A/HRC/46/57/Add.1 Annex Report of the Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Fernand de Varennes, on his visit to Kyrgyzstan I. Introduction 1. The Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Fernand de Varennes, conducted an official visit to Kyrgyzstan from 6 to 17 December 2019 at the invitation of the Government. He visited the capital, Bishkek, and had meetings in Batken, Jalalabad and Osh Regions. He consulted widely with government representatives and stakeholders, both national and local, including senior government officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of the Interior, the National Statistical Committee, the State Registration Service, the State Agency for Local Self-Government and Interethnic Relations, the State Commission on Religious Affairs, the State Personnel Agency, the Office of the Ombudsperson, the Ministry of Labour and Social Development, the Supreme Court, the Ministry of Justice, the General Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of Health and the National Human Rights Coordination Council. He was also able to meet with municipal and regional officials of the Batken, Jalalabad and Osh Regions. 2. In addition, the Special Rapporteur consulted with a wide spectrum of civil society organizations working on issues affecting national or ethnic minorities, religious or belief minorities and linguistic minorities. He also met with minority communities themselves and their representatives, such as the Uzbek and Roma communities, with representatives of Protestant, Catholic and other religious or belief minorities, and with members of the sign language linguistic minority, among others. 3. In his 2019 annual report to the General Assembly,1 the Special Rapporteur presented a study on the concept of minority in the United Nations system. As a result of this study, he put forth, as part of his mandate to promote the full and effective realization of the human rights of minorities for the purpose of the activities falling within his mandate, the following concept of a minority: An ethnic, religious or linguistic minority is any group of persons which constitutes less than half of the population in the entire territory of a State whose members share common characteristics of culture, religion or language, or a combination of any of these. A person can freely belong to an ethnic, religious or linguistic minority without any requirement of citizenship, residence, official recognition or any other status. 4. Additionally, in his 2020 annual report to the General Assembly, 2 the Special Rapporteur presented a study on the scope and significance of the four categories of minorities in United Nations instruments, which fall within his mandate to promote the full and effective realization of the human rights of minorities – namely national or ethnic, religious and linguistic. 5. The term “national or ethnic minority” is a broad, inclusive category bringing together individuals on the basis of origin or culture, and therefore includes nomadic and caste-based groups. The term “national minority” would seem to refer to an ethnic minority with a traditional or long-standing presence on the territory of a State. The term “religious minority” refers to a wide range of religious, non-religious, non-theistic and other beliefs, such as nonrecognized and non-traditional religions or beliefs, including animism, atheism, agnosticism, humanism, “new religions” and so on, and, more accurately, can be understood as referring to religious or belief minorities. A “linguistic minority” exists objectively, regardless of constitutional or legal status or recognition. Languages include non-verbal languages such as sign languages, languages which may have little or no literary tradition or even alphabet or script, and orally unintelligible variants even if they share an identical script. Users of sign 1 2 2 A/74/160. A/75/211.