Oral Statement at the Third United Nations Forum on Minority Issues “Minorities and the Effective Participation in Economic Life” By Ms. Sameena Nazir, Director, Potohar Organization for Development Advocacy (PODA), Pakistan Wednesday 15th December 2010, Geneva Thank you Madam Chair, My name is Sameena Nazir and I work with the Potohar Organization for Development Advocacy (PODA) in Pakistan. We work for the promotion and protection of human rights in rural areas of Pakistan through providing educational about national and international human rights standards, by facilitating the empowerment of rural communities through sustainable livelihoods skills and by advocating for the rights of rural women and small landholding farmers in Pakistan. I thank the Independent Expert on Minority Rights Issues, Ms. Gay McDougall for organizing this critically important and timely Forum to highlight the challenges and obstacles that minorities face in their full and equal access to economic rights and for providing an opportunity to grassroots activists like me to share our experiences and strategies for solutions. We are thankful for the highly important, practical and action-oriented DRAFT Recommendations that have been prepared for this session’s work. The draft recommendations cover a vast range of economic rights for minorities and highlight the roles and obligations of eight key actors such as the governments, the international community and the private sector to understand how these