A/75/211 (d) Cantonese speakers in China, Malaysia and Singapore can objectively be considered to be members of linguistic minorities, since their language is orally distinct, even unintelligible, from official Chinese (Mandarin), regardless of their official description or status as a “dialect”; (e) IsiZulu is a minority language, even though it is the largest language group in South Africa (spoken by about 25 per cent of the entire population). A migrant worker from Zimbabwe, even one who has only been a resident of South Africa for a short period of residence and lacks citizenship, can belong to the isiZulu linguistic minority if she or he is an isiZulu speaker; (f) Speakers of languages such as Sami in Sweden, Tamasheq in Mali and Inuktitut in Canada can be numerically linguistic minorities without affecting their position as also indigenous peoples. 3. Religious or belief minorities 51. United Nations instruments tend to refer to “religious minorities”. This is in a sense misleading, as a significant number of submissions pointed out, since the concept of “religion” is actually used as a convenient shorthand for a much wider category, that of religion or belief. The Human Rights Committee, other independent United Nations experts, such as the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, and many others accept that “religion” cannot be interpreted in a narrow sense: Article 18 protects theistic, non-theistic and atheistic beliefs, as well as the right not to profess any religion or belief. The terms “belief” and “religion” are to be broadly construed. Article 18 is not limited in its application to traditional religions or to religions and beliefs with institutional characteristics or practices analogous to those of traditional religions. 18 52. There is widespread agreement in submissions that “religion” must be understood to include “other beliefs”. This is also the view in United Nations instruments and institutions, including at the Forum on Minority Issues, which referred to the category of “religious minorities” as being inclusive of a broad range of “religious or belief communities”, including “non-believers, atheists, or agnostics”. 19 53. The Special Rapporteur agrees that, although the term “religious minority” is theoretically inclusive of those of no religious belief, discussions on religious minorities frequently result in non-religious or non-theistic minorities being overlooked. Persons who are non-believers in a religious faith, such as agnostics, humanists and atheists, would not necessarily identify themselves as members of a “religious” minority. A more inclusive and accurate wording, which would fully encapsulate the scope of this category, would be to refer to “religious or belief minorities”. The Special Rapporteur has concluded that, henceforth, activities and documents under the mandate and United Nations agencies should, whenever possible, use the expression “religious or belief minorities” to more properly encapsulate the scope of minorities this category refers to. 54. There was also near unanimity in the submissions that the existence of a religious or belief minority was an objective determination not premised on any form of official recognition or status and that, as the Special Rapporteur submits in his 2019 report to the General Assembly, a person can freely belong to a religious minori ty without any requirement of citizenship, residence, official recognition or any other status. 20 It was however pointed out that, for many religious or belief minorities, State __________________ 18 19 20 14/20 See CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.4, para. 2. See A/HRC/25/66, para. 8. See A/74/160, para. 53. 20-09835