6th session of the Forum on Minority Issues IV. Promotion and protection of the identity of religious minorities Prof Mr Heiner Bielefeldt, presenting on “The rights of religious minorities” Thank you very much, madam chairperson, Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished delegates, now that I have listed to many narratives being told here. I have changed my manuscript and I will speak in a less academic fashion that I thought I would. But first of all, I would like to extend my gratitude to Rita Izsák-Ndiaye in particular for having invited me to be part of this forum, I am happy to be here. And Rita and I became (…) we share a history in corporations, in particular this year she has produced a report on religious minorities presented in the GA only recently. And I also have reported on religious minorities, so that is an indication of corporation, a corporation which is urgently needed. I mean and that is something that I think we all have realised also when listening to the various stories told here in the last hours. And of course, I cannot respond to all these stories, but I mean, obviously minorities, religious minorities and all its members suffer of prosecution, not only by state agencies, but also by non-state actors, harassment, stigmatisation, co-opting mechanism, paranoia, indoctrination of children, discrimination, and let me, at least, mention a dimension which was only briefly touched upon intersectional discrimination also, particularly affecting women from religious minorities. I mean just to reflect about them, without going to any details. Obviously, the most important work is always made on the ground, I mean we have to have a multi-level approach and the UN has to play a role in coordinating efforts, in setting standards, in establishing the best practices, in helping to build a sufficient infrastructure in the ground. So, it must be a multi-level approach, but the important work, all the important significant changes, are always enacted by actors working on the ground, in the situations. And let me now point to maybe four aspects, briefly, that I consider to be particularly important: First of all, in order to protect the rights of religious minorities and its members, what we need is an open inclusive infrastructure, of public institution, an open inclusive constitutional framework, which implies, among other things, a disentanglement of state authority and religion. This disentanglement, I personally do not use a language of separation often because it sounds negative. The positive porpoise is to create space, I mean, only by disentangling religion and state authorities you can create space, public space, provided by public institutions, operated in the service of everyone, public space that allows religious diversity to unfold freely, in particular, free of discrimination, free from fear. So, this is very important. Public institutions operating in the service of everyone, disentanglement, and religious communities. If the state utilises religion for purposes of narrow identity politics, I mean the obvious victims are minorities. But we should not forget, in the long run, this will also damage majority religions, this will undermine their credibility, its persuasiveness, its spiritual values, its effectiveness, its possibility. So, working on behalf of minorities is also, in behalf of majorities. There we have to make a connection, which I found very important.