Check against delivery The Committee has often expressed its concern about minority women being employed in lower-paid and lower-skilled work with very little emphasis on their right to develop a career of their own.(Indonesia) The Committee expressed concern that ethnic minority women in UK continued to experience higher levels of unemployment, lower levels of education and training, lower wages and salaries and fewer benefits than white women. The Committee recommended that steps be taken to ensure the elimination of direct and indirect discrimination against ethnic minority women, including through positive action in recruitment, awareness campaigns and targeted training, education, employment and health-care strategies. Whilst noting that the minimum wage rate in Canada had increased in a number of provinces and territories, it remained gravely concerned at the fact that poverty is widespread among women, in particular aboriginal women, minority women and single mothers. Their underrepresentation in all areas of the labour market, in particular in senior or decision-making positions, their higher rates of unemployment and the a greater pay gap in terms of their hourly earnings compared with men, were also invoked. Access to health The Committee has often expressed serious concern about the very high maternal and infant mortality rates and the high fertility rate, especially among ethnic minorities and the lack of health-care facilities and medical professionals. (Lao People’s Democratic Republic 2005) The Committee made very specific recommendations to the effect that the State party accelerate the implementation of its national population policy, focusing on expanding its network of health-care facilities and personnel throughout the nation and reaching out to rural and remote areas, inter alia to the benefit of ethnic minority women. The Committee was also concerned by the fact that most women who are HIV-positive in Denmark, are foreign-born minority women. The Committee recommended that foreign women’s health needs, in particular as regards information on preventing and addressing HIV infection, be fully addressed. Housing and living conditions The Committee has also addressed the impoverished living conditions of minority women, which include high rates of poverty, poor health, inadequate housing, lack of access to clean water, low school-completion rates and high rates of violence. For example, it regretted the absence of a national housing strategy in Canada and expressed concern at the current severe