A/HRC/9/8 page 2 I. INTRODUCTION 1. The Human Rights Council, in its decision 2/102, requested the Secretary-General and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue with the fulfilment of their activities, in accordance with all previous decisions adopted by the Commission on Human Rights and to update the relevant reports and studies. Accordingly, the report of the Secretary-General on the rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities (A/HRC/4/109) was submitted to the Council at its fourth session. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is submitting the present interim report on the rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities. 2. The present report outlines some of the main interventions undertaken by OHCHR to strengthen the promotion and protection of the rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities since the previous report. They include efforts to promote dialogue and mutual understanding on thematic issues, to support capacity-building of OHCHR staff, public officials from Member States as well as civil society and to strengthen inter-agency cooperation. The report also suggests a timeline and template for future reports to the Council. II. WORK OF THE OFFICE OF THE UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS 3. The work of OHCHR in relation to minorities is guided by the High Commissioner’s Strategic Management Plans (2006-2007 and 2008-2009), focusing in particular on increasing compliance with human rights standards in national laws and programmes; the number of measures to improve access of marginalized groups to policy decision-making; the number of rights-holders making use of human rights mechanisms; the awareness of the international community of human rights situations; and the integration of human rights standards into United Nations system policies and programmes. Particular attention is being paid to capacity-building of various actors such as civil society and OHCHR staff, the mainstreaming of minority rights in the work of the United Nations through inter-agency cooperation, and efforts to promote dialogue and mutual understanding on thematic issues. OHCHR also services the mandates of the forum on minority issues and the independent expert on minority issues. Further information on the forum is provided below, while that on the work of the independent expert is contained in the reports of the expert submitted to the Council (A/HRC/4/9 and Add.1-3 and A/HRC/7/23 and Add.1-3). A. Capacity-building of civil society, staff and other partners 4. With regard to training of civil society, OHCHR established the Minority Fellowship Programme in 2005 with a view to building the capacity of civil society and empowering representatives of minorities to know their rights and to use United Nations human rights mechanisms. The Programme consists of intensive training at OHCHR headquarters and currently has two components: an English-speaking component lasting on average three months; and an Arabic-speaking component, launched in 2007 as a two-week pilot and to be continued