A/HRC/37/26 F. Linguistic rights 41. In March 2017, the Special Rapporteur on minority issues produced a publication entitled “Language rights of linguistic minorities: a practical guide for implementation”, with a view to assisting policymakers and rights holders to understand the full scope of the rights of linguistic minorities and help in their practical implementation.19 42. Treaty bodies and special procedures have also stressed the need for access to education in minority languages. For example, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination recommended that Tajikistan take measures to ensure that ethnic minorities had access to instruction in minority languages, taking into account the particular needs and interest of those groups when developing strategies and programmes to that end (CERD/C/TJK/CO/9-11). 43. The Special Rapporteur on minority issues has also examined linguistic rights in connection with her country visits. Concerning her official visit to Sri Lanka, she described how minority representatives reported systemic challenges with respect to the use of the Tamil language, particularly in the public domain. She was also informed that the school system remained highly segregated along linguistic and ethnic lines. The Special Rapporteur acknowledged that Sri Lanka had put in place an important legal and policy framework that was necessary for multilingualism. However, targeted and strengthened measures and the allocation of sufficient resources were necessary to enable their actual implementation (see A/HRC/34/53/Add.3, para. 72). 44. At the regional level, throughout 2017 the OHCHR regional office for Central Asia continued its work on raising awareness of ethnic minority rights and supporting the introduction of multicultural education, covering topics such as tolerance, respect for diversity, inter-ethnic relations and non-discrimination in various educational institutions across Kyrgyzstan. 45. At the country level, OHCHR Tunisia worked closely with several minority groups, mainly Afrodescendents and Amazigh minorities, to combat de jure and de facto discrimination. Two major consultations were organized in March and December 2017 and meetings are organized periodically with the Ministry responsible for human rights for discussions and for OHCHR to put forward the requests made by civil society organizations on their behalf. For the Amazigh population, one of the main concerns is the use of the Tamazight language and the possibility of giving Amazigh names to their children. 46. On 17 November, a group of special procedures mandate holders warned of the excessive use of force by the security services in the south-west and north-west of Cameroon, where the country’s English-speaking minority is located. Injuries, mass arrests, arbitrary detention, torture and other ill-treatment inflicted on the English-speaking minority had also been reported. Freedom of expression had reportedly been limited by the blocking of Internet connections and of access to social media platforms, such as Twitter, WhatsApp and Facebook. The appeal for action comes nearly a year after special procedures mandate holders publicly urged the Government of Cameroon to halt the violence against the English-speaking minority, following reports that anglophone protesters in Buea and Bamenda had suffered undue force.20 G. Data collection 47. The role that disaggregated data play in the implementation and monitoring of rights of persons belonging to minorities has been repeatedly stressed by the Special Rapporteur on minority issues, human rights treaty bodies and other human rights actors. In the reflections on her six-year tenure in July 2017, the Special Rapporteur on minority issues reasserted that it was crucial for States to be aware of the composition of their populations, including identifying minority groups, in order to obtain an accurate picture of the number, 19 20 12 See www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Minorities/SR/LanguageRightsLinguisticMinorities_EN.pdf. See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22409&LangID=E.