A/70/255
she called upon Sri Lanka to adopt urgent measures to stop the promotion of racial
and faith-based hatred and violence against Muslim and Christian communities by
Buddhist groups with extremist views.
49. Also in July 2014, the Special Rapporteur expressed, along with other United
Nations experts, her concerns about the physical safety of several minority groups
in Iraq, including Christians, Shia, Shabaks, Turk men and Yazidis, which were
subjected to abductions, killings or the confiscation of their property by extremist
groups. In August 2014, she called for urgent measures to avoid a mass atrocity and
potential genocide.
50. On 2 August 2014, on the occasion of the seventieth anniversary
commemoration of the Roma Holocaust, the Special Rapporteur, together with the
Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, called for
stronger measures to keep the memory of the Roma Holocaust alive and to enable
survivors, Roma communities and others to mark it in a recognized and dignified
manner.
51. In December 2014, the Special Rapporteur, along with other mandate holders,
expressed concerns over the decision not to bring to trial the cases of Mi chael
Brown and Eric Garner in the United States of America, stating that the decisions
had left many with legitimate concerns relating to a pattern of impunity when the
victims of the excessive use of force came from African-American or other minority
communities.
52. In June 2015, the Special Rapporteur, together with the Special Adviser on the
Prevention of Genocide, the Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect and the
Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, expressed grave concern a t the
ongoing threat to the safety of minority groups in the Syrian Arab Republic,
including Alawites, Armenians, Assyrians, Druze, Ismailis and Kurds.
VI. Forum on Minority Issues
53. The Forum on Minority Issues was established by the Human Rights Council
in its resolution 6/15 and renewed pursuant to its resolution 19/23 of 23 March
2012. The Forum provides an annual platform for dialogue and cooperation on
issues pertaining to persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic
minorities.
54. At its sixth session, held on 26 and 27 November 2013 under the theme
“Beyond freedom of religion or belief: guaranteeing the rights of religious
minorities”, the Forum on Minority Issues addressed challenges relating to religious
minorities, including from the perspective of respect for the right to freedom of
religion or belief. The goal of the session was to identify measures to guarantee the
rights of members of religious minorities to security. The discussions covered
various minority rights issues, including the rising tide of violent attacks against
members of religious minorities in several countries.
55. The theme of the seventh session of the Forum, held on 25 and 26 November
2014, was “Preventing and addressing violence and atrocity cr imes targeted against
minorities” in order to increase awareness of the obligation of States under
international law to strengthen institutional and policy frameworks for the
protection of minority rights. In keeping with past practice, the recommendations of
12/14
15-12580