A/HRC/61/33 paranoia and conspiracy theories based on religious ideas. He underscored that, in such a highly charged environment, religious leaders and people of faith had a special and direct responsibility to resist manipulation and to play a positive role by promoting mediation, fostering healing and seeking common ground.35 38. In December, in its concluding observations on the combined twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth periodic reports submitted by Sweden under the Convention, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed its concern about the widespread racist hate speech and hate crimes and of the dissemination of negative stereotypes of members of groups protected under the Convention, in particular ethnic and ethno-religious groups, including Muslim ethno-religious groups, Roma communities, people of African and Asian descent, Sami People and non-citizens, including in the media, on the Internet and in social media. The Committee recommended, inter alia, that Sweden expedite the review of its legislative framework to prohibit organizations or groups that incited and promoted racial hatred and to combat all forms of racist hate speech and hate crimes targeting ethnic and ethno-religious groups.36 E. Economic, social and cultural rights of minorities 39. In February, United Nations human rights experts expressed concern over reports of school attacks, forced displacement and exclusionary practices hindering access for Muslim minority children to quality education in the Central African Republic. The experts urged the Government of the Central African Republic to uphold its international human rights obligations, ensure free and inclusive education for all children, rebuild damaged infrastructure, investigate violations and hold perpetrators accountable. 37 40. In his report to the General Assembly, issued in July, the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence emphasized the urgent need to integrate economic, social and cultural rights into transitional justice processes, in particular to address the structural injustices faced by marginalized communities. The Special Rapporteur stressed that ethnic minorities, Indigenous Peoples and other marginalized groups often suffered disproportionately from violations, such as land dispossession, cultural suppression and denial of access to essential services. He called for truth-seeking mechanisms to explicitly investigate and document those violations, which were often compounded by intersecting forms of inequality and discrimination, and for reparations to be tailored to the specific harms experienced by those communities. He urged States to adopt inclusive, victim-centred approaches that reflected intersecting identities, recognizing that sustainable peace was unattainable without addressing the root causes of exclusion and inequality.38 41. In October, United Nations human rights experts expressed concern over the increasing criminalization of cultural expression, artistic creativity and academic work among Uighur and other minority groups in China. 39 They highlighted cases involving imprisonment and enforced disappearance linked to cultural activities, emphasizing that cultural rights, including the right to artistic freedom, academic expression and the use of one’s language, were integral to the full enjoyment of human rights. The experts expressed concern over the use of broad and ambiguous counter-extremism laws, which appeared to be used to curtail minority cultural and religious expression. The experts stressed that the cultural expression of minorities must never be conflated with extremism or terrorism.40 35 36 37 38 39 40 GE.25-21065 See www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2025/02/religious-leaders-must-work-togetherpromote-shared-principles. CERD/C/SWE/CO/24-25, paras. 12 and 13. See https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=29639. A/80/175, paras. 31, 51, 54, 55 and 60. See www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/10/un-experts-urge-china-end-repression-uyghur-andcultural-expression. See https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=29740. 9