to profess and practise their own religion, or to use their own language’. Other relevant articles in the ICCPR include: • Article 2 on non-discrimination; • Article 4 on non-derogation; • Article 14 on equality before the courts and on language interpretation in criminal justice proceedings; • Article 20 on the limitation of the freedom of speech if it constitutes advocacy of ethnic hatred; • Article 25 on equal suffrage and equal access to public service; and • Article 26 on equality before the law. Provisions in the ICESCR of particular relevance to minority rights are: • Article 2 on non-discrimination; �� Article 7 on equality in the workplace; • Article 13 on the right to education, including human rights education, and the contribution of education to the promotion of understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations and all racial, ethnic or religious groups; and • Article 15 on cultural life and the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from artistic production. • Article 12 on eliminating discrimination against women in accessing health care; • Article 14 on the situation of rural women, many of whom may be members of minorities; and • Article 16 on equality in marriage and the right to marry freely only with full and free consent. The CRC contains civil, cultural, economic, political and social rights. It sets out the principle that all rights in the Convention be guaranteed without discrimination. Another basic principle is that the best interests of the child should be the primary consideration. Some of the other relevant Articles are: • Article 7 on the right to a nationality; • Article 17 that encourages the media to produce material from diverse sources taking into account ‘the linguistic needs of the child who belongs to a minority group’; • Article 20 on regard for a child’s ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic background when deciding on alternative care for a child outside the family; • Article 29 on the fundamental purpose of education including developing a child’s respect for his/her own culture and that of other cultures; and • Article 30 which guarantees for children the rights in Article 27 of the ICCPR. The scope of racial discrimination prohibited under the ICERD is very wide, and covers racial, national and ethnic minorities in accordance with paragraph 1 of Article 1 of the Convention. The Convention also places an obligation on states to adopt special measures for the benefit of individuals and groups, when that is necessary, to overcome discriminatory patterns in the cultural, economic, social and other fields. In Article 4, the ICERD outlaws incitement to racial hatred and related practices, as does the ICCPR. Articles in the ICEDAW that may be relevant to minority women include: • Article 5 on eliminating stereotypes based on the idea of the inferiority of women; • Article 7 on women’s right to participate in public life; • Article 10 requiring educational programmes that eliminate stereotypes of the roles of men and women; In 1992, the UN adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities (UNDM). This is the first and only UN human rights instrument devoted solely to minority rights. It restates many of the existing rights and adds that organizations within the UN system have a role to play in the ‘full realization of the rights and principles’ set forth in the Declaration. It also ties minority rights to the ‘development of society as a whole and within a democratic framework based on the rule of law’. As a Declaration, it is not legally binding on states; however, NGOs can use the Declaration in their advocacy with their government by highlighting that no state voted against its adoption in the General Assembly thereby demonstrating that the state in question accepts (or at least does not object to) the principles contained in the Declaration. MINORITY RIGHTS: A GUIDE TO UNITED NATIONS PROCEDURES AND INSTITUTIONS 9