Check against delivery For the Committee, the economic, social and cultural rights of minority women must be interpreted and implemented in a manner that ensures them substantively equal exercise and enjoyment of their rights. In General recommendation No 25 on “temporary special measures”, the Committee stated that a purely formal legal or programmatic approach is not sufficient to achieve women’s de facto equality with men. The Convention requires that women be given an equal start and that they be empowered by an enabling environment to achieve equality of results. It is not enough to guarantee women treatment that is identical to that of men. Addressing the economic, social and cultural rights of minority women The Committee has regularly expressed concern that women from ethnic minority groups face multiple forms of discrimination with respect to access to education, employment and health care and it has also expressed its regret about the lack of information and data in the report about those groups of women. The Committee has often called on those State parties to integrate attention to women from ethnic minority groups into national policies, plans and programmes as well as to implement specific measures to eliminate discrimination against those groups of women. i) Access to education With regard to access to education, the Committee has often expressed its concern about minority women’s low rates of participation in education and the access to education of children from ethnic minority groups (Indonesia, Cambodia ). The Committee has urged several State parties to place high priority on the reduction of the illiteracy rate of women including through the adoption of temporary special measures ( Cambodia ). The Committee expressed its concern that the ban of headscarves in schools in Belgium may increase the discrimination faced by girls from ethnic and religious minorities and may impede equality of access to education. It therefore recommended that the State party pay special attention to the needs of girls belonging to ethnic and religious minorities and ensure that they have equal access to education as well as promote a genuine dialogue with and within ethnic and religious communities aimed at the formulation of a common approach to the ban of headscarves in schools. Access to employment