GENEVA (29 April 2022) - The European-Central Asian Regional Forum will take place on 2-3 May 2022, with a focus on building stronger protection mechanisms for minorities in the region and marking the 30th anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities.

UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues Fernand de Varennes and the Government of Austria will convene the Regional Forum which will be held in a hybrid format, in Vienna and online. The forum is open to the media.

“Review-Rethink-Reform is the theme of this year’s Regional Forum. The time has come to reflect on the challenges facing minorities in Europe and Central Asia, the extent their situation has evolved in the last 30 years, and what is needed to build stronger rights protection mechanisms for minorities,” de Varennes said.

The Regional Forum will bring together 180 representatives from 35 countries, UN and regional organisations, academics, civil society groups specializing in minority issues and representatives of minorities from different parts of Europe and Central Asia.

Speakers will include Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, Secretary General of the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs of Austria, Kairat Abdrakhmanov, High Commissioner on National Minorities at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Ilze Brands Kehris, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights and head of the UN Human Rights Office in New York, Arno Kompatscher, Governor of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano/Bozen - South Tyrol, and Michael O'Flaherty, director of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights.

The Regional Forum for Europe and Central Asia is the first of four regional fora convened by the UN expert in 2022. Discussions will inform the work and recommendations of the 15^th session of the UN Forum on Minority Issues which will take place in Geneva in December 2022.

A livestream of the event will be available here. Simultaneous interpretation will be available in English, French, Russian and Romani. More information about the speakers and the agenda of the European-Central Asian Regional Forum on Minority Issues is available on the webpage.