The WGM has a very specific mandate: it was established to examine ways and means to promote and protect the rights of persons belonging to minorities as set out in the 1992 Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities (UNDM). Its three main tasks are: (1) to review the promotion and practical realization of the UNDM; (2) to examine possible solutions to problems involving minorities, including the promotion of mutual understanding between and among minorities and governments; and (3) to recommend additional measures for the promotion and protection of minority rights. In undertaking these tasks, the WGM invites information from NGOs and academics on the situation in specific countries with respect to the implementation of the UNDM, and tries to promote dialogue on these issues between representatives of minorities and governments. It also takes a thematic approach. Themes addressed by the WGM have included: conflict prevention, development, identity, intercultural and multicultural education, issues of autonomy and integration, language rights, participation, recognition of minorities, and the situation of non-citizens. Additional measures recommended under the third task include, establishing a voluntary fund for minorities,41 holding an International Year and/or Decade and appointing a Special Representative on Minorities. Another objective of the WGM is to act as a forum for advancing understanding of international minority rights, and to produce texts or guidelines that clarify specific aspects of those rights. One example is the Commentary on the UNDM produced by the first WGM chair, Asbjørn Eide,42 following a process of consultations with NGOs, academics and government delegates. This Commentary aims to provide guidance on the meaning, scope and application of the provisions of the Declaration. In addition, there is an initiative to support the preparation of statements of principles on minority rights at a subregional level, and to advance cooperation between different actors at sub-regional and regional levels. At the 2004 session, the WGM announced its intention to start preparing General Comments on specific issues and themes including: education, effective participation, exclusion, land deprivation, protection from forced assimilation, and protection of places of worship and sacred places. NGO participation The openness of the WGM to NGOs means that NGOs can use the WGM to raise issues that might otherwise not get discussed internationally. An oral intervention provides the opportunity to present your concerns and recommendations to the WGM, government and other observers present. (See Annex 6.4 on writing an interven32 tion.) The chair may comment on the contents of NGO interventions, and the representative of your government may make a reply either immediately or later in the meeting after they have had time to consider your statement. The WGM is unusual because NGOs can often reply to government statements, which does not happen at other UN forums. This can allow for real dialogue within the forum. Members of the WGM have also played an active role in encouraging this dialogue by seeking clarifications, concrete proposals and responses from speakers. However, one of the weaknesses of the WGM is the lack of partici- Case study: Multicultural Coalition of Botswana and the WGM A representative of the Multicultural Coalition of Botswana attended the WGM in 2004. Before the session, she contacted the Botswana diplomatic mission in Geneva and arranged a meeting to discuss her intervention. At the meeting she gave the Botswana ambassador a copy of her intervention, which they discussed and he provided some input. On the first day of the WGM, she made her intervention concerning the nonrecognition of non-Tswana-speaking tribes and the discrimination against linguistic minorities in Botswana. She highlighted a case where the Wayeyi tribe had won but the government had not implemented the court decision, and made recommendations to the Botswana government and the WGM. The ambassador had come to the WGM with a prepared reply. He gave her a copy a few minutes before he made his statement. In it he emphasized the richness of diversity in Botswana and stressed that the Constitution prohibited discrimination. At the same time, he said that national unity was the most important principle and that no one tribe was greater than the nation. He also said that domestic remedies should be exhausted before an issue is raised internationally. The WGM chair disagreed with the last point and noted that the exhaustion of domestic remedies only applies to individual complaints to treaty bodies. The representative of the Multicultural Coalition of Botswana immediately asked to speak again and replied to the ambassador saying that national unity is not synonymous with uniformity; promotion of only one language and culture has resulted in Tswana supremacy and division within the nation. She noted that the ambassador had said minorities could obtain redress through the courts and pointed out that three years had passed since the Wayeyi case, yet there had been no changes. Even though the ambassador did not promise to carry out the action requested by the NGO, the representative felt that his attendance, his response at the WGM and the dialogue initiated, were positive steps. On her return to Botswana, the representative’s intervention and response to the ambassador were published by newspapers, further contributing to the overall campaign. MINORITY RIGHTS: A GUIDE TO UNITED NATIONS PROCEDURES AND INSTITUTIONS