Effective participation will not be achieved by merely removing the barriers and creating conditions for access. Robust analysis and review of the experience of participation and interventions to ensure non-discrimination are essential as well as monitoring of the outcomes for minorities. It is no good getting in if one’s contributions are ignored and the sought for outcomes for minorities remain illusionary. Positive action, recommended in the EU Directives hold some potential. However, the most concrete outcomes as well as enhanced experiences of participation I have seen for minorities was through the use in Northern Ireland of a positive duty in this regard. I suggest we recommend consideration of such a positive duty, with appropriate monitoring mechanisms to secure effective participation by minorities. Our consideration of these matters also needs to go well beyond local, national and regional governmental structures to the achievement of effective participation for minorities in all governance structures at every level. Power needs to change hands and the empowerment of women and men to secure this happens, as history demonstrates in a variety of sphere. It also requires different strategies to get beyond gender and class/status hierarchies. In conclusion, I salute the contributions of those who have had to struggle to participate to a more equal and inclusive world. This incomplete process must continue and gather speed. The economic recession being experienced in many parts of our world far from being a justification of slow down can only be addressed in ways that are for a better world with the full participation of women and men from the minorities who often bear the brunt of its consequences. Anastasia Crickley, November 2009