FORUM ON MINORITY ISSUES SIXTEENTH SESSION “MINORITIES AND COHESIVE SOCIETIES: EQUALITY, SOCIAL INCLUSION, AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC PARTICIPATION” 30 NOVEMBER AND 1 DECEMBER 2023 PALAIS DES NATIONS, GENEVA SUMMARY BY THE CHAIRS 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 co-operation on issues pertaining to persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, as well as thematic contributions and expertise to the work of the Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Prof. Nicolas Levrat. 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 sixteenth session of the Forum took place on 30 November and 1 December 2023 as an in-person event at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. Assoc. Prof. Elena Lazăr and Prof. Petra Roter were appointed as Co-Chairs of the session, which focused on the theme: “Minorities and Cohesive Societies: Equality, Social Inclusion, and Socio-economic Participation”. About 570 participants from some 74 countries registered for the Forum, including representatives of Member States, United Nations mechanisms, bodies and specialized agencies, other intergovernmental organizations, regional organizations and mechanism in the field of human rights, national human rights institutions and other relevant national bodies, academics and experts on minority issues, representatives of minorities and minority and nongovernmental organizations. In addition to the Forum, 11 side-events addressing different issues were organized by various stakeholders.1 Interpretation in six official UN languages and in international sign language was provided during the Forum, as well as captioning in English, French and Spanish. The Concept Note, the Agenda of the Forum and the Programme of Work were made available to all Forum participants in advance of the Forum on the webpage of the Sixteenth session of the Forum.2 All these 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 the participants. 1 2 See the programme of the side events here. Sixteenth session of the UN Forum on Minority Issues. 1