UN General Assembly
1975

247. There are many less dramatic but none the less deplorable breaches of human rights to which this Assembly should give its attention and to which the Governments represented here should commit themselves to seek a remedy. Because the nation-States represented in this Assembly do not necessarily coincide with cultural entities, there exist in many countries minority problems which are often quite severe in their effects on those involved. We need some kind of code to protect the rights of minorities, to set out what these rights should be and to establish a standard against which a State can measure itself and be measured by its peers.