A/74/215 International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic highlighted how terrorist groups systematically perpetrate sectarian violenc e against religious minority groups throughout the Syrian Arab Republic, including against members of the Shia, Christian, Yazidi and Druze faiths ( A/HRC/40/70, para. 43). 23. The Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan documented numerous accounts of children being victimized on the basis of their ethnicity and of several witnesses who voiced their concerns about further intra -ethnic fragmentation and a wider government strategy to eradicate the Nuer community (A/HRC/37/71, paras. 31 and 89). The team of international experts on the situation in Kasaï region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo concluded that attacks were carried out against civilians of several ethnic groups in a generalized and systematic fashion constituting crimes against humanity. Some of the abuses committed could also amount to persecution on the basis of ethnicity. The crimes and destruction continue to take place two years after the conflict began, resulting in the displacement of people and the enslavement of women (see A/HRC/38/31). 4. Universal periodic review 24. Following the first and second cycles of the universal period ic review mechanism of the Human Rights Council, some general trends can be discerned with regard to recommendations focusing specifically on minority issues. The data indicate that no radical changes have occurred over the two cycles. In the second cycle, the percentage of recommendations on minority issues increased slightly, from 4.2 to 5 per cent of all recommendations. 8 However, based on the data for all cycles to date, minority groups are the tenth most discussed topic, after the topic of migrants, wh ich suggests that minority issues are among the most discussed and referred to issues among Member States. The international normative instruments focusing on minority groups specifically, however, are not consistently referred to in those discussions. However, within the universal review process for all States, OHCHR compiles a summary of recommendations of all United Nations expert mechanisms, including the special procedures, with a view to making the implementation of various recommendations an element of a constant review process. 9 5. Forum on Minority Issues 25. Established in 2007 by the Human Rights Council, the Forum on Minority Issues first met in 2008. It has a dual mandate to provide a platform for promoting dialogue and cooperation on issues pertaining to persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minority groups, which provides thematic contributions and expertise to the work of the Independent Expert on minority issues, and to identify and analyse best practices, challenges, opportunities and initiatives for the further implementation of the Declaration. 10 26. The Forum meets annually for two working days allocated to thematic discussions held among States, experts, minority groups and civil society organizations and the elaboration of thematic recommendations emanating therefrom. It has held 12 sessions to date. The eleventh session, held in 2018, was focused on the theme, “Statelessness: a minority issue”. During the session, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights stated that studies had shown that three quarters of __________________ 8 9 10 8/15 See UPR Info database. Available at www.upr-info.org/database/statistics/. See also https://uhri.ohchr.org. Ibid. See Human Rights Council resolution 6/15. The mandate was renewed in 2012 in Council resolution 19/23. 19-12558