Check against delivery United Nations Forum on Minority Issues Fourth Session — "Guaranteeing the rights of minority women" "Minority women and girls and the right to education" Geneva, 29 — 30 November 2011 Statement by Austria Mme Chair, First of all, let me congratulate you for your appointment as chair of the Forum which is focusing this year on the important topic of guaranteeing the rights of minority women. Your personal and professional experience, the fact of being the first women of African descent to hold the position of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Panama as well as your participation at the second session of the Forum clearly demonstrate your commitment and your awareness of the unique challenges that women belonging to minorities frequently experience worldwide. Since the establishment of the Forum, Austria attached great importance to this unique platform for dialogue and cooperation on issues pertaining to persons belonging to minorities involving a wide range of stakeholders. Our support to this issue also includes the main-sponsorship of resolutions on the rights of persons belonging to minorities in the Human Rights Council and the 3rd Committee of the General Assembly. Mme Chair, Let me now turn to the issue of minority women and girls and the right to education. We share the assessment that ensuring equal access to education for minority girls and women remains a considerable challenge and that effective measures at all levels are needed. In this context, Austria would like to share the following national experiences: