A/HRC/28/64 expressing concern over Pakistani asylum seekers in Sri Lanka being detained and forcefully deported to Pakistan without adequate assessment of their asylum claims; 5 December, regarding two grand jury decisions in the United States not to bring to trial the cases of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, African-Americans killed by police. D. Update on the Forum on Minority Issues 23. The Special Rapporteur was requested, in resolution 25/5, to guide the work of the Forum on Minority Issues, prepare its annual meetings and report on its recommendations to the Human Rights Council. The seventh annual session of the Forum was held in Geneva, on 25 and 26 November 2014, with a thematic focus on preventing and addressing violence and atrocity crimes against minorities. 24. Over 500 delegates participated, representing Member States from all regions, United Nations mechanisms, treaty bodies and specialized agencies, intergovernmental organizations, regional organizations, national human rights institutions and NGOs and including academics and experts on minority issues. Issues addressed included understanding the root causes of violence; improving prevention of violence and atrocity crimes; essential measures for resolution, protection and security once violence has broken out; and avoiding renewed violence through peace-building and managing diversity. Interventions identified challenges involving minorities as well as solutions and effective practices for preventing and addressing violence. Three side events were organized in the margins of the Forum on related themes. Recommendations from the Forum will be presented to the Council at its twenty-eighth session. III. Hate speech and incitement to hatred against minorities in the media A. Introduction 25. The Special Rapporteur is alarmed by the high number of complaints reaching her about hateful messages and incitement to hatred that have fuelled tensions and often led to hate crimes. In her 2014 report to the General Assembly (A/69/266), she focused on violence and atrocity crimes against minorities and listed cases of attacks against minority groups that she had brought to the attention of Member States concerned, either through communications (letters of allegation or urgent action letters) or public press releases. She believes that more should be done to monitor and react, in a timely manner, to hate speech and incitement to hatred and violence to prevent tensions and violence which damage the entire social fabric, unity and stability of societies. Tolerance and inaction reinforce the subordination of targeted minorities, making them more vulnerable to attacks, but also influencing majority populations and potentially making them more indifferent to the various manifestations of such hatred. 26. Although not all hateful messages result in actual hate crimes, hate crimes rarely occur without prior stigmatization and dehumanization of targeted groups and incitement to hate incidents fuelled by religious or racial bias. Few countries collect data on hate crimes, their causes and victims that would enable policy-makers to better protect population groups at risk. 27. In the United States, in 2013, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Uniform Crime Reporting Program, recorded almost 6,000 hate crimes incidents: 48.5 per cent were racially motivated (66 per cent anti-Black, 21 per cent anti-White, 5 per cent anti-Asian, 6

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