UNITED NATIONS • Forum on Minority Issues Rights Committee, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the International Labour Organization (ILO).1 4. The range of issues included in the recommendations is not exhaustive. They should be interpreted in a generous spirit in cooperation with the communities and with a view to the effective application of human rights instruments and standards in practice, so that they can make a real difference in the lives of persons belonging to minorities. II. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 5. Economic exclusion is a cause, a manifestation and a consequence of discrimination against persons belonging to minorities. Many minorities have historically been excluded from full and effective participation in economic life, both in the developed and in the developing world. Minorities are often discriminated against when they seek employment, on the basis of their colour, ethnicity, race, religion, language or name, even when there is legislation that bans discrimination in both public and private sectors. Some face long-standing and entrenched challenges, such as discrimination on the basis of work and descent, including caste and analogous forms of bias, which require specific attention. Women shoulder even more complex burdens of poverty, ethnic prejudice and gender-based restrictions. 6. Undue legal restrictions on the practice of traditional livelihoods and other economic activities of minorities still exist in some countries. They may face barriers in their access to credit or loans for businesses or may live in the poorest or most remote regions where governments have taken fewer measures to provide for economic and social development opportunities. Equally, large-scale economic development projects or commercial activities carried out on the lands and territories where minorities live, without prior consultation with these minorities, have had negative outcomes, including forced displacement, the perpetuation of poverty and, in some cases, violence, including sexual violence. 7. The Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities of 1992 states that persons belonging to minorities 1 28 See, for example, Human Rights Committee general comment No. 23 (1994) on the rights of minorities; Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination general recommendations No. 27 (2000) on discrimination against Roma, No. 29 on article 1, paragraph 1 (descent), and No. 32 (2009) on the meaning and scope of special measures in the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination; Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women general recommendation No. 26 on women migrant workers (2008); and Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights general comment No. 20 (2009) on non-discrimination in economic, social and cultural rights. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has established an early warning and early action procedure to address serious violations of the Convention in an urgent manner. See also the supervisory work of the ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations and the ILO global reports on discrimination under the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (1998). Compilation of Recommendations of the First Four Sessions 2008 to 2011