Statement by Mr. Gyorgy Tatar, President of the Budapest Centre for the International Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities At the Seventh Session of the Human Rights Council Forum on Minority issues 25 November 2014, Geneva Dear Chair, Distinguished Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen, My first words go to Ms. Rita Izsak, the UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues. I thank her for her efforts and activities in setting the issue of mass atrocities on the agenda of the Minority Forum this year. I wish also to thank the organizers of this event to provide the opportunity for the Budapest Centre for the International Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities to share some of our ideas with you. As I speak here today, millions of individuals worldwide, from the Hazaras in Afghanistan to the Ndebele in Zimbabwe, are in peril of atrocity crimes. They are threatened because they belong to a minority group. This phenomenon is particularly dangerous where the oppressing power is an extreme, non-state actor that is outside mainstream society and refuses to play by the rule of law. We also know that in some European countries hatred towards Roma, Muslim and Jews has increased. The international community must not overlook the contemporary challenges linked to migration and multiculturalism either. No country is, in fact, immune from targeted violence and conflicts. Let me sum up my considerations in four points which will focus on some domains that may work as preventative tools in a longer run: 1. Application of Mass Atrocities lens A study released by the Budapest Centre in 2013 on the capabilities of the European Union to prevent mass atrocities clearly pointed to the distinction between the prevention of violent conflicts and the prevention of mass atrocities. The document stressed that, given the specific nature of mass atrocities, we need to apply a