during health and other crises, such as the COVID -19 pandemic, the growing targeting of minorities by hate speech on social and other media and in hate crimes around the world, the central role of the human rights of minorities in addressing their exclusion in order to prevent ethnic conflicts, and the lack of visibility of or reference to minority issues in many forums, even within United Nations institutions. 3 19. One significant recognition he would like to highlight is the honour bestowed upon him by Slovenia. On 28 May 2021, the Special Rapporteur was invited by the Government of Slovenia to be part of the ceremony to mark and celebrate the amendment of the Constitution of Slovenia to officially recognize the Slovene sign language. The invitation was in recognition of the support provided and role he played with others in this regard, which flowed from one of the recommendations he made in his 2018 country mission report to Slovenia, that the Slovene sign language, as a full-fledged minority language, should be recognized officially. G. Follow-up to other thematic priorities 20. The Special Rapporteur remains deeply concerned about developments related to his mandate’s thematic priorities. He continues to receive disturbing reports that the campaign by the Office of the United Nations High Commissio ner for Refugees (UNHCR) to eradicate statelessness by 2024, the “#IBelong” campaign, is seriously undermined as procedures are continuing in Assam, India, as well as in other states in the country, which may result in millions being deemed unable to satisfactorily demonstrate they are citizens. This could lead to millions being de facto stateless. 21. Following the Special Rapporteur’s thematic priority in 2019 on education, language and the human rights of minorities, he is increasingly being made aware o f States that are appearing to discount the rights of linguistic minorities in matters involving language, the central component of their identity, and even increasingly restricting or completely eliminating the use of minority languages in education. The Special Rapporteur is of the view that such developments will need to be addressed in targeted and accessible guidelines, based on good practices in many States, to provide better guidance on how to understand and implement effectively the human rights of persons belonging to minorities in this critical area. These guidelines are to be completed in 2021. III. Study on minorities, equal participation, social and economic development and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development A. Introduction 22. In her 2007 report to the Human Rights Council on the Millennium Development Goals, the precursors to the current Sustainable Development Goals, the then Independent Expert on minority issues, Gay McDougall, warned that there __________________ 3 6/22 See www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Minorities/SR/Activities2020-2021.pdf. 21-09902