Rita Izsák-Ndiaye (Hungary), former Special Rapporteur on minority issues

Ms. Rita Izsák-Ndiaye (Hungary) was appointed Independent Expert on minority issues by the Human Rights Council and assumed her functions on 1st August 2011. She held the position until 31 July 2017.

Rita Izsák-Ndiaye holds a Masters in Law diploma from the Péter Pázmány Catholic University, Budapest, Hungary. Inspired by her own experiences of prejudice and discrimination—her father's family was forcibly moved under post-war population transfers from Czechoslovakia (present day Slovakia) to Hungary due to their Hungarian ethnicity in 1947 and her mother is of Romani origin—she has been working on human and minority rights since her university years.

In 2017 at the 27th meeting of States parties to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), she was elected to become a member of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). Rita Izsák-Ndiaye is serving a term of four years starting from 20 January 2018.

Bulletin

Former Special Rapporteur Ms. Rita Izsák-Ndiaye published biannual bulletins which provided an update of her activities as Special Rapporteur:

Summary of the work between July-December 2016
Summary of the work between January-June 2016
Summary of the work between July-December 2015
Summary of the work between January-June 2015
Summary of the work between July-December 2014
Summary of the work between January-June 2014

Minorities in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process

Former Special Rapporteur on minority issues Ms. Rita Izsák-Ndiaye followed with curiosity and great interest the first full cycle of the UPR. She was eager to see the commitment of Member States to minority issues in this revolutionary peer review process both as recommending and receiving States.

Her analysis demonstrated that the situation of minorities was often in focus during the UPR¹. Indeed, with 895 recommendations pertaining to minorities in the first cycle of the UPR, minority issues were the 9th most discussed topic at the 1st cycle of the Human Rights Council’s UPR process. Download the Minority Issues in the first cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), an analysis by the UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Rita Izsák.

Former Special Rapporteur Ms. Rita Izsák-Ndiaye also conducted research analysing all minority-related recommendations of the 2nd cycle of the UPR. The main findings are summarized in her final report to the General Assembly (A/72/165, para 88–96).

Note:

1. The former Special Rapporteur thanks the Human Rights Project of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy for their important work on this research as well as for the team of UPR Info for their assistance and collaboration.