A/HRC/10/11 page 2 Summary The mandate of the independent expert on minority issues was established by the Commission on Human Rights in its resolution 2005/79. The independent expert is required, inter alia, to promote the implementation of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, and to identify best practices by States and possibilities for technical cooperation by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The independent expert submitted her previous report to the Human Rights Council in February 2008, in which she provided a summary of her activities and addressed in detail the thematic issue of minorities and the discriminatory denial or deprivation of citizenship. The present report provides a summary of activities undertaken by the independent expert since the submission of her previous annual report. The independent expert has undertaken official country missions to Guyana, from 28 July to 1 August 2008, and to Greece, from 8 to 16 September 2008. The report includes a review of the ongoing collaboration of the independent expert with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with the aim of strengthening UNDP engagement with minorities in development processes. It also provides details of the inaugural Forum on Minority Issues and thematic recommendations of the Forum (see A/HRC/10/11/Add.1). Human Rights Council resolution 6/15 of 27 March 2008 established a Forum on Minority Issues to be held annually for two days in Geneva. The resolution requires the independent expert on minority issues to guide the work of the Forum and prepare its annual meetings, and invites her to include in her report thematic recommendations of the Forum and recommendations for future thematic subjects, for consideration by the Human Rights Council. In accordance with resolution 6/15, the forum will, inter alia, identify and analyse best practices, challenges, opportunities and initiatives for the further implementation of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities. The inaugural session of the Forum on Minority Issues was held on 15 and 16 December 2008. The Forum considered the thematic issue of “Minorities and the Right to Education”. Education is a basic human right for all children. And yet in all regions of the world minority children continue to suffer disproportionately from unequal access to quality education. Failure to ensure equal opportunities and equal access to education creates new generations of those who are disadvantaged in all walks of life, who cannot fulfil their potential in employment, and cannot contribute fully to their own communities and to wider society. Lack of access to education perpetuates the cycle of poverty that is often experienced most acutely by minority communities facing discrimination and exclusion, yet conversely, education provides a vital key to sustainable poverty alleviation. Education provides a gateway to the full enjoyment of a wide array of other rights, without which individuals and societies remain economically, socially and culturally impoverished. Ensuring equal access to education is one of the most serious challenges for minorities and States alike, and also offers one of the greatest opportunities for the advancement of the full rights and freedoms of persons belonging to minorities. Equal access to education must be understood in the holistic sense of the rights to non-discrimination and equality. The concept goes beyond issues of physical or economic accessibility to focus on the ultimate goal of equal access to achievement outcomes. Disproportionate outcomes should be considered to implicate State responsibility for the promotion and protection of these rights.