A/HRC/16/45 discussions and subsequent recommendations. In developing programmes aimed at achieving the Goals, all stakeholders must face the additional challenge of ensuring that those programmes take minority issues into account and are developed and implemented in close collaboration with members of minority groups. 23. In all of her activities to promote attention to minority issues in the context of the Goals, the independent expert has reiterated the recommendations of her 2007 annual report to the Human Rights Council (A/HRC/4/9). Key recommendations include: that targeted as well as mainstreamed approaches and policies are required to address the particular circumstances of poverty experienced by persons belonging to minorities; Governments, in designing, planning and implementing poverty alleviation and Millennium Development Goal policies, must give high priority to ensuring that disadvantaged minorities are considered in relation to their unique conditions of exclusion and discrimination, and consequent high levels of extreme and persistent poverty; and that in Millennium Development Goal country reports, Governments provide detailed consideration of the situations of minority groups and disaggregated statistical data that help to reveal the status of minorities in relation to other groups. Part Two Thematic study: the role of minority rights protection in promoting stability and conflict prevention I. Introduction 24. The thematic focus of the present report is the role of minority rights protection in promoting stability and conflict prevention. The independent expert considers that among the essential elements of a strategy to prevent conflicts involving minorities are: respect for minority rights; dialogue between minorities and majorities within societies; and the constructive development of practices and institutional arrangements to accommodate diversity within society.4 Attention to minority rights violations at an early stage - before they lead to tensions and violence - would make an invaluable contribution to the culture of prevention within the United Nations, save countless lives and promote stability and development. 25. The history of the development of minority rights at the United Nations has been closely linked to the need to address tensions between minorities and the State, and between population groups. The 1992 Declaration on Minorities states in its preamble that the promotion and protection of the rights of persons belonging to such minorities contribute to the political and social stability of States in which they live. The drafting of the Declaration began in 1978, and received added impetus with the break-up of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. The importance attached to the Declaration was summed up by the representative of Austria, who, speaking before the Third Committee, observed that it should not be filed and forgotten, but implemented and filled with life, so as to contribute to overcoming situations of tension relating to minorities (see A/C.3/47/SR.47, para. 89). 26. It is the view of the independent expert that much bloodshed and suffering and many setbacks in the process of national development could be avoided if Governments took a proactive approach to minority rights, putting protections in place long before tensions 4 8 The thematic discussion presented here is an abridged version of the original, presented at the sixtyfifth session of the General Assembly, Third Committee, in the report of the independent expert on minority issues (A/65/287).