A/78/306 1. Applying norms and standards to better protect minority rights under the Declaration 20. In May 2022, OHCHR organized a virtual round table on strengthening protection of minority rights under the Declaration. The round ta ble also looked towards the future and examined the gaps in normative standards protecting minorities. The event brought together 29 experts (16 women, 13 men) and contributed to the examination by the Special Rapporteur on minority issues of the issue, leading to a call by the Special Rapporteur for a stronger United Nations normative measure to improve the recognition and protection of the human rights of minorities in the light of the deteriorating human rights situation for many minorities around the world (see A/HRC/52/27). 21. In June 2022, OHCHR, in partnership with the International Dalit Solidarity Network, organized a virtual round-table conversation with 22 experts. With the theme “Leave no-one behind: addressing business-related discrimination and exclusion from participation of minorities belonging to descent -based communities”, the conversation focused on implementation gaps with regard to the business and human rights agenda in relation to descent-based minorities. Participants discussed the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and concluded that business behaviours needed to incorporate broader participation, including of those most at risk of being left behind. 22. Following the round table, the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, who participated as a panellist, observed in his thematic report to the General Assembly (A/77/163) that there were a number of drivers that promoted informality, such as poverty, discrimination and high costs and financial exclusion. He also observed that ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities were disproportionately represented in the i nformal economy. He recommended, among other things, that States ensure that informal businesses and employers comply with the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights through awareness-raising, training and regular monitoring of their business operations. 23. In September 2022, a new introductory note concerning the Declaration was published in the United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law. 4 The Declaration, in the three decades since its adoption, has been referred to in more than 500 documents related to the work of the United Nations, including United Nations reports, resolutions and summary records; letters from Member States and statemen ts by civil society organizations. In the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, adopted at the World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna in 1993, the obligation of States to ensure that persons belonging to minorities may exercise fully and effectively all human rights and fundamental freedoms without any discrimination and in full equality before the law in accordance with the Declaration was reaffirmed. There were, however, some significant omissions in the Declaration itself, such as the absence of a specific reference to hate speech, that had been remedied through subsequent soft law instruments. 24. The introductory note also mentioned that the Rabat Plan of Action on the prohibition of advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that c onstitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence highlighted that minorities and other vulnerable groups constituted the majority of victims of incitement to hatred, and members of minorities were also persecuted through the abuse of vague do mestic legislation, jurisprudence and policies (A/HRC/22/17/Add.4, appendix, para. 11). __________________ 4 6/17 Heiner Bielefeldt and Michael Wiener, “Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities”, introductory note, December 1992. 23-15674