A/HRC/61/41 47. On 18 December, the Special Rapporteur participated in a meeting of the Intergroup on Traditional Minorities, National Communities and Languages of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. D. Forum on Minority Issues 48. The eighteenth session of the Forum on Minority Issues was held on 27 and 28 November 2025 in Geneva, with measures in place to accommodate pre-recorded interventions. The theme of the session was “The contribution of minorities to diverse, resilient and peaceful societies”. The Forum brought together approximately 1,000 participants from 78 countries, including representatives of States, United Nations mechanisms, bodies, specialized agencies, funds and programmes, intergovernmental and regional organizations, human rights entities, national human rights institutions and other relevant national bodies, minority groups and non-governmental organizations and academic experts on minority issues. 49. The eighteenth session of the Forum was aimed at highlighting the contributions of minorities to stable, resilient and peaceful societies, while also identifying the challenges faced by societies in fully embracing diversity and recognizing the positive contributions that minorities brought through their unique characteristics, perspectives and experiences. The recommendations of the Special Rapporteur emanating from the Forum will be presented to the Human Rights Council at its sixty-first session. III. Addressing minority issues through their root causes A. Introduction 50. In its resolution 2005/79, the Human Rights Commission requested the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to appoint an independent expert on minority issues. The use of the term “issues” allows for the mandate holder, beyond the main task of promoting the implementation of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, to cover not only the protection of rights, civil, cultural, linguistic and others, but also broader concerns, such as socioeconomic exclusion,3 political participation,4 identity,5 education,6 language7 and conflict prevention.8 If all these topics may be qualified as “minority issues”, the Special Rapporteur notes that no systematic study has been conducted with a view to understanding what minority issues are. 51. In the present report, the Special Rapporteur addresses this question, which should not be confused with the quest for a legal definition of “minorities”, for which there have been numerous efforts. 9 The assumption in undertaking this study was that it was likely that minority issues would be different in different parts of the world. It is often heard that minority issues are, for historical reasons,10 mostly of European concern. However, research 11 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 6 See A/HRC/13/23. See also A/76/162. See A/79/169. See A/HRC/58/54. See A/HRC/43/47. See A/HRC/22/49. See A/HRC/49/46. From the definition included in the 1977 report of the Special Rapporteur of the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, Francesco Capotorti (E/CN.4/Sub.2/384/Rev.1, para. 568)) to the research and proposals of the previous holder of the mandate of Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Fernand De Varennes (A/74/160, para. 53). The first international regime for the protection of minorities was set up under the auspices of the League of Nations, mostly for the benefit of European national minorities (E/CN.4/Sub.2/384/Rev.1, para. 96). The special Rapporteur would like to thank Abla Zidani, Nadia D’Amico, Sinem Ertugrul (all three master’s degree candidates at the University of Geneva) and OHCHR staff for their invaluable help in conducting research and finalizing the present report. GE.25-20927