A/77/246 conflict prevention through the protection of the rights of minorities. 30 At the United Nations, the Standby Team of Senior Mediation Advisers does not include a professional staff member with comprehensive expertise on minority rights. While the Team has undoubtedly addressed questions of minority rights in its work, there remains no formally designated focal point in this field. Furthermore, there is no mention of the human rights of minorities in its 2022 factsheet or its open call for applications for 2023, despite most conflicts worldwide involving minority grievances or the instrumentalization of minority claims. Even the main document of the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs providing an overview of the approach of the United Nations to conflict prevention and preventive diplomacy makes no reference to minorities. 31 64. It seems that minorities have increasingly been left behind at the United Nations, contrary to the claims made in the Sustainable Development Goals to “leave no one behind” and the recommendations contained in the 2013 Guidance Note of the Secretary-General to mainstream and integrate minority rights in all United Nations pillars and into the work of the United Nations system at the global, regional and country levels. As the Special Rapporteur pointed out in his 2021 report to the General Assembly on minorities, equal participation, social and economic development and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, 32 minorities were not only left out, they were intentionally removed. 65. While the vulnerability and marginalization faced by minorities was often mentioned in initial discussions and a specific goal (10.5) had been suggested during the discussions of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals to “empower and promote the social and economic inclusion of the poor, the marginalized and people in vulnerable situations, including indigenous peoples, women, minorities, migrants, persons with disabilities, older persons, children and youth”, minorities were ultimately to disappear completely in the Goals. As the Special Rapporteur stated in his 2021 report: At this point, the “leaving no one behind” commitment would be turned on its head, with the exact opposite occurring: minorities were to be excluded. While paragraph 23 of the 2030 Agenda specifies vulnerable people who should be empowered by the Agenda, minorities were intentionally removed from the earlier versions of the enumeration of “those left behind” without any explanation, while all the others remained. Thus, started what could arguably be perceived as the discriminatory exclusion of minorities in the strategies for the Sustainable Development Goals. 66. The above points to an intentional removal, rather than mere omission, of minorities in the identification of vulnerable groups at the United Nations. It is also not anecdotal, since the same “removal” has increasingly been occurring in other developments at the United Nations. 67. To name but a few, the Open-ended Inter-governmental Working Group on Transnational Corporations and other Business Enterprises with Respect to Human Rights has, despite pleas to the contrary, again left out minorities in its draft treaty on business and human rights, preferring instead to refer in a number of provisions to “women, children, persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, migrants, refugees, __________________ 30 31 32 18/21 See A/HRC/49/46, para. 73. See Department of Political Affairs, “United Nations Conflict Prevention and Preventive Diplomacy in Action: An overview of the role, approach and tools of the United Nations and its partners in preventing violent conflict”, available at https://dppa.un.org/sites/default/files/booklet_200618_fin_scrn.pdf. A/76/162. 22-11516