A/HRC/49/46 of state policies and legislation which tend, again, to disproportionally discriminate against and target minorities. 19. On 12 and 13 October 2021, the Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Dr Fernand de Varennes, hosted the European and Central Asia Regional Forum on conflict prevention and the protection of the rights of minorities, the last of four regional forums held during the year on this theme. More than 150 participants and experts were in the event including 14 state representatives (Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Moldova, North Macedonia, Romania, Switzerland, and the Ukraine). The two-day event resulted in 56 recommendations which will be considered at the UN Forum on Minority Issues to be held on 2 and 3 December 2021 and in the Special Rapporteur’s annual report to the Human Rights Council in March 2022. Total number of participants that attended all 4 regional forums in 2021 was around 700. Among other notable results is the accessibility provided in holding the regional forums with interpretation in nine different languages, Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, Romani, Russian, Spanish, as well as Mexican Sign Language and International Sign Language. 20. On 13 October 2021, the Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Dr Fernand de Varennes, addressed a side-event during the European and Central Asia Regional Forum on conflict prevention and the protection of the rights of minorities. Organised by former and current UN Minority Fellows, the side-event entitled ‘Ensuring Minority Rights in Europe and Central Asia: Challenges and Opportunities’, it included a tribute to Alexandr Kuzmin from Latvia, who passed away suddenly last month. 21. On 19 October 2021, the Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Dr Fernand de Varennes, gave a keynote speech at a high-level conference on national minority identities in diverse societies: European perspectives at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France. He outlined how the protection of minority rights and identities appear to have regressed despite the progress made in the development of various instrument in Europe and internationally in the 1990s. This could in part be explained by the lack of strong implementation mechanisms, but also because of an increasingly hostile and intolerant environment towards minorities in many parts of the world. 22. On 21 October 2021, the Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Dr Fernand de Varennes, presented his annual thematic report at the UN General Assembly in New York. He warned of growing global inequalities, and of minorities and indigenous peoples being left increasingly behind, leading to increasing instability and even violence in parts of the world. Focussing on the SDGs, economic development and minorities, he called for a greater focus by international institutions and states on the most marginalized communities, such as minorities, indigenous peoples and women. He pointed out that the SDGs failed to prioritize ‘people over development’, with little or no attention in SDG measures and indicators to how minorities are treated or impacted in social and economic development terms. 23. On 21 October 2021, the Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Dr Fernand de Varennes, participated in the Virtual Roundtable on Equality and Non-Discrimination in Nationality Matters to End Statelessness organised by the UNHCR and the OHCHR, outlining some of the causes of the increasing numbers of stateless who are from minority communities in a handful of countries, and why a human rights approach to statelessness needs to be the focus in order to avoid the complete failure of the global campaign to eradicate statelessness by 2024. 24. On 22 October 2021, the Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Dr Fernand de Varennes, was keynote speaker at a high-level side event for the 76th session of the UN General Assembly co-organised by his mandate, the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, and the Permanent Mission of Austria to the United Nations in New York. The side-event dealt with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Economic Participation of Minorities” and the UN Special Rapporteur’s thematic report on the SDGs, and the challenges for effective socio-economic inclusion in the context of SDGs, as well as policy measures that could prevent the escalation of social and inter-ethnic tensions. 25. On 25 October 2021, the UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Dr Fernand de Varennes, gave an online lecture to students in the Institut d'études politiques de Paris (also known as Sciences Po) to masters level human rights students in Paris, France, on his work 21