A/HRC/52/27 31. The list of international binding instruments covers a significant number of marginalized groups: persons with disabilities, migrant workers, children, women and stateless persons, in particular. Others are of course missing, such as Indigenous Peoples and people of African descent, but it is noteworthy that minorities were explicitly and early on identified, in 1948, by the General Assembly as a particular group that needed to be the subject of “effective measures” for their protection in a resolution soon after the creation of the United Nations, whereas Indigenous Peoples and people of African descent only came to be considered directly much later in the Organization’s history. 32. The Declaration was – perhaps – to be a new start, in part an acknowledgment of the urgency for the United Nations to deal with what had already been deemed, in 1948, as the “fate of minorities” and to take effective measures for their protection, contributing to the quelling of the upsurge of violent conflicts and instability and the instrumentalization of minority grievances in a significant number of these conflicts.6 The Declaration itself was, after all, more of an “unfinished story” and a new start rather than a comprehensive set of protective measures, which were initially envisioned in 1948. 33. Briefly, and at the risk of oversimplification, there have only been six effective institutional measures instituted by the United Nations in the 30 years since the adoption of the Declaration: the creation of the Working Group on Minorities in 1993, replaced in 2007 by the Forum on Minority Issues; the Special Rapporteur on minority issues (first established in 2005 as an Independent Expert); the United Nations network on racial discrimination and protection of minorities established in 2012; the 2013 training programme for human rights and minority rights defenders of the Minorities Fellowship Programme;7 and, finally, the 2013 Guidance Note of the Secretary-General on Racial Discrimination and Protection of Minorities (which was largely ignored and forgotten, at least in relation to its minority protection mandate).8 A special mention ought to be made, however, of the OHCHR-initiated 2012 Rabat Plan of Action on the prohibition of advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence, which lays out religious leaders’ core responsibilities in countering incitement to hatred, and the subsequent 2017 Beirut Declaration on Faith for Rights, which expands those responsibilities to the full spectrum of human rights and which led to the #Faith4Rights toolkit of 2019, containing 18 commitments to “reach out to people of different religions and beliefs in all regions of the world, to promote a common, action-oriented platform”. 9 The toolkit’s training modules make frequent references to and include strategies aimed at nurturing tolerance and inclusion of religious minorities and protecting their rights. 10 34. The Special Rapporteur has noted that the first 20 years after the adoption of the Declaration represented something of a high point in the acknowledgment and integration of 6 7 8 9 10 The extent to which the Declaration and many initial measures to address the protection of minorities were closely connected to conflict prevention is insufficiently acknowledged. The Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities invited, in 1990, its Norwegian expert member, Asbjørn Eide, to carry out a study on possible ways and means of facilitating the peaceful and constructive solution of problems involving minorities (E/CN.4/Sub.2/1993/34), which itself led to the establishment of the Working Group on Minorities and eventually to the creation of the Forum on Minority Issues. The Minorities Fellowship Programme, established in 2005, is often described as one of the shining stars of the commitments of OHCHR towards ensuring the protection of minorities. It is one of three similar programmes, the other two being: the fellowship programme for people of African descent, which started in 2011; and the earlier Indigenous Fellowship Programme, which began in 1997. The Indigenous Fellowship Programme did not operate in 2022 because of the pandemic. For its part, the Minorities Fellowship Programme has – rather surprisingly and disturbingly – not been offered since 2019. One noteworthy, and in some ways almost unique, publication that merits an honourable mention is: United Nations Development Programme, Marginalised Minorities in Development Programming: A UNDP Resource Guide and Toolkit (New York, 2010), produced in partnership with the Independent Expert on minority issues and OHCHR. See www.ohchr.org/en/faith-for-rights/faith4rights-toolkit. Module 6 on minority rights. See www.ohchr.org/en/faith-for-rights/faith4rights-toolkit/module-6minority-rights. 7