In particular, States are obliged to secure the enjoyment of human rights and freedoms, including minority rights, for everyone within their jurisdictions.2 In the context of the international responsibility to respect and protect human rights, including minority rights, States are accountable to the international community and are therefore obliged to fulfil their reporting obligations to international supervisory and advisory bodies. Such bodies play an important role in promoting transparency, understanding and goodwill, and States should support, develop and fully participate in these mechanisms. The responsibilities of States that are entailed by sovereignty include promoting the integration of society. Based on the experience of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities (hereinafter: “HCNM”), lasting peace, stability, internal and external security, and prosperity are linked to enabling the process of integrating all the constituent parts of society. This implies that States protect their diversity through policies and institutional and legal frameworks that facilitate inclusion, recognition and mutual accommodation. The lack or imperfect existence of a functioning State cannot be invoked as a reason to avoid developing and implementing integration policies; on the contrary, the experience of the HCNM indicates that having integration policies in place actually helps States to function better. 2 This responsibility is included in, inter alia, the CSCE Helsinki Final Act, Principle VII, paragraph 4; the 1950 European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (hereinafter: “ECHR”), article 1; and, with regard to minorities in particular, in the 1966 UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (hereinafter: “ICCPR”), article 27; the UN Declaration on Minorities, article 1(1); the Copenhagen Document, paragraphs 33(1) and 36(2); and the FCNM, article 1. 8 Guidelines on Integration of Diverse Societies