A/HRC/37/73 I. Introduction 1. In its resolutions 6/15 and 19/23, the Human Rights Council decided that the Independent Expert on minority issues should guide the work of the Forum on Minority Issues and prepare its annual meetings, and invited him/her to include in his/her report thematic recommendations of the Forum and recommendations for future thematic subjects, for consideration by the Council. In its resolution 25/5, the Council decided to extend the mandate of the mandate holder as a Special Rapporteur on minority issues, and renewed the mandate in its resolution 34/6. The present report, which was prepared pursuant to resolutions 6/15 and 19/23, contains the recommendations of the tenth session of the Forum on Minority Issues, held on 30 November and 1 December 2017. At the session, the Forum considered the theme “Minority youth: towards inclusive and diverse societies”. The work of the Forum was guided by the newly appointed Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Fernand de Varennes. The Chair of the session was Tarik Kurdi, of the Sudan. More than 500 participants attended the session, including representatives of Member States and minority communities, non-governmental organizations, United Nations specialized agencies, regional and intergovernmental bodies and national human rights institutions. Young minority advocates, representatives of youth organizations and young members of governmental delegations from all regions attended the Forum, some of them for the first time. The list of participants is available at www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/Minority/ Pages/Session10.aspx. 2. The present recommendations draw primarily from the discussions among and contributions made by participants to the Forum at its tenth session under each item of the agenda (A/HRC/FMI/2017/1). The recommendations are grounded in international law and standards. They aim to provide guidance for the effective implementation of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities. In view of the cross-cutting nature of the theme of the tenth session, reference is also made to recommendations formulated at previous sessions that are of specific relevance to the empowerment of young people belonging to minorities. 3. Key elements of the legal and normative framework include the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Convention against Discrimination in Education; the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages; the Council of Europe Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities; and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Oslo Recommendations regarding the Linguistic Rights of National Minorities. 4. Specifically on the topic of minority rights with regard to education, the following instruments are of relevance: the OSCE Hague Recommendations Regarding the Education Rights of National Minorities; the Incheon Declaration: Education 2030: Towards inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all, adopted by the 2015 World Education Forum; and Language Rights of Linguistic Minorities: A Practical Guide for Implementation developed by the Special Rapporteur on minority issues. 5. Regarding the right to political participation, the following instruments are relevant: the Lund Recommendations on the Effective Participation of National Minorities in Public Life and the Ljubljana Guidelines on Integration of Diverse Societies of OSCE, and as well as the Revised European Charter on the Participation of Young People in Local and Regional Life adopted by the Council of Europe. 6. With regard to the human rights of members of minorities in relation to the media, key instruments and guidelines include: the OSCE Guidelines on the Use of Minority Languages in the Broadcast Media; Bookmarks: A Manual for Combating Hate Speech Online Through Human Rights Education, published by the Council of Europe; Security Council resolution 2250 (2015) on youth, peace and stability; Young People’s Participation in Peacebuilding: A Practice Note, published by the Inter-Agency Network on Youth 3