14th Session, 2 and 3 December 2021 For the purposes of this UN Forum, the term “conflict” will refer specifically to violent conflict and may be broadened to include violence targeting minorities and civilians such as genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. Several concerns exist over insufficient focus of international and regional institutions on the links between minority issues and conflict prevention. In his landmark report to the Millennium Assembly of the United Nations in 2000, the Secretary-General stated that in many countries at war, the condition of poverty was coupled with sharp ethnic or religious cleavages, and that almost invariably, the rights of subordinate groups were insufficiently respected, the institutions of government were insufficiently inclusive and the allocation of society’s resources favoured the dominant faction over others. He concluded that the solution was clear: to promote human rights, to protect minority rights and to institute political arrangements in which all groups were represented, and that every group needed to become convinced that the State belonged to all people (A/54/2000, paras. 202-203). The report on minority rights and conflict revention (A/HRC/16/45) presented by the first Independent Expert on minority issues Ms. Gay McDougall in 2010 highlights the need to strengthen a focus on minority rights within the United Nations system of early warning mechanisms. She particularly pointed out that, as a measure to increase stability and improve inclusive governance, States should implement fully the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, through a process of consultation and cooperation with minority groups. 10 years since the reports by the Secretary-General and the first Independent Expert on Minority Issues were presented, wide concerns persist that States and international organizations remain reluctant to act until violence has started, and this is leading to more unstable, violence prone societies. According to some reports, since 2010 the number of major violent conflicts has tripled globally and most of them involve minorities. It is also 2