A/HRC/34/68 I. Introduction 1. In accordance with Human Rights Council resolutions 6/15 and 19/23, the present document contains the recommendations of the ninth session of the Forum on Minority Issues, held on 24 and 25 November 2016, on the theme, “Minorities in situations of humanitarian crises”. The work of the Forum was guided by the Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Rita Izsák-Ndiaye. The Chair of the session was Mario Yutzis of Argentina. Some 500 participants attended, including representatives of Member States and minority communities, non-governmental organizations, United Nations specialized agencies, regional and intergovernmental bodies and national human rights institutions. 2. The recommendations incorporate and build on existing recommendations made with regard to humanitarian assistance and protection of minority rights. They are intended to assist Governments, the United Nations, civil society and other humanitarian and development actors in addressing trends towards minority populations that are directly targeted and persecuted, deliberately discriminated against or simply forgotten or neglected, at all stages of the humanitarian response cycle. The expression “humanitarian crisis” in these recommendations refers to any situation of hardship and human suffering arising from events that cause physical loss or damage or social and/or economic disruption with which the country or community concerned is unable to fully cope alone. Such situations may be the direct result of a natural disaster (either high impact, such as an earthquake or floods, or slow onset, such as a drought) or a human-made crisis, such as war or civil unrest. 1 3. The recommendations are grounded in the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, 2 which recognizes that comprehensive implementation of minority rights and adequate institutional and policy frameworks can effectively contribute to the elimination of all forms of discrimination against members of minority communities, as well as promote their full equality before the law without discrimination. 4. The recommendations draw on international human rights law, refugee law, international criminal law, international disaster response laws, international humanitarian law and related standards, including regional instruments. Relevant instruments include the nine United Nations human rights treaties; the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol; the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols; the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons; the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness; the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement (1998); the Pact on Security, Stability and Development in the African Great Lakes Region and its Protocol on the Protection and Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons (2006); the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (Kampala Convention) (2009); and the Cartagena Declaration on Refugees (1984). 5. The recommendations also draw on codes of conduct, guides and toolkits, including the Code of Conduct for the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement and NonGovernmental Organizations (NGOs) in Disaster Relief; the Joint Standards Initiative Core Humanitarian Standard on Quality and Accountability; the Sphere Handbook: Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Humanitarian Response; Inter-Agency 1 2 2 See United Nations Children’s Fund definition of “emergency”, in Inter-Agency Standing Committee Working Group XVI meeting, 30 November 1994, “Definition of complex emergencies”, annex I. Available at https://interagencystandingcommittee.org/system/files/legacy_files/WG16_4.pdf. Adopted by the General Assembly in resolution 47/135. Available at www.ohchr.org/Documents/ Publications/GuideMinoritiesDeclarationen.pdf.