A/78/195 grievances, and that a minority human rights framework was essential to tackle the patterns of economic and political exclusion, as had been recommended in a 2018 United Nations/World Bank joint report. Despite that recommendation, the opportunity and appropriateness of using a minority rights framework as an early warning system for a significant proportion of the world’s conflicts had been almost completely – and surprisingly – omitted in most United Nations conflict prevention initiatives (ibid., para. 57). 35. While it is too early to assess any impact of these and other recommendations issued by the regional forums (the Americas regional forum, 14 the Africa and the Middle East regional forum, 15 the Asia-Pacific regional forum 16 and the Europe and Central Asia regional forum 17) and the Forum on Minority Issues, 18 the outlook is not promising. 36. Violent conflicts have increased again globally, reaching in 2023 their highest levels since the end of the Second World War (S/PV.9250). Correspondingly, the world is experiencing the highest number of internally displaced persons in history. 19 Yet, despite data suggesting that most of these conflicts are usually internal and involve minority grievances, there is still absolutely no reference to these trends nor any attempt to address the main drivers and root causes of contemporary modern conflicts in the most recent United Nations initiative to prevent conflicts. This is a glaring gap and omission that augurs poorly for any chance of the United Nations effectively fulfilling its main objective of seeking to maintain international peace and stability. On 20 July 2023, the Secretary-General presented the New Agenda for Peace policy brief, 20 in which he neither mentioned that most of the world’s armed conflicts involved minority issues or grievances nor recognized, as had the United Nations and the World Bank in their 2018 joint report, that the pathway to peace needed to be focused on those root causes. On the contrary, there were no mentions of minorities nor of the most prevalent causes of most of the world’s record levels of armed conflicts – except for one mention in which it was stated that minority women needed to be listened to and respected and their perspectives upheld because they were affected by compounding forms of discrimination, marginalization and violence. 37. Therefore, despite the statement made by the Secretary-General at a high-level General Assembly event in September 2022, in which he stated that the promotion of the rights of minorities was vital to advancing political and social stability and preventing conflict within and between countries, and that the international community was “dealing with outright inaction and negligence in the protection of __________________ 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 10/21 OHCHR, “Implementation of and education about human rights, minority rights and indigenous rights”, recommendations of the Americas regional forum on conflict prevention and the protection of the human rights of minorities, online meeting, 27 and 28 April 2021. OHCHR, “Norms, structures and implementation of human rights, minority rights and indigenous rights”, recommendations of the Africa and the Middle East regional forum on conflict prevention and the protection of the human rights of minorities, online m eeting, 15 and 16 June 2021. OHCHR, “Norms, structures and implementation of human rights and minority rights”, recommendations of the Asia-Pacific regional forum on conflict prevention and the protection of the human rights of minorities, online meeting, 7 and 8 September 2021. OHCHR, “Norms, structures and implementation of human rights and minority rights”, recommendations of the Europe and Central Asia regional forum on conflict prevention and the protection of the human rights of minorities, online meeting, 12 and 13 October 2021. A/HRC/49/81. While a world record was set in 2022 when the number of internally displaced persons worldwide reached a record high of 71.1 million, this was surpassed in May 2023, reaching more than 110 million individuals according to the Office of the United Nations H igh Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Refugee Statistics database, available at www.unrefugees.org/refugeefacts/statistics/. A/77/CRP.1/Add.8. 23-15818