A/78/306 10. A number of States made pledges to strengthen the promotion and protection of the rights of minorities. Pledges included protecting the existence of minorities, ensuring their access to education, nurturing diversity and inclusion through education and expanding the access to education delivered in minority languages at a young age. Pledges also included supporting the preservation of minority languages; combating all forms of discrimination; implementing a new national plan against discrimination with a special focus on minorities; and ensuring effective participation of minorities in public affairs. Additional pledges involved continuing to strengthen social and economic integration of minorities, as well as promoting respect for cultural, religious and linguistic diversity of all persons, including by funding theatres, museums and various cultural events of ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities. 11. In the closing segment, the importance of respecting the rights of minorities to secure, peaceful and inclusive societies was highlighted, as was the need to keep the rights of minorities at the top of the priorities of the international community and the agenda of the United Nations. The pledges of States to implement specific measures to promote the rights of minorities and the proposal to create, within the United Nations, a permanent body dedicated to minorities were also welcomed. B. Activities undertaken by States to enhance implementation of the Declaration and ensure the realization of minority rights 12. Contributions were received from five States in reply to a note verbale sen t by OHCHR, dated 21 February 2023, requesting information on recent activities undertaken to promote and protect minority rights, and are summarized below. 13. Armenia noted that its draft human rights action plan for the period 2023 –2025 charged the Ministry of Justice with creating mechanisms for protection against discrimination. The country also provided information on measures it was undertaking to better preserve the languages of national minorities and to provide primary and secondary education in the languages of the Assyrian, Kurdish and Yezidi minorities. Education in Russian was already offered at all levels of schooling, with Russian, Polish and Hebrew among the minority languages studied as foreign languages at university in Armenia. Other minority languages were offered in public schools upon demand from parents. 14. Austria reported that the budget of the Federal Chancellery for national minorities for the period 2020–2024 had been doubled in 2021. At the same time, a new funding item had been created to secure media for national minorities in an effort to safeguard minority languages. A focus was set on digitization and increasing the visibility of the languages of national minorities in the digital sphere. In the context of the new European Union Roma strategic framework for equality, inclusion and participation for 2020–2030, Austria reaffirmed its strategy for the continuation of Roma inclusion in the country. The strategy focused on seven core areas, including combating anti-Gypsyism through education. An evaluation of the current strategy was conducted by the University of Vienna and published in October 2022 and its results were being used to revise and update the strategy. 15. Azerbaijan reported on the diverse ethnic composition of the c ountry and referred to several constitutional provisions that provided minorities with protection from discrimination in various areas of life. It noted that recognition of minority languages and providing access to education in minority languages constitu ted an important achievement for the State. 4/17 23-15674