Ms. Carla Amina Baghajati, from the Official Islamic Religious Authority of Austria presented on “Raising awareness for minority rights—How to pave the way from a regulatory framework to broad public support (with special attention to the situation of Muslims in Austria/Europe)” first indicating that she had failed to come across a quotation from the Declaration in all of the public debates on the challenges faced by Muslims in Europe. According to her, challenges include that Europe has no tradition of religious pluralism, that minority rights are often linked with carrying the citizenship, that anti-religious attitudes gain more influence in European discourses and that anti-discrimination laws lack moral authority in broader public. She emphasised however that these challenges should help in showing the Declaration’s visionary potential and opportunities for action. Examples of future actions to tackle those, and based on the implementation of the Declaration, would include to be reflecting the status of religious minorities in national law, to recognise freedom of religion as a cornerstone of human rights and for anti-discrimination laws to be regarded as a human rights issue and a powerful instrument to foster social cohesion. Mr Jafar Al-Shayeb, a writer and advocate from Saudi Arabia, presented on “Challenges facing implementation of the Declaration: Regional Perspectives from the Middle East”. He first deplored that many States in the region still failed to recognise the existence of minorities and that very little progress had been made in implementing the Declaration on the official and popular fronts. He pointed out that the challenges could be divided into four categories i.e. political, such as absence of institutionalised state agencies dealing with minority issues, legal, such as the lack of integration of international treaties into domestic laws, cultural, including the very little interchange between different social groups, especially minorities, and finally challenges with regards to local organisations and communities. He concluded with a few examples of good practices, including the creation by young people of a Facebook page to track all hatred speeches and acts against minorities. Discussion The following issues were raised during the first segment of the discussion under Item V: - The need for more preventive measures and for greater accountability in case of violations of minority rights; - The importance of data gathering to assess the impact of projects and policies targeting minorities, reveal their socio-economic situation with a view to design sound policies and develop sustainable interventions; - The situation of religious minorities and the discrimination that they face in certain States; - The importance of promoting an effective inter-religious dialogue; - The low level of participation of some minority groups in certain States and the obstacles that they might face in this regard; - The importance of protecting the culture and cultural heritage of minority groups, including by ensuring a harmonious relationship between communities and the environment in the design and implementation of sustainable development projects; - The difficulties in implementing the Declaration in view of its non-binding nature and the need for sharing of best practices in jurisprudence that demonstrate how the Declaration has been referred to and implemented in practical terms; 13