UN Forum on Minority Issues, 16th Session, 2023 Session 3 – Legal and Structural Approaches to More Inclusive Societies Statement by Dr Corinne Lennox, Senior Lecturer in Human Rights, School of Advanced Study, University of London Thank you, Chair, for the invitation to speak today. I would like to focus on global governance and the role of the UN in providing legal and structural approaches to more inclusive societies. This has been a major focus of my research. International law and global policy frameworks often influence the direction of national law and policy. The UN can model good structures and practices for Member States. Minorities can use global policy to support their own national level advocacy work. Presently, the UN’s legal mechanisms for minorities are very limited and minorities are one of the few groups without a specific treaty. There is also a fundamental structural problem at the UN regarding spaces for minority participation. The UN’s only dedicated space for national, ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, and groups affected by work and descent-based discrimination, including caste-based discrimination, is this 2-day annual thematic Forum. This is in contrast to similar fora for Indigenous peoples and People of African descent that consist of Forums of 10 days and 4 days respectively, plus dedicated Working Groups for Indigenous peoples and people of African descent. There is simply not enough structural space at the UN for meaningful engagement of minorities. Research conducted by myself, Dr Anna-Mária Bíró and the Tom Lantos Institute, shows that the 2-day agenda leaves space for on average 75 interventions by NGOs.1 The format focuses on a single theme, despite minorities coming to the Forum with a very wide range of legitimate concerns. Many minorities that come here with constructive ideas for social cohesion are not heard. Why do we give so little space to minorities at the UN? What impact does this have on constructive policy development? At the national level, we see some examples of good practice. We see countries creating minority councils, designated legislative seats for minorities, specific ministerial portfolios on minority rights, NHRIs with dedicated mandates on minority rights, and forms of political and cultural autonomy. These structures can ensure appropriate legislation is created or implemented and can also inform the development of socioeconomic policies. They can also look to international law and global policy that is inclusive of minorities to guide national level practice. Here, a non-discrimination approach to legislation and policy is not enough for social cohesion. We also need to consider other aspects of minority rights, in particular cultural rights and participation rights. Many cultural differences are relevant to socio-economic outcomes and policy design. When minorities participate in policy development, the policies are more impactful because they have support from minorities and they respond to their stated needs. For example, a health inclusion programme needs to take account of cultural practices that impact on health and needs the support of minority groups to be implemented effectively. Presently, we do not hear these concerns of minorities enough at the UN level. The absence of a treaty is one barrier. The drafting of treaty would raise the profile of minority rights within the UN system and it would provide a structure, in the form of a treaty body with broad expertise and regional knowledge, to engage in comprehensive and constructive dialogue with states. 1 Based on the average number of statements made by NGOs in the first 15 sessions of the Forum. The range was a low of 36 (2009) to a high of 105 (2022). The median figure is 77 statements. Source: MinorityForum.Info.