11 Chapter UN STANDARDS AND MECHANISMS The UN has adopted several instruments and mechanisms on minority rights. It is important to recall that members of minorities can have multiple identities and may also use standards and mechanisms created for those identities, for example, as women, children, indigenous peoples, migrants, refugees, persons with disabilities or non-citizens. 11.1 UN DECLARATION ON THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS BELONGING TO NATIONAL OR ETHNIC, RELIGIOUS AND LINGUISTIC MINORITIES The main international instrument on minorities is the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, proclaimed in 1992 (resolution 47/135) by the UN General Assembly. The Declaration elaborates minimum standards for minority rights based on article 27 of the ICCPR. Like other UN declarations, it is not legally binding. However, it is a strong political commitment by States that was adopted by consensus in the UN General Assembly. The Declaration grants persons belonging to minorities: Protection, by States, of their existence and their national or ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic identity (article 1); The right to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise their own religion and to use their own language in private and in public (article 2.1); The right to participate in cultural, religious, social, economic and public life (article 2.2); The right to participate in decisions that affect them on the national and regional levels (article 2.3); The right to establish and maintain their own associations (article 2.4); The right to establish and maintain peaceful contacts with other members of their group and with persons belonging to other minorities, both within their own country and across state borders (article 2.5); and The freedom to exercise their rights, individually as well as in community with other members of their group, without discrimination (article 3). Chapter 11: UN Standards and Mechanisms 149