A/74/215 Declaration. The thematic focus of the work of the Special Rapporteur also guides the work of the Forum on Minority Issues. 19. International law does not offer a definition of a minority. However, general comment No. 23 of the Human Rights Committee has helped to reinforce the view that the determination of which groups constitute minorities does not lie solely with the State, but is dependent on a range of both objective and subjective criteria. An exact assessment of the relative numerical size of a population group compared with that of the larger is therefore not needed. Instead, a contextual assessment is the basis for determining whether a minority is non-dominant. According to that approach, duration of residence or domicile within a State does not limit protections under international minority rights. Despite the individualist approach of the minority rights regime, the collective nature of minority rights is necessary for the protection and promotion of minority identity. The Special Rapporteur reaffirmed that claims made by minority groups for equality and non-discrimination and respect for their identity, language, religion and cultural practices may involve territorial issues or assertions (ibid., paras. 23–29). 20. The work of the Special Rapporteur was also critical in ensuring that the term “minority” is used with the empowering intent that it holds. The concept of “minorities” had experienced limited reach and appeal among minority groups themselves in certain parts of the world. Minority groups falling under the legal category of “minorities” rejected the use of the term, since they considered it derogatory, discriminatory or establishing a second-class category of citizens. Instead of implying any inferiority or diminished status, the term “minority” is used in recognition of the fact that the principles of equality and non -discrimination are not fulfilled for certain groups. The work of the Special Rapporteur has helped to underscore the protection gap for caste-based groups which, although they belong to the same ethnic, religious or linguistic group as the larger community, are nevertheless in a non-dominant position and suffer stigma and exclusion (see A/HRC/31/56). 21. The work of the Special Rapporteur has also helped to bring greater clarity to the scope and meaning of the term “minority” as contained in the Declaration, given that article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and article 30 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child are unclear (see A/HRC/37/66). For example, in 2018, the Special Rapporteur highlighted the extent to which statelessness was mainly a minority issue, given that the vast majority of stateless populations today – more than three quarters, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 2017 – are persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minority groups. The world ’s more than 10 million men, women and children who find themselves deprived of citizenship are persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minority groups (see A/HRC/40/64). 22. Moreover, the commissions of inquiry, fact-finding missions and investigations mandated by the United Nations are increasingly being used to respond to s ituations of serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law and to counter impunity, including with regard to minority groups. The independent international fact-finding mission on Myanmar, in its report (A/HRC/39/64), submitted that violations against ethnic and religious minority groups in the northern Rakhine State were often committed with persecutory intent, in a context of severe and deep rooted discrimination based on ethnic or religious grounds. Those violations have led to the destruction of entire Rohingya villages, together with the ransacking of mosques and religious and cultural objects during military operations, sometimes with the subsequent construction of Buddhist pagodas, and was also accompanied by the use of insulting and derogatory language (ibid., para. 65). The Independent 19-12558 7/15