A/HRC/9/8 page 3 in 2008 for three weeks. A total of 34 representatives of different ethnic, religious and linguistic communities from all regions of the world have benefited from the Programme since its inception. Over the past 18 months, fellowship participants have come from different minority communities and countries: Hazara from Afghanistan, Russian from Azerbaijan, Bihari from Bangladesh, Sikh from India, Chechen, Sabian-Mandean and Chaldean-Syriac-Assyrian from Iraq, Golan Heights Syrian Arab from Israel and Rom from Ukraine. 5. OHCHR also supports community-led trainings financed by the OHCHR grants committee. From 25 to 29 September 2007, OHCHR supported a community-led training session for Roma in Latin America, organized by the non-governmental organization Identidad Cultural Romani de Argentina. The event was attended by Romani human rights defenders from Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chile and Spain and was the first ever attempt to bring together representatives from Romani communities in various Latin American countries for the purposes of human rights training. OHCHR participated by providing briefings on international human rights mechanisms. 6. With regard to staff training, following its well-received pilot in Asia in April 2007, OHCHR is currently preparing a training workshop on the promotion and protection of the human rights of minorities and indigenous peoples for OHCHR staff in Africa, to be held in Addis Ababa in October 2008. OHCHR has also been concentrating on the preparation of information tools for its staff, United Nations partners and other practitioners, most notably an Information note on minorities, which answers commonly-asked questions regarding minorities and identifies elements that should be included in strategies to address the situation of minorities in United Nations country programmes. 7. Finally, OHCHR contributes to the capacity-building of public officials in States Members of the United Nations. For example, in November 2007, OHCHR delivered training on United Nations standards and mechanisms for the protection of minority rights to public officials from various ministries (Interior, Justice, Foreign Affairs, Labour), parliamentary secretariats and the judiciary from countries in the Balkans and the Caucasus, but also from Ukraine, the Russian Federation and Belarus, within the framework of a seminar organized by the European Commission for Democracy through Law of the Council of Europe. B. Inter-agency cooperation 8. Article 9 of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities (General Assembly resolution 47/135) is a cornerstone for pursuing the inclusion of minority issues into the work of members of the United Nations family, stipulating that “the specialized agencies and other organizations of the United Nations system should contribute to the full realization of the rights and principles set forth in the declaration, within their respective fields. Efforts are being made by OHCHR to integrate minority issues into the work of United Nations country teams, activities under Action 2, and the Common Country Assessment/United Nations Development Assistance Framework and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers. The United Nations development agencies, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), are well placed to influence and work on the multidisciplinary dimensions of minority issues and to focus on cases of disparity and inequality.