working to secure the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples Minority Rights: A Guide to United Nations Procedures and Institutions By Gudmundur Alfredsson and Erika Ferrer, as updated and revised by Kathryn Ramsay This guide explains how the United Nations (UN) works. It aims to demystify the UN’s human rights mechanisms, procedures and institutions. It shows how minorities and minority-based nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) can use the UN and its different bodies to promote respect for minority rights. It offers practice advice, case studies and step-by-step guidance to working with the UN; showing, for example, how NGOs can provide information to the UN, how they can pursue cases and lobby for their issues, and where the best entry points are within the UN’s institutions and monitoring mechanisms. While this guide is aimed at minority-based NGOs, and NGOs working to promote human rights, it will be of interest to anyone wishing to learn more about the UN. Minority Rights Group International 54 Commercial Street, London, E1 6LT, United Kingdom Tel +44 (0)20 7422 4200 Fax +44 (0)20 7422 4201 Email minority.rights@mrgmail.org Website www.minorityrights.org Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law Stora Gråbrödersg 17B, PO Box 1155, S-221 05 Lund, Sweden Tel +46 46 222 12 00 Fax +46 46 222 12 22 Email secretariat@rwi.lu.se Website www.rwi.lu.se ISBN 1 904584 19 5