A/75/211 categories of minorities: national or ethnic, religious and linguistic, as described in the mandate provided by the Human Rights Council. A number of United Nations instruments are also quite clear and specific that the concept of a minority is circumscribed to up to four categories of beneficiaries. While there have been numerous discussions on what constitutes a minority, the significance of the four categories of beneficiaries in substantive terms has until now still not been systematically or comprehensively addressed. The significance of the distinct categories, perhaps surprisingly, is not elucidated, nor even alluded to, in United Nations guidance document on minorities. 4 17. This lacuna in identifying objectively and consistently who is a minority in United Nations instruments is a recurring stumbling block to the full and effective realization of the human rights of minorities. Different States Members of the United Nations a t times have had differing views on the groups of persons constituting a minority. At times, the not-so-subtle suggestion has even been made that minorities “don’t really exist”. Almost always, the absence of clarity as to who are the beneficiaries under t he categories of national or ethnic, religious and linguistic has been used to try to restrict those who can claim human rights protection as members of a minority. 18. As the study indicates, that uncertainty has also on occasion led to the supposition that determining the beneficiaries of human rights protection for minorities is left entirely to the discretion of national Governments. Some Member States may also hesitate to engage on matters relating to minorities since they do not have definitions of who are national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities and what that entails. 19. The responses to the Special Rapporteur’s call for submissions have highlighted differing and even contradictory views: in their responses, some States have insisted that they have no minorities because their constitutions guarantee the equality of all citizens, so that there is no discrimination towards national or ethnic, religious and linguistic groups. 5 For these, it is implied that minorities in the territory of a State must, somehow, be non-dominant in the jurisdiction in which they find themselves. A few other States, however, insist on the opposite: that any “vulnerable” group, not only national or ethnic, religious and linguistic groups, could constitute a mino rity, and that there was therefore no need to distinguish between these four categories of beneficiaries, despite their enumeration in United Nations documents. 6 20. As a first step in addressing some of these matters, the Special Rapporteur, in his 2019 report to the General Assembly, 7 provided a working definition of the concept of minority, in line with article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which indicates that an ethnic, religious or linguistic minority is any group of persons that constitutes less than half of the population in the entire territory of a State, whose members share common characteristics of culture, religion or language, or a combination of any of these and without any requirement of citizenship, residence, official recognition or any other status. 21. In essence, a minority is a group that is not in the majority, at the national level, in terms of culture, religion or language. 22. That concept recognizes as a matter of objective fact the existence of et hnic, religious or linguistic minorities and is not premised on any legal recognition by __________________ 4 5 6 7 6/20 Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), “Minority Rights: International Standards and Guidance for Implementation” (New York and Geneva, 2010). See CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.5, para. 4. The sample questionnaire for submissions and list of contributors in Annex II is available at www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Minorities/SR/Sample_questionnaire_and_list_of_contributors. docx. See A/74/160, para. 59. 20-09835