A/74/160 for an eventual new massive humanitarian crisis but also a huge destabilization of the whole region, dwarfing the horrific conditions endured by the Rohingya minority o f Myanmar. 18. On 3 July 2019, the Special Rapporteur presented the main characteristics of the mandate on minority issues, as well as the way the special procedures of the United Nations functioned, at Murdoch University’s human rights law programme in Geneva. On 8 July 2019, he participated in two sessions with participants from around the world in the 2019 global minority rights summer school organized by the Tom Lantos Institute in Budapest. The Special Rapporteur explained the role and activities of the mandate on minority issues and participated in a question and answer session with participants. On the same day, he met with the staff at the European Roma Rights Centre in Budapest to discuss their activities and priorities for the coming year. 19. On 3 July 2019, the Special Rapporteur, along with his colleagues Ahmed Shaheed, Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, and E. Tendayi Achiume, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, issued a press release expressing their alarm and grave concerns in relation to a process involving the registration of citizens in Assam, India (the National Registry of Citizens), and its potential to harm up to 4 million people, most of whom belonged to Muslim and Bengali-speaking minorities, who risked statelessness, deportation or prolonged detention. They also issued warnings on the rise of hate speech directed against those minorities in social media and the potential destabilizing effects of the marginalization and uncertainties facing millions in that and other parts of the country. The Special Rapporteur, along with his colleagues, indicated that the process could exacerbate the xenophobic climate while fuelling religious intolerance and discrimination in India, and could lead to other states in India using similar approaches to deny or remove citizenship for Muslim and other minorities. They also decried having not received any response from the Government of India regarding their concerns, repeated their call for clarification regarding the Registry process and called on the Indian authorities to take resolute action to review the implementation of the Registry and other similar processes in Assam and in other States, and to ensure that such processes did not result in statelessness, discriminatory or arbitrary deprivation or denial of nationality, mass expulsion or arbitrary detention. III. Study on the concept of a minority in the United Nations A. Introduction 20. The present study addresses the need for a working definition of a minority in order: (a) To comply with the Special Rapporteur’s mandate; (b) To clarify the meaning of the concept in order to avoid controversies and contradictions, in and outside the United Nations, which weaken the full and effective realization of the rights of minorities; (c) To clarify the concept according to international law, including the jurisprudence of the Human Rights Committee and the applicable principles under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. 21. As part of his Human Rights Council mandate, the Special Rapporteur must raise awareness and work for the full and effective realization of the rights of persons belonging to minorities. This includes clarifying key concepts which are the very essence of minority issues, such as who can claim to be a minority under the United 8/19 19-11967