A/HRC/49/46
of the world examine more closely the prevention of conflicts through the protection of the
human rights of minorities and make recommendations to this effect which will then be
presented to the UN Human Rights Council during the Special Rapporteur’s annual report in
March 2022.
38.
On 6 December 2021, the Special Rapporteur on minority issues Dr Fernand de
Varennes, made the opening speech at the international webinar co-organised by HL-Senteret
Minority Network at the Norwegian Centre for Holocaust and Minority Studies and the
Norwegian Academy of International Law as part of the Inclusive Citizenship and Human
Rights Programme. The online event was broadcast from Oslo and focused on inclusiveness
and the need to focus on participation and representation of minorities. Dr de Varennes
warned against the increasing global inequalities, of minorities being disproportionally left
behind, and how numerous international players, including the United Nations, were
insufficiently acknowledging these phenomena.
39.
On 7 December 2021, the Special Rapporteur on minority issues Dr Fernand de
Varennes, opened online the Interfaith Short Film Festival called: Living Together from Asia,
the Middle East and Northern Africa. The event was organised by the Inclusive Citizenships
Project at HL-senteret of the Norwegian Centre for Holocaust and Minority Studies and many
partners in those regions.
40.
On 8 December 2021, the Special Rapporteur on minority issues Dr Fernand de
Varennes, was a panellist on the theme “Fighting disinformation on the Internet beyond
censuring: a study on public officials responsibility” organised by the Centro de Estudios en
Libertad de Expresión y Acceso a la Información (CELE) at the University of Palermo in
Argentina. This event was part of the 2021 Internet Governance Forum (IGF), a forum for
multi-stakeholder policy dialogue as set out in paragraphs 72 to 78 of the Tunis Agenda of
the World Summit on the Information Society'. Dr de Varennes called for a global legal
instrument to tackle the global threat of hate speech, incitement to violence, discrimination
and genocide, and the destructive consequences of social media largely being carried out with
almost total impunity for most social media platform owners, particularly to protect the most
vulnerable groups such indigenous peoples, minorities, women and children, whilst ensuring
that the requirements of international human rights such as freedom of expression are detailed
and well protected.
41.
On 15 December 2021, the Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Dr Fernand de
Varennes, participated online as a panellist in a high-level panel discussion on “Turning
promises into action, hopes into reality: supporting religious or belief minorities such as
Christians” organised by the Hungarian Permanent Mission at the United Nations in New
York. He spoke more broadly of a number of global phenomena which has seen an increase
in religious or belief – and other minorities – being overwhelmingly the targets of hate speech
in social media, and of making overwhelmingly most of the growing number of stateless in
the world, being disproportionally the targets of increasing levels of hate crimes. Despite the
evidence of regression in the protection of the human rights of minorities, there remains still
too much ignorance or even denial of these global processes which largely remain
unaddressed and inefficiently tackled by the international community.
42.
On 22 December 2021 the Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Dr Fernand de
Varennes, was the main briefer at a UN Security Council Arria-formula meeting in New York
on the situation of national minorities and the glorification of Nazism in the Baltic and Black
Sea regions. He focussed on the most vulnerable communities (such as the Roma) or the
largest in the regions (Hungarian, Polish, and Russian), as well as the major areas of concern
such as statelessness, education, hate speech and hate crimes, as well as the rise of extreme
right-wing violence and prominence.
43.
On 23 December 2021 the Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Dr Fernand de
Varennes, addressed as a keynote international expert a roundtable on the proposed draft
legislation on the state language of the Kyrgyz Republic. Organised by the National
Commission on State Language and Language Policy, the UN Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights in Kyrgyzstan and the Office of the OSCE High
Commissioner on National Minorities, the Special Rapporteur referred to the
recommendations in relation to the language rights of minorities which were made in his
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