Rights of persons belonging to national, ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities.

1992/16.
Rights of persons belonging to national, ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities

The Commission on Human Rights, Recalling its decision taken on 8 February 1978 at its thirty-fourth session (E/1978/34, para. 297) to create an informal open-ended working group to draft a declaration on the rights of persons belonging to national, ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, as well as its subsequent resolutions on the subject, Recalling also Economic and Social Council resolution 1991/30 of 31 May 1991, in which the Council authorized an open-ended working group of the Commission on Human Rights to hold meetings in December 1991 to complete its second reading of the draft declaration on the rights of persons belonging to national, ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, with a view to submitting the text to the Commission at its forty-eighth session, Recalling further General Assembly resolution 46/115 of 17 December 1991 in which the Assembly encouraged the Commission on Human Rights to complete the final text of the draft declaration on the rights of persons belonging to national, ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities as soon as possible and to transmit it for adoption to the Assembly, through the Economic and Social Council, Considering that the United Nations has an important role to play regarding the protection of minorities, Bearing in mind the work done so far within the United Nations system in promoting and protecting the rights of persons belonging to national, ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, Recognizing the need to ensure even more effective implementation of international instruments with regard to the rights of persons belonging to national, ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities,

1. Takes note with satisfaction of the report of the open-ended working group set up by the Commission to draft a declaration on the rights of persons belonging to national, ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities (E/CN.4/1992/48 and Corr.1) and, in particular, expresses its appreciation of the fact that the open-ended working group was able to complete the second reading of the draft declaration and to submit the text of the draft declaration to the Commission on Human Rights at its forty-eighth session;

2. Approves the text of the draft declaration on the rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities;

3. Decides to consider the agenda item entitled "Rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities" at its forty-ninth session, in particular with a view to considering measures to give effect to this draft declaration, when adopted;

4. Recommends the following draft resolution to the Economic and Social Council for adoption:

[For the text, see chap. I, sect. A, draft resolution II]

38th meeting
21 February 1992
[Adopted without a vote. See chap. XVIII.]