Geneva, 17–18 September 2026

When the world gets louder, minorities are the first to go unheard. In turbulent times, protecting minorities needs more multilateral cooperation, not less.

In mid-September, I took part in a closed High-Level Expert Meeting at Villa Moynier in Geneva, co-convened by the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights and the UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Professor Nicolas Levrat. For two days, representatives of the African, Arab, Asian, Inter-American and European human rights systems, the OSCE, UN bodies, academia and civil society compared how minorities are protected across regions, how their voices are included, how commitments are enforced, and how cooperation between regional mechanisms and the UN can be strengthened.

Such exchanges across systems are rare today, and needed more than ever. The meeting forms part of the Geneva Academy’s research project on the protection of persons belonging to minorities by regional human rights mechanisms, led by Maria Immacolata Fico, and will inform the Special Rapporteur’s report to the 64th session of the UN Human Rights Council in March 2027.

My sincere thanks to Nicolas Levrat and his team, to Maria Immacolata Fico and to the Geneva Academy for and invitation and a genuinely open exchange.

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