A/HRC/34/21
Council at its thirty-second session. She noted that child and/or forced marriages and
selective abortions — if the unborn child is a girl — were more common among ethnic
minority populations and that women belonging to minority groups were more vulnerable
to violence. Language barriers, in particular the lack of interpretation services, could also
prevent these women from reporting cases of violence. She recommended that support
services for victims of violence be made available in all ethnic minority languages.
41.
The Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination,
xenophobia and related intolerance presented his report (A/HRC/32/50) on the phenomenon
of xenophobia to the Human Rights Council at its thirty-second session. In the report, the
Special Rapporteur outlined key elements that must be considered to combat xenophobia,
including forms of xenophobia targeting minorities. He argued that responses to
xenophobia and discrimination must be conscious of the risk of facilitating further abuse or
heightening existing vulnerability. In this respect, the Special Rapporteur gave examples of
legislation that was designed to combat hate speech but that was instead used against the
ethnic and religious minorities it had been intended to protect. He recommended the
implementation of international standards at the national level to strengthen the rule of law,
particularly those that recognize and protect the rights of minorities.
42.
In September, the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including
its causes and consequences, presented her report (A/HRC/33/46) to the Human Rights
Council at its thirty-third session. In that report, she focused specifically on the issue of
debt bondage as a key form of contemporary slavery. She emphasized that debt bondage
was a worldwide phenomenon, which disproportionately affected vulnerable people such as
minorities, and that limited access to education as a result of discrimination against children
belonging to minority groups increased their vulnerability to exploitation and therefore debt
bondage.
2.
Country rapporteurs
43.
In March 2016, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the
Islamic Republic of Iran presented his report (A/HRC/31/69) to the Human Rights Council
at its thirty-first session. In the report, he expressed serious concern about the situation of
adherents to the Baha’i faith and about the treatment of Iranian Christians of Muslim
background and other religious minorities.
44.
In the same month, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in
Myanmar presented her report (A/HRC/31/71) to the Human Rights Council at its thirtyfirst session. In her report, she called upon the new Government to end the policies and
practices that led to discrimination against the Rohingya and other Muslim communities in
Rakhine State and to ensure that the right to health was upheld for the entire population in
Rakhine. The Special Rapporteur also highlighted that most Rohingya and other non-citizen
minorities did not have identity documents and that members of civil society and human
rights defenders who advocated for the rights of minority groups were often harassed and
threatened.
45.
In September, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Cambodia
presented her report (A/HRC/33/62) to the Human Rights Council at its thirty-third session.
In that report, the Special Rapporteur noted that three cases were ongoing at the
Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts, including the hearing of case No. 002/02 on charges
that included the genocide of Cham and Vietnamese minorities. She also highlighted the
multilingual education plan of action launched by the Government in 2016, which sought to
build on earlier programmes of bilingual education for ethnic minority children. The
Special Rapporteur noted that this plan of action should be encouraged and supported with
adequate funding.
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