equal treatment of national minority members, and ensuring they know they are an equal and valuable part of society is the best conflict deterrent. - Cultural diversity aims at enriching, not dividing societies. When the cohesion is weak and good integration policies are lacking, the same factors that enrich a society could lead to divisions or creation of parallel societies. - An important tool for dialogue between State and national minorities is the involvement of representatives of national minorities in local decision-making processes and the establishment of mechanisms such as a Council of National Minorities as a consultative body of the government. A system of education specifically elaborated for persons belonging to national minorities promoting teaching and learning in the mother tongue, as well as various media programs in minority languages, contribute to interaction in between members of different ethnic minorities, to the promotion of mutual understanding, respect and, ultimately, to peaceful co-existence. - The important role of civil society, particularly minorities themselves, in conflict prevention at all levels should be recognized, as well as the need to prevent intimidation and reprisals. 6. Concluding remarks The Special Rapporteur on minority issues stated that the international community and United Nations institutions are not sufficiently focusing where it is most needed to recognise and address the main factors leading to conflicts, in order to develop effective mechanisms and tools that privilege early warning and conflict prevention. The Special Rapporteur reiterated that the number of conflicts has tripled in recent years, and most of them involve minorities who have grievances, and are facing exclusion. He stated that the United Nations and others should focus on risk factors and early warning signs of conflict. Instead, he stated, the United Nations and others are ignoring the signs. The Special Rapporteur explained that minorities have human rights in international law – groups or communities do not, and not referring to minorities in conflict situations is to deny the human rights dimensions of exclusion, discrimination and other factors that are likely at the centre of the context where most conflicts occur. The Special Rapporteur stressed the urgent need to mainstream the human rights dimension, specifically for marginalized minorities and the sections within these minorities who are particularly vulnerable to abuse, such as the intersection of the rights of women and persons with disabilities within these minority communities. The Special Rapporteur also stressed the need for more robust responses to identify and address the early risk factors that can lead to conflicts: this includes the explosion of hate speech in social media, as well as the 17