The protection of freedom of expression, the right to access to information, and a
free media
The need to strengthen mechanisms for minority participation in the spaces of
global governance, including by allocating adequate resources and creating
bilateral or regional structures for cooperation on minority issues
The need to recognise the value of the political participation of minorities within
public administration and civil society organisations
The importance of the recognition of the minorities
The issue of the absence of the definition of the term “minority”
The importance of political participation of women belonging to minorities
The need for minorities to be represented at all levels of the decision-making
process
The need to repeal discriminatory laws and provisions
Development of training programmes to foster participation through
empowerment, mentoring and network-building and civic education programmes
for minorities
Development of awareness-raising campaigns aimed at the majority to emphasise
contributions made by the minorities to the benefit of the whole society
The creation of youth councils and forums to advance political orientation for
minorities
The need to support access to education for children belonging to minorities and
literacy programmes for adults as well as computer training
The importance of disaggregated data on minorities in political sectors
The impact of design of electoral systems
The need to take measures to tackle extreme poverty
Item V—National practices and real experiences:
Existing mechanisms providing for the political participation of minorities 9
This session focused on national practices that have been developed to foster minority
political participation and the impacts of those policies. Governments were invited to
describe their national policies and minority political actors to discuss the role that
minority policy-makers should play in formulating and implementing laws and policies to
support and promote equal rights and opportunities in the public sector.
Issues for presentation and discussion included the definition of meaningful
representation and empowerment as well as ways to ensure an effective role by
minorities in policy and decision-making. The discussion also looked at how effective
minority consultative bodies have been in giving meaningful representation to minorities,
what has been the experience with quotas, reserved seats or other such mechanisms to
ensure representation of minorities and whether systems of cultural autonomy and
minority self-governance developed to protect rights to language, education, religion,
and cultural identity have indeed provided minorities with meaningful participation in
governance.
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The full text of the presentations is available on the Forum’s website:
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/minority/oral_statements_forum_minority_2009.htm
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