Guidance Note of the Secretary-General on Racial Discrimination and Protection of Minorities  •  17 49. The UN system has a range of multilingual information products—from television and radio broadcasts, interviews and op-eds, to online news and social media content—that can be used in these outreach campaigns. They can support education and awareness-raising campaigns by the media, academic institutions, and civil society groups to promote action against racial discrimination and increase understanding of the rights of persons belonging to minorities, at the global, regional, national and local levels. UN Information Centres and other field presences are ideally placed to support regional and country-specific outreach initiatives and to disseminate messages tailored to local audiences. 11. Education initiatives and promotion of decent work 50. In its technical support and other work in the area of education, the UN system should reinforce rights-based education curricula that support pluralism and diversity and expand knowledge of the history, traditions, language and culture of minorities while providing minorities opportunities to gain knowledge of the society as a whole. The UN should also underline the role of bilingual or mother-tongue education in ensuring accessible, acceptable and relevant education that helps minority children to reach their full potential. Furthermore, the UN system should promote diverse forms of educational programmes such as non-formal education for adults and outof-school youth as well as vocational programmes that take into account the specific situation of minorities. 51. UN support to increasing educational opportunities for minorities and other common targets of racial discrimination is also of paramount importance for achieving equality in the labour market, where many minorities have been historically excluded from full and effective participation. UN action should emphasize the promotion of full and productive employment and decent work, including for minorities, and measures to avoid that the negative effects of financial and economic crisis do not disproportionately impact on minorities. 12. Training for UN staff and others 52. United Nations capacity-building activities and materials should include information about human rights and in particular on the causes and impact of racial discrimination, including multiple forms of discrimination and highlight good practices for preventing and combating racial discrimination and ensuring effective protection of minorities. 53. The UN system should continue to conduct training initiatives which include information about human rights for UN staff, government officials, representatives of regional and subregional organizations, workers’ and employers’ organizations, non-governmental organizations, and other civil society groups and audiences, in order to build capacity, knowledge, skills and attitudes that uphold human rights. Training and education efforts, be they UN staff, police, lawyers, students or civil society representatives must be relevant to the daily life of the learners. They should aim at im-

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