We are also seeing warning signals indicating several additional situations may be approaching critical turning-points. Today's discussion of ways to better protect the rights of minority groups before, during and after humanitarian crisis is indeed urgent. Whether a humanitarian emergency stems from conflict, environmental disaster or pandemic, members of minority communities are among the most vulnerable of victims. Firstly because all pre-existing human rights concerns — and notably discrimination, exclusion and structural inequalities — are likely to be exacerbated in crisis. If authorities were indifferent to the concerns of minorities prior to disaster, they are unlikely to focus on them in an emergency situation. But in addition, today's conflicts are frequently driven by discrimination — by sectarian ideologies that seek to dominate or crush other identities. When the primary goal is to drive out minority groups and eradicate their identity, the suffering of women, men and children will be acute. Six months ago, with all humanitarian actors at the outer limit of their capacity to manage today's emergencies, the Secretary-General convened a World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul to try to promote greater collective responsibility for reducing risk and alleviating suffering in humanitarian emergencies. Member States, humanitarian and development actors pledged to step up their action and better integrate their work. Yet last week, OCHA - the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs - announced massive funding gaps for multiple emergencies — stark evidence of widespread failures of foresight and compassion, My Office has markedly increased its action in the humanitarian context in recent years. In Istanbul, we committed to further strengthening that engagement — particularly in order to ensure that due attention is paid at all stages of the humanitarian situation to the needs of particularly vulnerable and at-risk groups. They include