A/HRC/46/57/Add.1 languages in Kyrgyzstan should therefore be understood as belonging to linguistic minorities. Most migrants, refugees and non-Kyrgyz citizens are also members of ethnic or religious or belief minorities. 6. The Special Rapporteur thanks the Government of Kyrgyzstan for the constructive spirit and cooperation shown during the visit and for its readiness to engage in an open dialogue to better understand and assess the human rights situation of minorities in the country. He also expresses his gratitude to the numerous national and international nongovernmental organizations that provided information and met with him. II. Objectives of the visit 7. The objectives of the visit were to identify, in a spirit of cooperation and constructive dialogue, good practices in, and possible obstacles to, the promotion and protection of the human rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic minorities, religious or belief minorities and linguistic minorities in Kyrgyzstan in conformity with his mandate. More specifically, the Special Rapporteur aimed to propose possible ways of addressing existing lacunae or gaps, to identify possible improvements to existing legislation, policies and practices, and in particular to identify pathways for the effective implementation of the international obligations of Kyrgyzstan in relation to the human rights of minorities. 8. The overall aim was to examine existing legislation, policies and practices for the protection and promotion of the rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic minorities, religious or belief minorities or linguistic minorities. The Special Rapporteur wished to explore aspects pertaining to minorities in areas of particular significance, such as in education, the use of minority languages, housing, employment, the administration of justice, access to health care and other public services, the participation of minorities in the political process, and efforts to combat hate speech and incitement to interethnic and religious hatred. He also wanted to get a better sense of the normative framework governing human rights in general, and particularly the human rights of minorities, including latest amendments to relevant legislation and other mechanisms that have been established in that regard. These aspects of the visit are important in order to better understand the barriers to inclusion experienced by some minority communities, and why other minorities may be distrustful of State public entities and mechanisms, or have grievances in relation to what they perceive as the negation of their human rights or deeply felt rejection as members of society because of long-standing prejudices or bias. III. General context 9. Kyrgyzstan is a beautiful mountainous country located in Central Asia. A secular, parliamentary democracy of over 6 million people, it has undergone profound demographic changes in its ethnic composition since independence in 1991, with the proportion of ethnic Kyrgyz increasing from around 50 per cent in 1979 to 73.3 per cent in 2018, and the proportion of ethnic groups such as Russians, Ukrainians, Germans and Tatars dropping from 35 per cent to less than 5 per cent. The main ethnic minority groups in 2018 are Uzbeks, at 14.6 per cent, and Russians, at 5.6 per cent. Other smaller groups include Dungans, Uighurs, Mugats (also known as Lyuli) and other smaller minorities. Most Uzbeks live in the country’s south. In 2019, estimates in Kyrgyzstan indicated that about 85.7 per cent of the population was Muslim, mainly Sunni with small numbers of Shia and Ahmadiyya. Eastern Orthodox Christians account for about 6.1 per cent of the population, and other Christians, such as Catholics and Protestants, are around 1 per cent. There are other smaller religious or other belief minorities, including atheists and non-theists, Jews, Baha’is and Buddhists. 3