through regional and national structures. In his view the international justice system, including the ICC, must do more to combat all forms of impunity and work to strengthen national justice systems. Moreover, he called on the whole UN system to pay more attention to the notion of public and verifiable statistics and to their potential manipulation for a number of motives. He drew the attention on how migration as a phenomenon driving millions of people seeking security abroad is challenging the principles of local cooperation and integration. He recalled that the Burundi example in 1994 shows that the cycle of revenge can be broken and called on the international community to look at minority rights protection as being an issue for all, an issue of solidarity. Director of the Budapest Centre for the International Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities, Dr. György Tatar. Mr. Tatar began by thanking the UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues for her efforts and activities and focused on mass atrocities within this year’s Forum. He highlighted that economic distress and poverty may exacerbate latent rigidities and push the “majority” to identify a scapegoat in the minority groups. He called for the need to apply a mass atrocity lens when designing and implementing development policies. He also stressed that the dialogue is a relevant tool for prevention of mass atrocities. He described dialogues as inclusive processes enabling participants to act without distinction, as well as to listen and be heard by others. He stressed that minorities need to take an active role in the dialogue process not only to protect their interests but also to enrich the knowledge and experience of the majority. He also focused on the importance of education as the best investment for effectively preventing mass atrocities. Finally, he underlined that special attention should be devoted by international actors to develop capacities at national level. Representative to the United Nations for the Baha’I International Community, Ms. Diane Ala’I Ms. Ala’I began by highlighting that the root causes of violence and atrocity crimes should be analysed in light of the concept of “otherness”. She explained how “otherness” very often stems from ignorance, is accompanied by suspicion and contributes to spread lies and create myths. She noted that the lies that are spread are generally very well thought through and culturally designed to tap into primordial fears. She stressed that hate speech is the ultimate form of abuse related to conceptions of “otherness”, but there are many shades of such acts that erode and strive to eliminate the most basic of our common humanity. She recalled that atrocity crimes are not the exclusivity of conflicts and yet they get far less attention when they are regularly and relentlessly perpetrated. Moreover, she emphasised that the “otherness” takes a special dimension when it is promoted by a government, although often governments claim that misconceptions around the concept of otherness and resulting violent acts are not in their hands. She brought some examples to show how a government can use different means to ostracize a minority. She concluded by stressing the importance of using the response of a 9