The Chair of the fifth session of the Forum on Minority Issues, Ms. Soyata Maiga, first reminded all participants that the Forum provides a unique venue for dialogue, exchange of experiences and constructive cooperation in bolstering minority rights and promoting implementation of the Declaration. She underlined that the Forum has now established itself as a unique opportunity for all stakeholders to share experiences and promote good practices with regard to the rights of persons belonging to minorities. Stressing that the Declaration’s anniversary offered an opportunity to celebrate the positive results since its adoption, she encouraged all regional inter-governmental human rights mechanisms to multiply their efforts with a view to ensure heightened attention to minority issues, including through awareness-raising campaigns, promotion of the Declaration and mainstreaming of minority issues in their activities and programmes. The Chair also explained the format of the discussions and underlined that all interventions should be focused on the draft recommendations and the identification of challenges and problems facing minorities and States, good practices and the consideration of opportunities, initiatives and solutions. She encouraged all participants to show respect for others’ views while inviting them to exercise decorum. She further underlined that, given that the principal nature of the Forum is to be a platform for dialogue, the organisers would not seek to negotiate or adopt the final content of the recommendations, rather all contributions would be collected and considered in details and the final thematic recommendations presented to the Human Rights Council at its 22nd Regular Session in March 2013. Item II. The Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities: 20 years on Under this agenda item, minority rights experts, including those involved in drafting the Declaration, reflected upon this key document and how it has lived up to the expectations since its adoption. Issues for consideration included the global situation of minorities, progress made, remaining and new challenges and the role of the Declaration in addressing them. Mr Patrick Thornberry, member of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD), presented on “Some controversies in the Drafting of the Declaration: A Personal Recollection”. He recalled the background to the Declaration, commented on the drafting process, reflected on where the Declaration stands twenty years on and illustrated how concepts in the Declaration have been utilised by CERD under the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Mr Asbjorn Eide, former Chairman of the United Nations Working Group on Minorities, presented on “The Declaration and its Commentary”. He gave a brief overview of the origin, context and process underlying the adoption of the Declaration followed by a few words on the points highlighted in the Commentary thereto. He underlined that, while the Declaration uses the expression “rights of persons belonging to minorities”, the Commentary emphasised that many of these rights can only be enjoyed if they are exercised in community with other persons belonging to the same minority. He further underlined that a closer look at the text demonstrated that the duties of States set out in the Declaration are at least in part formulated as duties towards minorities as 4