Guidance Note of the Secretary-General on Racial Discrimination and Protection of Minorities  •  11 IV. Selected key areas for UN action 1. Constitution-making and other legal frameworks 28. Constitution-making processes by definition provide opportunities to shape a common vision on the future of a country and entry points for introducing strong anti-discrimination guarantees and normative protection of minorities. The UN is frequently called on by Member States to provide assistance during constitutional processes, notably in the context of political transitions or peace processes. In doing so, it should encourage national actors to promote inclusion and participation at the different stages of a constitution-making process. Broad inclusion, including of persons belonging to minorities, can generate space for a genuine national dialogue and confer democratic legitimacy to the resulting constitutional arrangements. When requested, the UN assists Member States, including emerging democracies, with legal, technical and financial assistance and advice to ensure that constitutions enshrine non-discrimination, equality before the law and equal protection under the law and reflect other key human rights principles. In doing so, in addition to promoting inclusion of human rights norms, it should also help to ensure that other constitutional norms, including any provisions concerning languages, religions and nationality, are in compliance with non-discrimination and other rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities. 29. Constitution-making can promote cooperation between different groups and participation of all groups in decision-making processes, and result in mechanisms for protection of minorities and others against any form of discrimination and other human rights violations. In this regard, the UN should always encourage domestication of key international human rights law, international refugee law and international humanitarian law within national legislation. 30. Technical support to governments to review existing and proposed legislation for compliance with international standards on non-discrimination and minority rights should also be offered in fields ranging from language and nationality laws to legislation in the field of housing, labour and employment, education, health or media. This should be accompanied by UN support to strategies for more effective implementation of non-discrimination legislation, coupled with remedies that are accessible to all. 2. Electoral processes 31. With regard to electoral assistance, a primary focus of the UN is to facilitate and promote universal and equal suffrage. UN electoral assistance should therefore provide support to the development of policies and the implementation of appropriate measures to promote the participation of underrepresented or marginalized groups, including minorities, in electoral processes. This will include measures specific to electoral events, temporary special measures as well as longer-term programmes.