A/HRC/40/64 regionally and nationally, throughout the world and with a variety of governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In particular, he has, whenever the opportunity has presented itself, referred to the minority issues that have been identified as the thematic priorities of his mandate, such as statelessness, education and the languages of minorities, hate speech and social media, and the prevention of ethnic conflicts. Cross-cutting issues have also been frequently highlighted, including the double or even triple marginalization of minority women, and particularly vulnerable groups, such as Roma and the Dalit. The Special Rapporteur has, on many occasions, additionally emphasized in his activities that sign language users are members of a linguistic minority. He has also given frequent media interviews on issues involving the human rights of minorities. 41. On 29 January, the Special Rapporteur participated in an expert seminar organized at the Institute of Education of the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, during which he spoke about minority rights and linguistic rights in education. The next day he was a key speaker at the annual meeting of the Russian International Law Association on global challenges and effectiveness of international law, held at Moscow State University, during which the Association addressed the issue of the “Protection of Minorities in International Law: Its Importance in Today’s Global Instabilities and Uncertainties”. On the same day, he also held a seminar on “25 Years of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities: Directions and Relevance for Education” at the Institute of Education, Higher School of Economics. 42. On 14 February, he was a guest lecturer at the Linguistics Department of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the Université de Moncton in Canada, where he made a presentation on the possible contributions of international human rights law in relation to indigenous languages. 43. On 13 March, he spoke on the rights of linguistic and other minorities and the global human rights system at a parallel event on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. 44. On 26 March, he was keynote speaker at the launch of the Peter McMullin Centre on Statelessness at Melbourne Law School in Australia, where he directly addressed the thematic issue of “Statelessness and its Causes: Discrimination, Minorities and the AsiaPacific Region”. 45. On 26 April, in Barcelona, Spain, he was keynote speaker at the end of the 36th human rights course on human rights in the face of extremism and discrimination, organized by the Catalan Institute of Human Rights, where his presentation dealt with extremism, discrimination and the need for a new commitment towards human rights. 46. On 30 April and 1 May 2018, he convened and presided over a regional expert workshop in Bangkok on statelessness and minority rights. 47. On 9 May, he was among speakers invited to the First International Muslim Minorities Congress held in Abu Dhabi, during which he again explored one of the thematic priorities of his mandate in a presentation on “Hate Speech, Intolerance and Religious Minorities: Global Challenges and Responses”. 48. On 10 May, he was a guest at the meeting on “Arab Human Capital in Israel: Organizing and Activation”, organized by the High Follow-up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel and held in Taibe, Israel, during which he spoke on “The Value of Protecting the Human Rights of Minorities: Education and Language”, another of the thematic priorities of his mandate. 49. On 24 May, he participated in the third meeting of the Global Action Against Mass Atrocity Crimes held in Kampala, during which he also made a presentation on atrocity prevention and minority policies. 50. On 31 May, he was one of the keynote speakers at the conference entitled “Language Policy and Conflict Prevention: Revisiting the Oslo Recommendations regarding the Linguistic Rights of National Minorities”, held in Oslo and co-organized by the High Commissioner on National Minorities of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and the Norwegian Resource Bank for Democracy and 9