A/HRC/52/27 xenophobia and related intolerance. Other developments along the same lines have included the International Decade for People of African Descent (2015–2024), the agenda towards transformative change for racial justice and equality, not to mention the United Nations mechanisms, permanent forums and voluntary funds for combating racism and racial discrimination, the permanent forums for people of African descent, the specific treaty on the elimination of racial discrimination and so on. The Durban Declaration and Plan of Action, in particular, have, since 1997, served as a road map for action at the United Nations, helped expand the scope of the United Nations agenda with its recommendations on how to combat racial discrimination and led to coordination with affected communities, as well as to collecting data on these. 39. However, no comparable progress or initiatives materialized for minorities, contrary to what could have been expected from the guiding principles and a framework for United Nations action in the Guidance Note of the Secretary-General. Indeed, a point often raised by minority civil society organizations during the regional forums on minorities and the Forum on Minority Issues is that there may have been regression in terms of the recognition of minority rights issues, including in the United Nations itself. 40. In recent years, the Special Rapporteur has noted that the term “minority” has been expunged from earlier versions of important United Nations initiatives. While paragraph 23 of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development specifies vulnerable persons who should be empowered by the Agenda, the term “minorities” was intentionally removed from the earlier versions of the enumeration of “those left behind” without any explanation, while all the others remained.14 In the recently adopted road map for the next decade on the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights there are mentions, on numerous occasions, of those who may be at heightened risk of vulnerability, such as women; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons; children; persons with disabilities; Indigenous Peoples; people of African descent; migrants; and refugee workers. Minorities are never mentioned. Nor again is this an omission: minorities were referred to in earlier drafts and removed, while tellingly new marginalized groups were included in later drafts.15 These are, unfortunately, not the only cases of the term “minorities” being expunged from earlier United Nations documents or initiatives for marginalized groups. 41. The barriers facing minorities appear to extend at times to the voices and presence of civil society and institutional support at the United Nations to facilitate the central role these now play in the Organization. Calls, first made in 2003, to establish a voluntary fund on minority-related activities at the United Nations have never been heeded,16 nor have those for the proclamation of an international year or decade for the world’s minorities.17 This would perhaps be less problematic if the same obstacles for other marginalized groups occurred more broadly in the United Nations, but again the opposite seems to have occurred: minorities as a marginalized group seem to have been held back, while voluntary funds have been established for others (Indigenous Peoples, people of African descent, children, slavery, the Fund for Gender Equality, the United Nations trust fund in support of actions to eliminate violence against women etc.), even when the initial proposals for these funds came later than those for minorities. 42. In short, minorities are the last major group at the United Nations with no specific mechanism or initiative to strengthen the discussion and protection of their human rights, such as a permanent forum or a voluntary fund. 43. Some observers have expressed the view that, institutionally, the United Nations may not have moved forward because of the reluctance or even outright hostility of some key and powerful Member States towards tackling minority issues, including the assertion of human 14 15 16 17 10 A/76/162, para. 33. A/77/246, para. 68. There is, however, the Special Fund for the Participation of Civil Society in the Social Forum, the Forum on Minority Issues and the Forum on Business and Human Rights. E/CN.4/2004/2, p. 16.