Mr. Eliasson acknowledged that the theme of this year’s Forum was particularly timely and appropriate. He recalled the duty of the international community to prevent violence and atrocity crimes directed against minorities all over the world, and called upon Member States’ moral and political responsibility to take early action when confronted with evidence or known risk factors for atrocity crimes. He welcomed the work of the Forum, including its important role to understand the nature of these crimes, their root causes and inherent dynamics as a necessary step to improve relevant prevention strategies. He invited the United Nations as a whole to renew its commitments and intensify its efforts to promote and protect minority rights worldwide as an important mean to achieve peace and security, reduce conflict levels and support post-conflict reconciliation. He pointed to minority rights as a vital component of all three pillars of the United Nations: peace, development and human rights, requiring the systematic and coordinated engagement of every part of the UN system, in line with the Human Rights Up Front initiative, which calls for a system-wide effort to prevent and respond to serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. Statement by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr. Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein The High Commissioner welcomed all participants and acknowledged the high relevance of this year’s thematic. He recalled that none of the past and present atrocities have occurred without warning signs but they have built up over years of human rights deficiencies and violation, including discrimination and exclusion of minorities, sexual violence, exploitation and denial of civil, economic, social, cultural and political rights. He invited participants to recognize that divisions and hatred are the result of socially constructed dynamics, nourished by a fixed and short-sighted approach that insists on seeing people in terms of only one dimension. He encouraged participants to look at diversity as a source of enrichment for all societies and to consider minority rights, including the 1992 Declaration essential to achieving sustainable human development, democratic governance and peace in the long-term. Referring to the work conducted within the UN system to prevent violence against minorities, he gave some positive examples of OHCHR’s action and its impact, including in the field of training for governmental officials, police and security forces and civil society groups. He stressed the importance of the need to improve measures for early warning and prevention and identified the Secretary General’s “Human Rights Up Front” Initiative as a unique opportunity to integrate minority rights protection more systematically into the UN strategies, policies and programmes. Video statement by the Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Ms Rita Izsák Ms. Izsák welcomed all participants and expressed regret for not being able to attend the Forum this year. She reminded all participants that persons belonging to minorities are frequently victims of violence in all regions of the world with tremendous longlasting consequences on society as a whole. She stressed the importance of improving understanding of the root causes of violence, including gross inequalities vis-à-vis fundamental civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights and persistent poverty, 3