The UN Forum on minority issues convenes for two days from December 1, with this year’s theme “Review. Rethink. Reform - 30th anniversary of the UN Declaration on Minority Rights. The 15th session of the forum – the main annual event of the UN system focused on minorities, involving more than 500 delegates – will be guided by the Special Rapporteur on minority issues, Dr Fernand de Varennes, and chaired by Daniel Abwa, Professor of History and Director of Academic Affairs and Cooperation at the Université de Yaoundé 1. Read more: 360cr people face inadequate access to water: UN agency “The declaration needs to be better understood, acknowledged and implemented since minorities continue to face denial of their human rights in every corner of the globe,” said de Varennes. “More than three-quarters of the world’s stateless are persons who belong to minorities, and in many countries around the same proportion are the targets of hate speech and hate crimes. As the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also acknowledged a few months ago at the General Assembly’s high-level event on the 30th anniversary of UN Declaration, the time has come to rethink and reform the protection of minorities with the UN showing leadership to address inaction and negligence in the protection of minority rights.” Most of the world’s violence and conflict target minorities on the basis of their religious, linguistic, cultural, racial and ethnic identities, the Special Rapporteur said. Officials from governments, the UN, intergovernmental, national and regional organisations, civil society and minority representatives from different parts of the world will be among those joining the forum. This years’ agenda will focus on the normative frameworks and the mainstreaming of the declaration at the UN; minority rights defenders and their role in promoting principles of the declaration; filling the gaps in the implementation of the declaration and urgent situations faced by minorities. Read more: Asia-Pacific Regional Forum on minority issues to spotlight stronger protection for minorities The forum starts at 10am on 1 December with a live performance by a group of minority artists. Speakers will include the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk; Ambassador Csaba Kőrösi, President of the 77th UN General Assembly; Ambassador Federico Villegas, President of the United Nations Human Rights Council; and Ambassador Kairat Abdrakhmanov, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s High Commissioner on National Minorities. Discussions at the forum, along the outcomes from four regional forums held during the year, will help the Special Rapporteur frame recommendations to be presented to the Human Rights Council in March 2023. The forum will be held in Geneva in person and will be livestreamed at media.un.org.

A pickup truck attack that killed four members of an immigrant family has shaken Canada, a country where immigrants are largely accepted, and drew denunciations Tuesday from Canada’s prime minister, who called it a hate crime directed at Muslims. The victims — two parents, two children and a grandmother — were on an evening walk when the driver of the truck struck them at an intersection in London, Ontario. The sole survivor was a 9-year-old boy, who was hospitalized. “This was a terrorist attack, motivated by hatred, in the heart of one of our communities,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Parliament. “If anyone thinks racism and hatred don’t exist in this country, I want to say this: How do we explain such violence to a child in a hospital? How can we look families in the eye and say “Islamophobia isn’t real”? Read:Canadian police say Muslim family targeted by deadly attack The victims’ extended family issued a statement identifying the dead as Salman Afzal, 46; his wife Madiha, 44; their daughter Yumna, 15; and a 74-year-old grandmother whose name was withheld. The hospitalized boy was identified as the couple’s son, Fayez. Friends said the family immigrated to Canada 14 years ago. Many Canadians have been enjoying evening walks to get fresh air after long days at home during the pandemic, Trudeau said. “But unlike every other night, this family never made it home,” Trudeau said. “Their lives were taken in a brutal, cowardly and brazen act of violence. This killing was no accident. ... Canadians are outraged by what happened on Sunday. And many Muslim Canadians are scared.” Trudeau said words matter and in part blamed rhetoric, disinformation and extremism online and in politics. “They can be a seed that grows into an ugly, pervasive trend. And sometimes, they lead to real violence,” the prime minister said. Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Twitter that the attack revealed the growing Islamophobia in Western countries. A 20-year-old suspect, Nathaniel Veltman, was arrested in the parking lot of a nearby mall. He was facing four counts of first-degree murder. Police were inside the suspect’s London apartment on Tuesday. Read:Canada lowers flags after discovery of bodies at school site Police said Veltman did not know the victims. Detective Supt. Paul Waight said it was not clear if he belonged to any specific hate group, but that local police were working with federal authorities to investigate potential terrorism charges. He said the attack was planned. Veltman worked part time at an egg farm in nearby Strathroy, Ontario. The chief executive of Gray Ridge Eggs Inc., William Gray, gave no details about Veltman’s job. He said the company was “shocked and saddened” by the attack, and he expressed sympathy for the victims’ relatives and the Muslim community. Arman Moradpourian, a friend who worked with Veltman, called Veltman a very devout Christian and said he was home schooled. Moradpourian said Veltman didn’t have a problem with him being Persian and raised Muslim. “He never judged me,” Moradpourian told The Associated Press. “He would give his shirt off his back for you.” Moradpourian said Veltman helped him with rides to grocery stores and helped him mediate family issues. He said Veltman deleted his social media years ago and remade it a few months ago. He said he used the same name but said it was deactivated after he was arrested. He said Veltman was into video games and fishing. Everyone who knew the Afzal family knew “the model family they were as Muslims, Canadians and Pakistanis,” the statement from the extended family said. “They worked extremely hard in their fields and excelled. Their children were top students in their school and connected strongly with their spiritual identity.” A fundraising webpage said the father was a physiotherapist and cricket enthusiast and his wife was working on a doctorate in civil engineering at Western University in London. Their daughter was finishing ninth grade, and the grandmother was a “pillar” of the family, the page said. Read:More than 200 bodies found at Indigenous school in Canada Thousands of mourners including Trudeau and the leaders of all of Canada’s political parties attended a vigil Tuesday night at the mosque the family attended. Pandemic restrictions were eased to allow mourners to attend the outdoor vigil. “There are no words that can ease the grief of having three generations murdered in their neighborhood,” Trudeau told the crowd. “There are no words that can undo the pain and yes the anger of this community. There are no words that can fix the future of that little boy who has had his future taken away. But know this: You are not alone. All Canadians mourn with you and stand with you.” Imam Abd Alfatah Twakkal of the London Muslim Mosque said he hoped the vigil would be a pivotal moment for his community and country in the fight against the scourge of racism and discrimination. “Every single one of us need to do our part,” he said. Rauf Ahmad and three friends earlier watched the growing tribute at the intersection in the day. “I didn’t think there was racism in Canada, and I felt very safe when I came here two years ago, but I do not feel safe now,” Ahmad said. “Humanity is first. We should not care about whether someone is a Muslim, a Jew or a Christian.” Near the crash scene, Zahid Khan, a family friend, said through tears: “They were just out for their walk that they would go out for every day. I just wanted to see.” Read:US tribe shares vaccine with relatives, neighbors in Canada Mayor Ed Holder said flags would be lowered for three days in London, which he said has 30,000 to 40,000 Muslims among its more than 400,000 residents. Canada is generally welcoming toward immigrants and all religions, but in 2017 a French Canadian man known for far-right, nationalist views went on a shooting rampage at a Quebec City mosque that killed six people. “Canada is not immune to the kind of intolerance and division we have seen elsewhere in the world,” Trudeau said.

Asian Americans were already worn down by a year of pandemic-fueled racist attacks when a white gunman was charged with killing eight people, most of them Asian women, at three Atlanta-area massage parlors.