Mapping Minorities’ Vulnerability to Hate Speech can lead in and of itself to the escalation of violence against a social group, especially minorities. Hate speech has various implications on the enjoyment of human rights for both individuals and minorities, which is why addressing hate speech requires a coordinated response that tackles the root causes and drivers of hate speech, as well as its impact on victims and societies more broadly. In the lack of popular representation, the human rights of persons belonging to minorities (including the human right to a nationality) are not sufficiently addressed or taken into account when making decisions affecting their lives in areas, including nationality issues. 29 Such is the case when groups such as the Rohingya — a religious, ethnic and linguistic minority in Myanmar — are sometimes described in public discourses as a people, a group, or a community, but not necessarily as a minority. This may be due to the lack of an agreed upon definition for minorities and their related status and rights. Therefore, it is of pivotal importance to raise awareness on minorities as particularly affected by statelessness, hate speech and other areas of human rights concerns, as pointed out by the current UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues in its recent report. 30 III ETHNIC DISCRIMINATION LIES AT THE CORE OF STATELESSNESS IN ASIA As one of the most ethnically diverse regions in the world, the Asian continent is home to large indigenous minority populations, as well as non-indigenous minorities through ever-changing legal and illegal migrant flows, 31 leaving states the challenging task to manage their historically, culturally and religiously diverse societies burdened by a colonial heritage. According to UNHCR estimations, 40 per cent of the world’s identified stateless population live in Asia and the Pacific, highlighting profound protection needs. 32 Looking at some parts of Asia, we find that discriminatory nationality laws (on the basis of gender, race or religion) are major reasons for the prevalence of statelessness on the continent. 33 Whereas the Rohingya are one of the best known cases of statelessness in Southeast Asia, there are other stateless populations not to be forgotten in the regional statelessness context. For instance, in Myanmar, in addition to the Rohingya, at least 500,000 persons of Indian origin are also effectively stateless, while in Thailand — despite significant recent developments — approximately 400 000 mostly indigenous ‘hill tribe’ people living in 29 30 31 32 33 Andrew Whiteley, ‘Minorities and the Stateless in Persian Gulf Politics’ (1993) 35(4) Survival 28, 45–46. Fernand de Varennes, Minority Issues: Report of the Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, UN Doc A/HRC/40/64 (9 January 2019) [7] (‘Minority Issues Report’). Michelle Ann Miller, ‘Introduction — Ethnic minorities in Asia: Inclusion or exclusion?’ (2011) 34(5) Ethnic and Racial Studies 751. Marie McAuliffe, ‘Protection Elsewhere, Resilience Here: Introduction to the Special Issue on Statelessness, Irregularity, and Protection in Southeast Asia’ (2017) 15(3) Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies 221. ‘Stateless Persons in Asia and the Pacific’, Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (Web Page, 2017) <http://www.worldsstateless.org/continents/asia/stateless-persons-in-asia-andthe-pacific>. See also Report on statelessness in South and South East Asia (Report, 2016/2220(INI), European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs 4 May 2017) <https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/A-8-2017-0182_EN.html>. 11