A/80/186 women 16 and youth 17 are included and receive special attention. This “expunging” of minorities led the previous mandate holder to conclude that, “[i]n short, minorities are the last major group at the United Nations with no specific mechanism or initiative to strengthen the discussion and protection of their human rights […] ”. 18 That conclusion needs to be qualified, because the non-inclusion of minorities in those documents is the result of intergovernmental decisions, whereas there are some initiatives within the United Nations that are specifically aimed at minorities (see paras. 58–62). 32. Accordingly, as the Secretary-General said at the high-level event to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, it is high time that Member States step up to protect minorities and make the Declaration a reality for minorities everywhere. 19 The United Nations and its Member States, however, have never acknowledged and recognized the need for a proper space for minority issues, despite decades of work in the Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, the inclu sion in article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of a provision on minority rights, the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious or Linguistic Minorities in 1992, the crea tion by the Commission on Human Rights of the mandate of Special Rapporteur on minority issues in 2006 (Commission on Human Rights resolution 2005/79) and the creation by the Human Rights Council of the Forum on Minority Issues in 2007. 33. Given that the entire multilateral system is under reconstruction, the Special Rapporteur believes that the emerging new system presents an opportunity to rethink, reframe and revitalize a proper approach to minority issues within the framework of a transformed United Nations. This task is naturally for sovereign Member States, rather than institutions or a mandate created by those States. The Special Rapporteur believes that it is now an appropriate time to make recommendations on the way to ensure that minority issues will be better addressed in the future. As noted in paragraph 29, the Secretary-General calls on States Members, not United Nations staff or mandate holders, to live up to the commitments that they made. In that connection, the Special Rapporteur wishes to remind States that, in article 1 of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious or Linguistic Minorities, they made a commitment to “protect the existence and the national or ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic identity of minorities” and to “encourage conditions for the promotion of that identity ”. Although it is true that this commitment relates directly to “minorities within their respective territories”, failing to recognize the existence and identity of minorities in an international protection regime does negatively affect minorities within their respective territories. 34. In the context of a major shift in the multilateral system, the highest degree of recognition for minorities in the United Nations architecture would come through the adoption of a framework treaty 20 for the protection of minorities. The previous mandate holder, after holding consultations with civil society organizations and academics, included a proposed draft treaty in the annex to his 2023 report to the __________________ 16 17 18 19 20 8/21 Ibid., preamble, and paras. 3, 20, 24, 35, 37 and 51, and Goals 1.2, 1.4, 2.2, 2.3, 4.3, 4.6, 5, 6.2, 8.5, 8.8, 11.2, 11.7 and 13b. Ibid., paras. 14, 23, 25 and 27, and Goals 4.4, 4.6, 8.6, 8.b and 13.b. A/HRC/52/27 para. 42. See footnote 5 above. A framework treaty would be more suitable than a regular treaty because, as the General Assembly stated in its resolution 217 C (III) with regard to minorities, “it is difficult to adopt a uniform solution of this complex and delicate question, which has special aspects in each State in which it arises”. A framework treaty would allow general principles to be established for all parties and then adapted to the specificities of national situations. 25-11708