‘the State party to continue monitoring all trends which may give rise to racial or ethnic segregation and to work for the eradication of the resulting negative consequences’. 11 Another concern was that: ‘despite the widespread occurrence of offences of discrimination, the relevant domestic legal provisions against racist crimes are reportedly rarely applied’. The committee recommended training programmes for those administering justice, and requested statistics on prosecutions and penalties for racist crimes. The committee requested additional information from Brazil in areas where the state report lacked information, including discrimination against Roma concerning birth registration and access to schools, and cultural rights of minorities, including the availability of provisions for minorities and ethnic groups to receive education in their language. International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination Against Women The CEDAW’s Concluding Observations address discrimination faced by all women and are therefore applicable to women from minority and majority communities. Increasingly, the committee is addressing issues of multiple discrimination against minority women. The increased involvement of minority NGOs in the work of the CEDAW may have a positive impact on this trend and further encourage the committee to pay attention to this important issue. In January 2004, the CEDAW examined the state reports of Ethiopia and Nepal. In its Concluding Observations 12 on Ethiopia, however, there is no mention of different ethnic communities and no acknowledgement that minority women may face different or additional problems due to their minority status. The committee mentions rural and urban differences, and notes that the state failed to provide information on the situation of older women or disabled women; and appears not to recognize the specific situation and problems facing women from Ethiopia’s many different minority and/or indigenous groups. In contrast, the Concluding Observations on Nepal contain specific concerns and recommendations relating to women from ethnic groups and disadvantaged castes. The committee expresses concern that there are fewer educational opportunities for ‘women of different castes and ethnic groups’ and recommends more intensive action to ensure equality in education. Badi (a group of Dalit women engaged in forced prostitution) is also addressed by the committee in a section related to traditional cultural practices. The extent to which the inclusion of minority-specific recommendations is due to the work of NGOs is difficult to measure; however, the more that NGOs highlight issues 16 of multiple discrimination, the more likely the committee is to routinely pay increased attention to this area. International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights The CESCR examined the state report of the Russian Federation in November 2003. A number of concerns and recommendations in the Concluding Observations 13 address a variety of issues affecting different minorities. The committee expresses its deep concern over the poor living conditions in Chechnya and ‘while acknowledging the difficulties caused by the ongoing military operation’, urges the state to ‘allocate sufficient funds to reinstate basic services’. In addressing the problem of a lack of identity documents leading to limitations on access to work and services, such as health and education, the committee highlighted its concern that some groups, including Roma, are particularly affected. They expressed concern over the ‘precarious situation of indigenous communities’ affecting their right to self-determination, noting that a law to protect the land rights of indigenous communities in the north, Siberia and far-east of the state has not been implemented. Recommendations included: the effective implementation of this law and measures to ensure indigenous peoples are not deprived of their means of subsistence, along with taking effective measures to improve their health. The committee was also concerned about reports that some ethnic groups had been denied the possibility of exchanging old Soviet passports for Russian Federation passports. The effect of this was that these groups would be left unregistered when Soviet passports expired at the end of 2003. The committee called for measures to ensure that local authorities legalized ‘the residence of Mesketians and members of other ethnic groups’. 3.3 General Comments International instruments contain the human rights and minority rights standards, but the official treaty monitoring bodies provide important contributions to the interpretation and application of the standards. Their deliberations are important and should be read together with the standards, because precedents carry considerable weight in international organizations just as they do in national legal systems. Treaty monitoring bodies’ General Comments (sometimes called General Recommendations) provide guidance to states when reporting to the committees and serve to interpret or elaborate on the various treaty provisions, and to summarize the practice of the treaty bodies. They also clarify terminology and definitions relating to the various rights and freedoms. However, it is important to note that General Comments or Recommendations are not legally MINORITY RIGHTS: A GUIDE TO UNITED NATIONS PROCEDURES AND INSTITUTIONS