A/74/160 State means it is not the majority. Objectively, that means that an ethnic, religious or linguistic group makes up less than half the population of a country. 20 53. These jurisprudential views, the Committee’s own general comment and the wording of article 27, interpreted according to the rules of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, in line with the history of the discussions, descriptions and definitions over decades, do provide the necessary support for arriving at a clear working definition. Based on all of the above, the Special Rapporteur will, as part of this mandate in promoting the full and effective realization of the human rights of minorities, also use and promote the following concept of a minority, both within the United Nations and in carrying out his activities: An ethnic, religious or linguistic minority is any group of persons which constitutes less than half of the population in the entire territory of a State whose members share common characteristics of culture, religion or language, or a combination of any of these. A person can freely belong to an ethnic, religious or linguistic minority without any requirement of citizenship, residence, official recognition or any other status. IV. Conclusions and recommendations 54. In the present report, the Special Rapporteur highlighted some developments connected to his thematic priorities, as well as some of the challenges that need to be addressed in relation to those priorities, including the disturbing emergence of a potential humanitarian crisis and destabilizing situation, with the risk of millions of individuals in India being deemed to be “foreigners” and therefore non-citizens who may as a result become stateless. 55. He has also pointed out some important initiatives, such as a regional forum approach to thematic priorities as part of his mandate to promote the implementation of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, as well as to examine ways and means of overcoming existing obstacles to the full and effective realization of the rights of persons belonging to minorities. 56. The Special Rapporteur has proposed a conceptual framing to clarify what constitutes a minority based on the history and formulation of the main provisions of the United Nations on minorities in order to avoid the inconsistencies, uncertainties and even contradictions that currently exist within and between United Nations entities, as well as with many States Members of the United Nations. Leaving in place a situation where there is no common understanding as to who is a minority is not an option, since it is potentially harmful to minorities by contributing to doubts as to who can claim protective rights in relation to their culture, religion or language. This has led to a rather anarchic situation, as one can see from some of the responses by United Nations entities, which have adopted widely diverging, inconsistent and at times even contradictory and restrictive stances as to who is considered to be a minority. 21 __________________ 20 21 18/19 Ibid.: “A group may constitute a majority in a province but still be a minority in a State and thus be entitled to the benefits of article 27. English speaking citizens of Canada cannot be considered a linguistic minority.” Supplementary information to the present report contains a selection of examples of such divergence, even within United Nations system entities, as to the concept of a minority within the institutions, and is available at: https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Minorities/SR/A74160_UN_Responses.docx. 19-11967