¾ National Level—Minority Representation Through Consultative Bodies The Deputy Chair of the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan, Mr. Yeraly Tugzhanov, presented the Kazakh model for the participation of minorities in politics, underlining that the Kazakh Constitution provides for equality irrespective of people’s social, race or ethnic origins and religions. He stated that none of the 140 ethnic groups in the country were limited in their civil rights and in their political participation and that the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan is responsible for guaranteeing an effective role for minorities. The main tasks of the Assembly are: to ensure the effective interaction between state bodies and civil society in the sphere of interethnic relations, ensure the favorable conditions for the further consolidating of interethnic consent and tolerance in the society; the support and development of social consensus; to assist the state bodies in counteracting extremism and radicalism manifestations in society; to form the citizens political and legal culture, based on democratic norms; as well as the revival and development of national cultures, languages and traditions of the people of Kazakhstan. ¾ Decentralized Local Governance; Cultural Autonomy at Local Levels; Minority Local Self-Governments Mr. Norbert Tóth, Senior Research Fellow at the Research Institute for Minority Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences gave a presentation on “The institution and practice of the Hungarian minority self-governments”. He indicated that, in addition to the adoption of a law on the rights of national and ethnic minorities in 1993 and other laws, decrees and regulations on the elections and composition of minority selfgovernments, the State created some special authorities and institutions, including an ombudsman for minority rights and an Equal Treatment Authority. All the minorities and the persons belonging to a minority group have the right to form their self-governments at local, territorial and national levels. He identified the core elements of the selfgovernance of minorities in Hungary as follows: the question of self-identification as member of a given minority community or not and the practice of the rights of minority self-governments which is protected by the judiciary system. He finally indicated that the minority self-governments and the political, economical, and cultural minority institutions are funded by different actors including the State and that a special advisory organ, the Forum of National and Ethnic Minorities living in Hungary, has been created by Parliament as a temporary solution to the pending question of direct representation of minorities at the parliamentary level. Ms. Bintu Jalia Ngonzi Abwooli, Member of the Ugandan Parliament, gave a presentation on “Existing mechanisms providing for the political participation of minorities in Uganda”, giving a brief historical overview that led to changes to the political background in 1986 allowing for political participation of minorities followed by an outline of the legal framework including constitutional guarantees allowing for participation of minorities. Regarding the institutional framework, she underlined that the Parliament of Uganda ensures that the requisite legal framework and implementation mechanisms are in place to promote political participation of minority groups. As 13