FORUM ON MINORITY ISSUES ELEVENTH SESSION "Statelessness: A Minority Issue" 29 and 30 November 2018 Room XVII, Palais des Nations, Geneva SUMMARY BY THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE FORUM Pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 19/23 of 23 March 2012, the Forum on Minority Issues provides a platform for promoting dialogue and cooperation on issues pertaining to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, as well as providing thematic contributions and expertise to the work of the Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Dr Fernand de Varennes. The Forum identifies and analyses best practices, challenges, opportunities and initiatives for the further implementation of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities. The Forum meets annually for two days, on a different theme each year. The Special Rapporteur on minority issues is responsible for guiding the work of the Forum, preparing its annual meetings and reporting on its thematic recommendations to the Human Rights Council. The Eleventh session of the Forum took place on 29 and 30 November 2018 in Room XVII of the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. Ms. Rita Izsák-Ndiaye was appointed as Chairperson of the session, which focused on the theme: "Statelessness: A Minority Issue". About 600 participants took part in the session, including Member States and specialized agencies, intergovernmental and regional organizations, human rights treaty bodies, national human rights institutions, academics and experts, and civil society actors working on minority issues. The wide range of stakeholders included persons belonging to national or ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities who are actively engaged in minority rights advocacy and diverse areas of work related to the protection and promotion of the rights of minorities, as well as experts in the field of statelessness and formerly stateless minorities. The report of the Special Rapporteur to the 73rd session of the General Assembly, dedicated to the theme of statelessness (A/73/205), as well as the Concept Note, the Agenda of the Forum and a detailed Program of Work were made available to all Forum participants in advance of the Forum on the webpage of the Eleventh session of the Forum1, and formed the basis for the discussions. Format of the Forum The Forum followed the procedure developed over its previous sessions. To help focus the discussions and ensure that they would be interactive, each agenda item was introduced by several invited panellists, followed by interventions from other participants based on a sign-up sheet. This year, the panellists were also given the opportunity to answer or comment on the participants’ questions and interventions. 1 https://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/Minority/Pages/Session11.aspx