II • Minorities and effective political participation 33. Political parties based primarily on minority or regional affiliation should not be prohibited solely for this reason. Nevertheless, narrowly drawn restrictions may be placed on the advocacy of violence to achieve political goals or on political platforms that incite hatred or discrimination. 35. Political parties should consider establishing mentoring programmes through which successful minority politicians could act as role models, encouraging others to run for office, raising awareness of minority political participation and reaching out to the majority population to ensure continuous dialogue between all groups. C. National human rights institutions 36. National human rights institutions should ensure that they are representative of the diversity of their respective societies, reflecting the full spectrum of views, issues and challenges. They should put in place a specific mechanism within their secretariat to address minority issues and develop outreach programmes and civic education aimed at increasing the effective political participation of persons belonging to minorities. They should ensure that persons belonging to minorities are both involved in and have access to all their programmes, including in complaint mechanisms, and ensure that human rights materials are available in the minority languages. D. Civil society 37. Civil society should: (a) Continue to play its role in breaking down the barriers preventing effective political participation of minorities, including through capacity-building and training activities, to ensure that representatives of minorities may participate effectively; (b) Develop civic education projects targeted at minority communities, highlighting the citizen’s rights, roles and responsibilities, and offer training to young persons belonging to minorities in the skills of negotiation, communication, advocacy, policymaking and governance; (c) Engage constructively with parliament, local councils and government agencies at all levels by clearly articulating policy options and utilizing citizen initiatives to promote a defined legislative agenda; (d) Coordinate and network more effectively, both among minority nongovernmental organizations and across ethnic lines, to share best practices and lessons learned, maximize resources, avoid duplication of projects and develop more effective issue-based coalitions; Compilation of Recommendations of the First Four Sessions 2008 to 2011 21 POLITICAL PARTICIPATION 34. In electoral systems of proportional representation using a party list, political parties should ensure that the names of persons belonging to minorities are placed high enough on the party list to ensure that they gain seats in the legislative body.