A/77/246 violence and an end to the mistreatment of minorities and other impediments to human rights for all. 53. The impact of the efforts to respect, protect and promote human rights aft er the first two decades of the twenty-first century were noticeable, though much less so for minorities than for other vulnerable or marginalized groups. As noted earlier, a significant number of the latter (such as refugees, migrants, women, children and persons with disabilities) now have rights elaborated in and protected by legally binding treaties, whereas minorities do not. Most of the same vulnerable or marginalized groups have days, weeks or decades officially marked by the United Nations. Minorities, again, do not. 54. Minorities have also had faced challenges in being heard and seen at the United Nations compared with other groups, and have not been supported by the strong alliances of international and national non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and Governments which exist for children, women, indigenous peoples and people of African descent. The absence of a voluntary fund curtails the financial support available for representatives to attend United Nations meetings, which is available to other groups, and does not allow minorities to build up activists from local NGOs with experience of the United system who regularly attend and are a powerful lobbying group, as occurs for many other groups. 15 It is thus not surprising that minorities have difficulties in being heard and seen. It is perhaps no accident that the longest pending application for recognition of official status of the Economic and Social Council Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations is the International Dalit Solidarity Network, which works on the rights of Dalit minorities. Its application has been deferred for 15 years since it first applied in 2007. 55. The particular vulnerability of other groups which had in the past been overlooked, such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons, is increasingly acknowledged and addressed at the United Nations. This has included the launching in 2013 of the Free & Equal global public information campaign led by OHCHR aimed at promoting equal rights and fair treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons through national campaigns and events with United Nations country teams around the world. In 2017, OHCHR published a document entitled “Standards of conduct for business: tackling di scrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people”, as a set of global standards to support the business community in tackling discrimination. 16 It also launched in 2019 a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons fellowship programme and an electronic course on the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people for United Nations staff, State officials, civ il society organizations, national human rights institutions and other stakeholders. 56. Some of the few positive developments for minorities within the United Nations in more recent years were the development of the OHCHR #Faith4Rights toolkit, which flags the disproportionate targeting of religious and other minorities in hate speech and stresses the importance of protecting their rights 17 and the United Nations network on racial discrimination and protection of minorities, 18 established in 2012 at the initiative of then Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to enhance dialogue and cooperation between relevant United Nations departments, agencies, programmes and funds, the publication in 2013 of the guidance note of the Secretary -General on racial __________________ 15 16 17 18 22-11516 Ramsay and Chapman, “Two campaigns”, p. 186. Available at https://www.unfe.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/UN-Standards-of-Conduct.pdf. See https://www.ohchr.org/en/faith-for-rights/faith4rights-toolkit. Coordinated by OHCHR, the network brings together over 20 departments, agencies, programmes and funds of the United Nations. 15/21