16th session of the UN Forum on Minority Issues Opening Statement by Prof. Dr. Petra Roter, Co-Chair of the Forum In ten days, the world will mark the international day of human rights. This year, we will also commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But few outside this room may know that at that very same session, on the tenth of December 1948, the General Assembly adopted another document: a resolution titled 'Fate of Minorities'. In that very short resolution, the General Assembly recognised that the United Nations »cannot remain indifferent to the fate of minorities«. It also described the matter as a »complex and delicate question« with »special aspects in each State in which it arises«. Furthermore, it called for a »study of the problem of minorities in order that the United Nations may be able to take effective measures for the protection of racial, national, religious or linguistic minorities.« This early testimony of the need to reconcile the human rights agenda with a commitment to protecting minorities was resolved globally with the adoption in 1992 of the UN Declaration of the Rights of Persons belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities. In practice, however, 75 years after the commitment of not being indifferent to the fate of minorities, minorities are still too frequently referred to and viewed as a problem, including as a security threat, rather than being accepted by everyone as part and parcel of our diverse societies. One would expect that 75 years later, and indeed more than three decades after the adoption of the UN Declaration on minority rights, we would all truly internalise the fact that »promotion and protection of the rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities contribute to the political and social stability of States in which they live« and that »constant promotion and realisation« of minority rights »as an integral part of the development of society as a whole« ... »would contribute to the strengthening of friendship and cooperation among peoples and States«. All this is written in the 1992 UN Declaration. So the knowledge of why minority rights are needed and why they have to be respected has been present in the international community for years, decades, in fact. I am sure that many who participated in drafting these resolutions, right after the end of World War II and after the end of the Cold War, would have expected that by now prevention of discrimination, including intersectional discrimination, and ensuring equality of everyone, regardless of ethnic, linguistic, religious or