A/74/160 3. Towards a treaty provision for minorities and the absence of a “formal” definition 33. It is striking how hardly any reference to minorities was included in the earlier United Nations declarations and treaties: the word is never used in the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or even the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, or in any other treaty until the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in the late 1960s. 8 Conceptually, there appeared to be two main stumbling blocks: who were the mino rities for any future minority provision; and what was the object, or more precisely the substance of the rights that they could claim? After 1947, there was always a process, however, which would eventually see a minority provision included in a treaty ev en if it was initially omitted from the Universal Declaration in 1948. 9 34. The drafting committee of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights made a first proposal for a minority provision that was broadly influenced by the approaches contained in the League of Nations minority treaties (see E/CN.4/21, annex F, art. 36): In States inhabited by a substantial number of persons of a race, language or religion other than those of the majority of the population, persons belonging to such ethnic, linguistic or religious minorities shall have the right as far as compatible with public order to establish and maintain their schools and cultural or religious institutions, and to use their own language in the press, in public assembly and before the courts and other authorities of the State. 35. The drafting committee felt, however, that the “supreme importance” of the provision meant that it had to be more closely examined and decided on by the Commission on Human Rights, and that certain matters needed to be referred to the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities itself (Ibid.). The Sub-Commission eventually nominated four of its members to bring together the debates and proposals of the Sub-Commission, and it arrived at another proposition (see E/CN.4/52 and E/CN.4/52/Corr.1, sect. I, art. 36): In States inhabited by well-defined ethnic, linguistic or religious groups which are clearly distinguished from the rest of the population and which want to be accorded differential treatment, persons belonging to such groups shall have the right as far as is compatible with public order and security to establish and maintain their schools and cultural or religious institutions, and to use their own language and script in the press, in public assembly and before the courts and other authorities of the State, if they so choose. __________________ 8 9 12/19 Contrary to frequent misconceptions, article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is not the only United Nations treaty provision that refers to minorities. Articles 17 (d) and 30 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child also refer to minority children having distinct rights, as does the 1960 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Convention against Discrimination in Education in its section 5 (c). It is noteworthy that the early UNESCO treaty refers only to “national minorities”, a term more commonly used in European contexts, whereas article 27 of the In ternational Covenant on Civil and Political Rights does not refer to national minorities, but rather to linguistic, religious or ethnic minorities. The Convention on the Rights of the Child also does not refer to national minorities and is more closely aligned with article 27 of the Covenant, mentioning “ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities or persons of indigenous origin ”. There was, however, such a degree of insistence from some States (in particular the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Denmark) that the situation of minorities had to be specifically included in an eventual human rights treaty that the resolution on the International Bill of Human Rights for the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights included, in its part C, a commitment for a thorough study on minorities to be conducted by the Sub -Commission in order that the United Nations could take effective measures for the protection “of racial, national, religious or linguistic minorities” (General Assembly resolution 217 (III) C). 19-11967