HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL FORUM ON MINORITY ISSUES 2ND SESSION Palais des Nations Geneva – Switzerland GOOD PRACTICES AND EXPERIENCES ON MINORITIES FOR ETHNIC AND POLITICAL MINORITIES: THE CASE OF BURUNDI. By LIBERATE NICAYENZI (Member of the Parliament of Burundi: National Assembly). Excellencies, Your honours, Madame Independent Expert, Distinguished Guests, We take this opportunity to express our joy to participate in this 2nd session of the Forum on Minorities on the matter of effective participation of minorities in political life. We would like to thank the initiators and organisers of this framework of expression for the minorities of the whole world. My country, Burundi, includes in its ethnic composition the Batwa, the Bahutu, and the Batutsi, representing respectively 1%, 85%, and 14%. The Batwa are an ethnic minority of the country and at the same time an indigenous minority, which explains their double marginalisation. Compared to other countries in the Great Lakes region, Burundi has already started to show an interest in the promotion and integration of the Batwa minorities in the political life. Thus, the national Constitution of Burundi reserves a representation of Batwa in the two chambers of Parliament, with three seats in the National Assembly and three seats in the lower chamber (164 and 180). This system of cooptation is done in consultation with the ‘Let us unite for the Promotion of the Batwa’ (‘Unissons nour pour la Promotion des Batwa’, UNIPROBA), which is the organisation created by the Batwa to defend their interests in all fields of national life, and the Independent Electoral Commission. Other appointments have been granted by Presidential Decree to the same minorities in other important national institutions, in particular the National Independent Commission, the General Inspection of the State, as well as an Advisor of the Governor of the province of Kirundo. We shall not forget to mention the existence of an Ad Hoc Commission in the Senate that takes care of indigenous minorities issues.