A/HRC/46/44 To facilitate effective responses that address the human rights impacts of COVID-19, OHCHR has developed a framework of 10 human rights indicators – building on the data frameworks of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Global Humanitarian Response Plan for COVID-19 – to enable clarity in identifying especially hard-hit and vulnerable groups, including minorities, and to assist the implementation of effective policies to avert these harms. These key indicators have been appended to the framework document that guides all United Nations socioeconomic responses to COVID-19.6 Through its “surge initiative” and particularly within the context of the socioeconomic crisis generated by the pandemic, OHCHR has stepped up engagement to combat economic and other inequalities, contributing rights-based analysis and solutions with a spotlight on those at risk of being left behind, including minorities. For example in Peru, OHCHR is undertaking a study on the impact of COVID-19 and related measures on Afro-Peruvians in Lambayeque and Piura, with a specific focus on their right to health, decent work and social protection. This project and its findings will be key in enabling the required follow-up to the recent 2020 visit of the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent, which declared that the pervasiveness of structural discrimination faced by Afro-Peruvians was reflected in the disparities in education, employment, housing, food, health, and adequate standard of living. These disparities have been seriously exacerbated as a result of the pandemic. In regard to Kyrgyzstan, the OHCHR Regional Office for Central Asia completed research during 2020 on non-discrimination and equality, which included both an analysis of the legal framework and a survey of practitioners, among others, lawyers and judges. This research is aimed at providing data on inequality in Kyrgyzstan and the extent to which existing mechanisms could be used to combat discrimination. B. Early warning mechanisms and protection of the existence of minorities OHCHR continued to assist national authorities and other relevant actors in taking steps to prevent or mitigate human rights violations against persons belonging to minorities, including by supporting early warning mechanisms, risk assessments and rapid response capacities. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, OHCHR has developed an internal information management system to gather, organize, process and deliver timely information and analysis on COVID-19, including to design OHCHR interventions. At the field level, human rights information is shaping strategic decisions by governments and other national counterparts and the United Nations country teams, to mitigate the human rights impacts of COVID-19, including with regard to minority issues. In February 2020, OHCHR updated the Human Rights Council on the progress made by Sri Lanka in implementing Council resolution 30/1 on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in the country. The High Commissioner expressed concern over the increased use of hate speech, and of security and policy measures, which appeared to be applied in a discriminatory manner and disproportionately directed against minorities, both Tamil and Muslim.7 In March, the High Commissioner presented a report to the Human Rights Council on the root causes of violations and abuses against Rohingya and other minorities in Myanmar.8 In September, she presented another report 9 in which she noted that minority groups continued to be subjected to violations and abuses, particularly in the context of armed conflicts in Rakhine and Chin States. In May, the High Commissioner expressed serious concern about the killing of five men by opponents of an inter-caste relationship in Nepal, as well as about several other 6 7 8 9 See https://unsdg.un.org/sites/default/files/2020-04/UN-framework-for-the-immediate-socioeconomic-response-to-COVID-19.pdf. See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25624&LangID=E. A/HRC/43/18. A/HRC/45/5. 3