1 Closing Statement of Special Rapporteur Madame la présidente, excellences, distingués délégués et experts, chers participants, Mesdames et Messieurs. I will begin in English. Je vais commencer en anglais. Voy a empezar en ingles. As I indicated yesterday morning when I opened this forum, this really is a unique opportunity and platform for promoting dialogue and cooperation on issues pertaining to minorities. It is obviously not easy, and unfortunately because of the pandemic and instability with the new Omicron variant, the forum this year had to face very challenging conditions as you will have noticed. The Forum is also perhaps victim of its own success with the largest number of registered participants of its history, and the difficulties to identify and accommodate the speakers in this hybrid format. In fact, let me point out how successful the mandate on minority issues has been to reaching out to and giving a voice to so many of you: almost 1,500 individuals, state representatives and organisations have registered in this Forum and the four regional forums held in 2021. Nevertheless, it’s clear that next year’s Forum must be in person, and there are perhaps other improvements that we should consider. Still, I wanted to state that you are all to be commended for the information, insights and recommendations which are essential to carry out the objectives of the UN FOrum. I will not try to summarise all of the urgent issues, disturbing situations, recommendations and invaluable insights and expertise that have come out from the expert panelists and your interventions. It will take time for us to digest all of this.