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disappointing findings, he does wish to shed light on the programmatic activities
carried out by the United Nations that advance the implementation of article 9 of the
Declaration.
2.
Activities of the principal organs of the United Nations
45. Unsurprisingly, the General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council
deal with minority issues regularly. The Economic and Social Council dealt with
minority issues largely through the work of one of its subsidiary bodies, the
Subcommission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, which
was dissolved in 2006. The General Assembly addresses minority issues largely
through the Human Rights Council, which was established as a subsidiary organ of
the Assembly in 2006, and specifically as a consequence of the work of the Special
Rapporteur on minority issues or the work of the Forum on Minority Issues, which
was established in 2007. Although the activities of the aforementioned entities in
relation to minority issues are naturally important in the context of the United
Nations, the Special Rapporteur does not consider them as falling within the scope of
the present report, because analysing those activities would become self-referential
and, therefore, not very useful.
46. More worthy of analysis are the activities linked to minorities of the Security
Council. Since 1948, the Security Council has adopted 78 resolutions, including 2 in
2024, that deal with minority issues. 31 Of those resolutions, three are thematic, 32
while the others concern 15 countries. 33 It is therefore clear that, in the context of the
United Nations, minorities are both a human rights issue and a security issue. The
Secretary General, in his address to the General Assembly on 21 September 2022 (see
para. 29), said that “[the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National
or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities] enshrined three core truths: First, that
minority rights are human rights. Second, that the protection of minorities is integral
to the mission of the United Nations. Third, that the promotion of those rights is vital
to advancing political and social stability and preventing conflict within and between
countries.” 34 The security dimension of minority issues needs to be acknowledged and
acted upon.
3.
Activities of United Nations entities, funds, programmes, specialized agencies and
related organizations
47. As indicated in the section on methodology, the Special Rapporteur reached out
to a long list of relevant United Nations entities. Out of 46 United Nations entities
contacted, 33 submitted replies 35 in which they presented information about their
dedicated departments, programmes and initiatives that directly or indirectly address
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31
32
33
34
35
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Security Council resolutions 2732 (2024) on Iraq and 2763 (2024) on Afghanistan.
Security Council resolutions 2331 (2016) and 2388 (2017) on human trafficking, and resolution
2611 (2021) on counter-terrorism.
Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burundi, Central African Republic, Croatia, East Timor,
India, Indonesia, Iraq, Libya, Myanmar, Pakistan, Somalia, South Africa and Southern Rhodesia
(Zimbabwe).
See footnote 5 above.
Department of Global Communications, Department of Peace Operations, Development
Coordination Office, ESCAP, FAO, IFAD, ILO, IOM, ITC, ITU, Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs, Office of Counter-Terrorism, Office of the Special Representative of the
Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Office of the Special Representative of the
Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Office of the Special Representative of the
Secretary-General on Violence against Children, OHCHR, Peacebuilding Support Office, UNDP,
UNEP, UNESCO, UNFPA, UN-Habitat, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNIDO, United Nations Office for
Disaster Risk Reduction, UNOPS, United Nations Youth Office, UN-Women, WFP, WHO, WIPO
and World Bank.
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