A/HRC/34/68 Standing Committee (IASC) Operational Framework on Accountability to Affected Populations; IASC Framework on Durable Solutions for Internally Displaced Persons (April 2010); Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Working with National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities and Indigenous Peoples in Forced Displacement (2011); UNHCR, A Community-based Approach in UNHCR Operations (January 2008); United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Marginalised Minorities in Development Programming: A UNDP Resource Guide and Toolkit (2010); UNHCR, “Protection of refugees who belong to minorities”, Pamphlet No. 12 (2011); People in Aid, “Code of good practice in the management and support of aid personnel” (2003); Groupe Urgence Réhabilitation Développement, Quality COMPAS Companion Book (2009); UNHCR, Global Action Plan to End Statelessness: 2014-2024 (2014); Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Human Rights of Migrants, Refugees, Stateless Persons, Victims of Human Trafficking and Internally Displaced Persons: Norms and Standards of the Inter-American Human Rights System (2015); and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development/Development Assistance Committee, Principles for Evaluation of Development Assistance (1991). 6. The recommendations build on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular with regard to ensuring that all human beings are able to fulfil their potential in dignity and equality and in a healthy environment, and the commitment to foster peaceful, just and inclusive societies which are free from fear and violence. 3 In this respect, they contribute to the implementation of the 2016 World Humanitarian Summit commitment to action, “Transcending humanitarian development divides — Changing people’s lives: from delivering aid to ending need”.4 7. The recommendations highlight the primary responsibility of States to protect the rights of minorities and to contribute continually to building resilient and prepared minority communities that are able to actively respond when crises strike, and to provide timely and appropriate assistance relevant to the specific needs of minority communities in times of crisis. Meeting these responsibilities requires, inter alia, comprehensive crisis and contingency planning with effective and meaningful participation of minorities. In this respect, the recommendations are also addressed to United Nations entities, which are primary actors in the delivery of humanitarian assistance, and other international and locally based humanitarian actors, regional organizations, non-governmental organizations, minority groups and other non-State actors. 8. The recommendations address a wide range of crisis situations, some of which will affect not only minorities but the broader population also. While a rights-based approach to the delivery of humanitarian aid should be applied to all persons affected by a crisis, the particular aim of the present recommendations is to ensure that minorities, as particularly vulnerable groups, are not further marginalized or discriminated against before, during or after a conflict, disaster, pandemic or other humanitarian crisis. It should also be noted that some humanitarian crises may go unnoticed or may not be qualified as a humanitarian crisis by a government. Indeed, the denial by a State of such a situation can itself constitute an act of discrimination that unjustifiably delays urgent intervention and assistance by the State as well as by international actors. 9. Minorities are often disproportionately affected by humanitarian crises such as violence due to a conflict or damage and destruction caused by natural or man-made disasters. They are sometimes directly targeted by States or armed groups during a conflict, 3 4 See General Assembly resolution 70/1, preamble. See https://undg.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Transcending-humanitarian-developmentdivides.pdf. 3