A/HRC/34/53 issues of women and girls in separate sections of her thematic and country reports to enhance their visibility and help raise awareness on their very specific challenges and situations. 5. Achieving the Millennium Development Goals for disadvantaged minorities 48. The Special Rapporteur appreciated the work undertaken by her predecessor to highlight the situation of minorities in the context of the Millennium Development Goals, work that was highly important as the international community approached the 2015 deadline for achieving the Goals. She decided to dedicate a thematic report to the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/25/56) to ensuring the inclusion of minority issues in post-2015 development agendas. 49. In her report, the Special Rapporteur noted with concern that minorities often remained among the poorest and most socially and economically excluded and marginalized communities globally and that tens of millions of persons belonging to minorities were trapped in a cycle of discrimination, exclusion, poverty and underdevelopment from which they could not break free without targeted attention to their situations. Poverty within minority communities was both a cause and a manifestation of their diminished rights, opportunities and social advancement. The Special Rapporteur deeply regrets that despite the pledges for an inclusive 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, no explicit reference to minorities was included in the final document. She firmly believes that the successful implementation of the 2030 Agenda can only be achieved by taking into consideration the situation of minorities, and calls on States to fulfil in practice the principle of leaving no one behind. 6. Role of minority rights protection in conflict prevention 50. The Special Rapporteur sought further opportunities to build on the work of the previous mandate holder on the role of minority rights protection in conflict prevention presented to the General Assembly in 2010 and the Human Rights Council in 2011, and dedicated her report to the General Assembly in 2014 (A/69/266) as well as the seventh session of the Forum on Minority Issues to preventing and addressing violence and atrocities against minorities. 51. In her report to the General Assembly, the Special Rapporteur shared her observation that persons belonging to minorities were frequently the victims of violence and atrocities. Violence could take the form of attacks on individuals, their homes, shops or places of worship, or wider acts of aggression against communities with different national, ethnic or religious identities. In the worst cases, violence constituted mass atrocities, crimes against humanity, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and even genocide, often perpetrated with impunity. Sometimes violence was committed by non-State actors, including those belonging to the majority, or by larger, more powerful groups, extremist groups, or even business actors. Sometimes it was perpetrated by State actors. 52. She recalled that a primary objective of the United Nations and of most States in the area of peace and stability was to prevent violence before it broke out. The tragic experiences of past violence and atrocities had helped to better understand the causes of violence and the fact that minorities were frequently targets, and to produce indicators to predict violent incidents and provide early warning. However, States too often failed to translate clear early warnings into adequate, appropriate and timely measures to prevent or stop violence. In order to save lives and ensure peaceful societies, a high priority of stakeholders at all levels must be to improve prevention mechanisms and turn early warning into early action. At the national level, good and inclusive governance that included minorities and measures to ensure equality was a key prevention prerequisite. The international community must also improve its ability to engage and assist States in efforts 10