BRUSSELS — A report submitted to the sixty-first session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which opened on 23 February 2026 in Geneva and runs through 2 April, presents a sobering evaluation of minority rights globally. Compiled by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the document — designated A/HRC/61/33 — reviews developments throughout 2025, revealing entrenched discrimination, legislative gaps, and the rising use of hate speech against national, ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities.
The report is submitted following Human Rights Council resolution 55/15, adopted on 4 April 2024, which tasked OHCHR with providing an annual record of actions taken to advance the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities. The High Commissioner emphasizes that “further steps are needed by States to recognize minorities as a group at risk of being left behind” and to implement the Declaration — a document that remains more aspirational than operationally binding.
A Global Landscape of Persistent Exclusion
The report’s core finding is clear: despite decades of international commitments, minorities worldwide continue to face disproportionate poverty, unemployment, housing insecurity, and police violence. High Commissioner Volker Türk, at the eighteenth session of the Forum on Minority Issues in November 2025, noted that “vilifying minorities had become a convenient divide and rule tactic for leaders seeking to polarize, confuse and distract from their own failures.”
A striking data point reveals that as of 2025, fewer than one quarter of countries had enacted anti-discrimination laws meeting international human rights standards. This persists despite OHCHR’s work since 2022 with the Equal Rights Trust on a guide for developing anti-discrimination legislation and the launch of the Equality for All Academic Action Alliance in July 2025.
The report documents violations across numerous regions. In Pakistan, blasphemy laws target Ahmadiyya and Christian communities; in Egypt, Baha’i citizens lack legal recognition; in Iran, ethnic and religious minorities face systematic discrimination, with the death penalty disproportionately applied; in Myanmar, the Rohingya crisis has reached extreme levels; Afghanistan sees Hazara, Ismaili Shia, Turkmen, and Uzbek communities facing forced conversions and land loss. In Russia, a State-backed nationalist ideology reportedly “normalized identity-based discrimination and violence.”
Legal Frameworks Under Strain
These violations must be considered within the framework of international law. Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) guarantees minority rights to culture, religion, and language use. The Human Rights Committee, monitoring the ICCPR, noted concerns in 2025 about Spain (racial profiling and delayed anti-racism legislation), Latvia (language-in-education transition discrimination), Viet Nam (freedom of religion violations), and Montenegro (exclusion of Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian communities).
The report implicitly references Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and its ICCPR elaboration, protecting freedom of thought, conscience, and religion. Cases from Tajikistan’s law banning religious clothing to Estonia’s legislation targeting religious minorities illustrate how States use security rationales for disproportionate and discriminatory restrictions.
Europe provides a notable example. In Estonia, a UN Special Rapporteur warned that targeting a religious minority linked to the Moscow Patriarchate “might amount to institutionalized religious discrimination,” violating ICCPR provisions. Similar concerns arose in Ukraine, emphasizing the balance the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) seeks to maintain, particularly under wartime or national security pressures.
The recent volume Faith in United Nations Human Rights Treaties (University for Peace, January 2026) offers an analysis of these developments, arguing that faith-based and legal frameworks, when properly understood, are mutually reinforcing. It notes the UN’s human rights architecture has accumulated substantial jurisprudence on religion, belief, and human rights law — underutilized by States and under communicated to communities needing protection.
Hate Speech: From Online Platforms to Political Discourse
A report section focusing on hate speech observes a “surge in hate speech, particularly online, with incitement to violence against minorities.” This echoes the Rabat Plan of Action (2012), which defines the threshold for incitement to discrimination, hostility, or violence and establishes State responsibilities.
The report notes these trends globally: CERD expressed concerns in December 2025 about hate speech against Muslims, Roma, Jews, and people of African descent in Sweden. The High Commissioner addressed the European Parliament in January 2025, urging stronger measures against antisemitism and anti-Muslim hatred. A Tirana conference in January 2025 produced the Tirana Framework for Confronting Intolerance, calling for transparent mechanisms by technology and social media companies to address hate speech while respecting freedom of expression.
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