United Nations Forum on Minority Issues

Livestream in all UN official languages:

• Thursday, 30 November [English - French - Spanish]
  10 AM - 1 PM
  3 PM - 6 PM
• Friday, 1 December [English - French - Spanish]
  10 AM - 1 PM
  3 PM - 6 PM

List of Speakers will be posted at the webpage of the Forum at the beginning of each agenda item and screened in Room XX. Delegates included in the List of Speakers are requested to send their written statement to hrc-sr-minorityforum@un.org and speeches@un.org with the indication of the agenda item. Statements will be made public after the Forum.

Information on the Sixteenth session of the Forum

• Concept note
• Programme of Work
• Programme
• Practical Guide
• Provisional Agenda (A/HRC/FMI/2023/1) (Advanced Unedited Version)
• Preparatory Meeting Agenda
• Programme of Side Events
• List of Speakers Item 1: Challenges to inclusion and equality: barriers to the social and economic participation of persons belonging to minority groups
• List of Speakers Item 2: Socio-economic Empowerment
• List of Speakers Item 3: Legal and Structural Approaches to More Inclusive Societies
• List of Speakers Item 4: Protection and promotion of the rights of persons belonging to minority groups towards cohesive societies
• Summary of the Co-Chairs of the UN Forum on Minority Issues
• Recommendations of the 16^th session of the Forum on minorities

Statements

View the session statements on the Human Rights Council Extranet.

Registration:

All participants are required to register for the Forum using an online registration system Indico following this link.

Registrations are open from 12 October and will close 20 November 2023. No application will be accepted after this date.

• Participants will need to create a profile and complete the online registration before receiving confirmation of their registration by the Forum Secretariat. Confirmed participants will receive a QR code by email.
• The QR code will be scanned by UN Security upon arrival in order to issue a badge of accreditation to the UN premises.
• Please note that participants will need to plan and fund their travels to Geneva. Participants are also responsible for organizing their own visas, if necessary.

Limited number of pre-recorded interventions by minority delegates will be accommodated bearing in mind time limitations.

Participants from minority groups who wish to intervene via a pre-recorded video statement must register as soon as possible clearly indicating their wish to use this form of intervention and the Secretariat will provide via email further formal and technical requirements and instructions on creating and submitting the pre-recorded video statements.

Participants, as well as individuals and organizations who will not be able to participate in the Forum or who do not wish to take the floor, can contribute to the discussions by sending a written submission that includes proposal for recommendations at the following email address: hrc-sr-minorityforum@un.org

The event can be followed via livestream at the UN Web TV. Link to the livestream will be provided at the webpage of the Forum a few days before the event.

Preparatory meeting: A preparatory meeting for all delegates will be held on 29 November at Palais des Nations in Geneva. Information related to the specifics on the Room will be provided at a later stage.

Side events: Participants may organize side events to further contribute to discussions relating to the theme of the UN Forum on Minority Issues, particularly with a view to sharing information on strategies, challenges, activities and best practices related to the theme of the Forum. 

• The Secretariat is not responsible for the side events organized during the Forum. States and NGOs hosting a parallel event are responsible for the content of the event and the conduct of the participants.
• State and NGO side-events are public meetings and may therefore be attended by all Permanent Missions, NGOs and other civil society representatives, UN staff and other participants with access to Palais des Nations.  
• Please note that due to the renovation of the Palais des Nations, only two rooms will be available to be allocated for side events (Room XXII and Room XXIII), and space and timeslots will be allocated on a "first come, first served" basis.  
• Requests for the side event, including the title of the side event, the concept note, and the list of tentative speakers shall be sent before 6 November 2023. No requests for side events will be accepted after this date.  
• Please be aware that speakers for the side events must register in advance as participants of the Forum. More information about the registration process can be found here. While the Secretariat will provide sound operations in the rooms, any required interpretation should be arranged solely by the organizers of the side events.

Background:

The UN Forum on Minority Issues meets annually for two working days allocated to thematic discussions pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 6/15 of 28 September 2007 and resolution 19/23 of 23 March 2012. The Forum is open to Member States, United Nations mechanisms, bodies and specialized agencies, funds and programmes, intergovernmental organizations, regional organizations and mechanisms in the field of human rights, national human rights institutions and other relevant national bodies, academics and experts on minority issues, representatives of minorities and minority and non- governmental organizations. The Special Rapporteur on minority issues guides the work of the Forum, prepares its annual meetings and reports on the thematic recommendations of the Forum to the Human Rights Council. The recommendations of the Sixteenth session will be presented at the 55th session of the Human Rights Council, in March 2024.

General inquiries: hrc-sr-minorityforum@un.org