mechanisms of the Council and asked cooperation from all stakeholders to have a very smooth and constructive discussions for the benefit all stakeholders of the Human Rights Council. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr. Volker Türk, stressed the importance of the diversity in enriching societies and the individual by bringing together different experiences and providing new perspectives. He highlighted that thirty years ago, in a context of ethnic tensions and nationalistic tendencies of an extremist nature, Member States adopted the Declaration and committed to implementing measures for the effective protection of the human rights of persons that belong to national, ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities. He expressed concern on how minority protection issues can be instrumentalized not for purposes of minority protection but to wage conflict or war. He also highlighted a couple of concerns. Firstly, the significant rise in hate speech that is directed at minorities in the social media, particularly against human rights defenders and women who are subjected to online and offline harassment and intimidation. Secondly, serious violations of minority rights continue to be at the heart of many violent conflicts and the increase in tensions around the world with ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic differences being used for political gain. Thirdly, the concerns around statelessness and nationality issues and the interconnection with minority rights issues and how discrimination based on minority status is often a leading cause of statelessness, knowing that more than 75% of the world's known stateless populations are members of minority groups. Finally, he stressed that the 30th Anniversary of the Declaration provides an important opportunity to recall the fundamentals of precisely these issues and to build new momentum while considering that human rights provide not only a guide, but also an important blueprint for everyone. The OSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities, H.E. Mr. Kairat Abdrakhmanov, stressed the importance of the Declaration as the only global instrument designated for and dedicated to the protection of minority rights, building upon and reinforcing the rights enshrined in the United Nations human rights framework to protect and promote the existence, equality, identity and effective participation of national or ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities. He highlighted that, as the Declaration, his mandate was also established thirty years ago to provide early warning and early option to prevent conflicts resulting from tensions involving national minority issues. Throughout the years, six high commissioners identified recurrent issues that either cause or are linked to tensions involving National Minorities. He emphasized that if policy areas were addressed accurately, they could mitigate the risk of conflicts and serve as an effective conflict prevention strategy and in the mindsets of thematic recommendations and guidelines issued by OSCE since 1996, which are complimentary to the provisions of the UN minority declaration and encourage States to create the right conditions for everyone to feel included and empowered. He also mentioned that in September this year, in Slovenia, OSCE commemorated the 10th anniversary of the guidelines on integration of diverse societies and the key takeaway from this event was that the whole society benefits from integration-based policies.