A/HRC/52/27 rights for minorities.18 It is perhaps no coincidence that, until late in 2022, the civil society organization that was denied consultative status with the Economic and Social Council for the longest period – 14 years – was the International Dalit Solidarity Network, a minority non-governmental organization. 44. Contributions in response to the call for submissions for the present thematic report received by the Special Rapporteur and the discussions and views expressed in regional forums on minority issues in 2022 seem to confirm the concerns of many minorities that, in the absence of effective measures for their protection, some States are able to oppose further progress on minority issues at the United Nations. The former High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, stepped down without seeking to extend her term for a second mandate when it ended in late August 2022; some felt because of how minority issues were being dealt with. On the one hand, following her visit to the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, the High Commissioner, and the statement she issued at the end of the visit, were criticized by human rights activists for failing to condemn more forcefully the incarceration of perhaps one million persons belonging mainly to the region’s Uighur and Muslim minorities and other grave allegations of human rights violations. Also a target of criticism was the long delay in releasing her office’s more general assessment of the human rights situation in the region19 – a report that the High Commissioner only released minutes before stepping down. On the other hand, comments received by the Special Rapporteur suggested that the refusal to release the report by OHCHR on Xinjiang, which was much more critical and detailed than the statement, until minutes before the High Commissioner stepped down was clear evidence of how a powerful State could silence even United Nations institutions, in the absence of more robust measures for the protection of minorities. 45. Some 30 years after the adoption of the Declaration and 75 years after the General Assembly affirmed in a resolution that the United Nations could not remain indifferent to the fate of minorities and needed to take effective measures for their protection, the Organization seems to remain indifferent and the effective measures have never materialized: many of the United Nations institutions seem indifferent to minority issues, with minorities remaining largely “left behind” at the Organization when one considers the various initiatives and measures in place institutionally: no treaty, no permanent forum,20 no voluntary fund,21 no international decade or year, no mainstreaming of their human rights, no or little reference to them when they are the most affected or marginalized, and so on. 46. The phrase “nature abhors a vacuum” might best describe the current situation. While the human rights architecture can still respond – if somewhat timidly – some States appear resistant to any focus on minorities. The reasons for such sensitivity may be to avoid scrutiny of their own treatment of minorities, or because they view minority concerns as purely internal and sensitive matters, or even because they still hold the view that minorities are a problem that should not be an issue of attention outside of a State’s own borders. Whatever the reasons, the vacuum created at the United Nations by not focusing more on this group and adopting further measures for the effective protection of their rights, as the Organization has been doing for other marginalized groups, allows States to “fill in” the gap and to more easily ignore or even instrumentalize minority issues. 47. As minorities have no platform such as a permanent forum – and only the rather meagre two-day Forum on Minority Issues, held in Geneva once a year, any specific treaty mechanisms or financial support through a voluntary fund, or other institutional structures, as do other marginalized groups, they are largely invisible and inaudible at the United Nations. Indeed, even the meagre measures in place seem “second class” when compared 18 19 20 21 John Packer and Erik Friberg, “Genocide and minorities: preventing the preventable” (London, Minority Rights Group International, 2004), p. 1: “[Some States] believe that implementing the rights of persons belonging to minorities may fuel conflicts, and that the best way to maintain unity is to suppress minority identities, limit their participation and hope their voices will fade as they are absorbed or overwhelmed by the majority.” See https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/countries/2022-08-31/22-08-31-finalassesment.pdf. A/77/246, para. 61. Ibid., para. 54. 11