Proposal for a Draft Global Convention on the Rights of Minorities
On 6 March 2023, UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues Fernand de Varennes published a Proposal for a Draft Global Convention on the Rights of Minorities, attached to his annual thematic report, submitted to the UN Human Rights Council. The document calls on the United Nations to take stricter and more effective measures to protect and recognize the human rights of minorities, as there has been little development institutionally at the UN level to that effect, and the human rights situation of many minorities in the world is increasingly deteriorating. As a solution, de Varennes proposes to adopt a legally binding universal treaty, the draft of which he prepared with the contribution of several civil actors and international organizations, drawing heavily from the recommendations of the regional and UN forums held since 2019, as well as from a large number of global and regional instruments. The proposal is composed of three parts: (i) the main text of the draft convention; (ii) an implementation protocol on communications and reporting; (iii) and an optional protocol which provides a more detailed elaboration of the rights of minorities, specifically the right to take part in cultural life, freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief, and the right to use one’s own language. The third part also includes definitions of the concept of minorities, namely definitions of ʻnational minority’, ʻethnic minority’, ʻreligious or belief minority’, and ʻlinguistic minority’, emphasizing that the existence of these groups in a state is not dependent on official status or legal recognition.