A/HRC/34/68 Note of the Secretary-General on Racial Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. 9 A systematic approach to minority rights should be pursued across all related United Nations work, potentially through the development of a tool kit to be applied whenever developing and implementing humanitarian assistance programmes. 30. Governments, the United Nations and other organizations should consider appointing expert staff members as minority focal points within their structures, train humanitarian staff in minority rights issues to ensure that they are able to identify issues relevant to minorities and situations of discrimination in times of crisis and equip them to adequately respond to the needs of minorities. Preventing crises with early warning and accountability 31. States should employ early warning mechanisms that incorporate minority rights indicators to identify initial signs of crises and deteriorating situations and their impact on minorities. Such mechanisms can help to prevent the escalation of tensions and human rights violations. They should monitor indicators such as a history of ethnic violence; an indication of minorities being targeted or repeatedly displaced; the extent to which the identity of various minority communities is respected and promoted; the level of participation of minorities in political, economic and cultural life; and the degree of equal and effective access to justice and other effective remedies for human rights violations. Efficient early warning is also critical to disaster risk reduction and should include a strong focus on the populations exposed to risks, in addition to scientific and technical considerations. Minority communities and potentially marginalized groups within minorities must be consulted and included in such early warning systems. 32. The Human Rights Up Front initiative should be further strengthened so that it leads to the desired cultural and operational change within the United Nations, together with more proactive engagement with Member States to better prevent large-scale and serious violations of human rights or international humanitarian law. 33. States should implement, in accordance with general recommendation No. 30 (2013) on women in conflict prevention, conflict and post-conflict situations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, early warning systems and other concrete measures to protect minority women from gender-based violence and sexual abuse, given that women and girls are at a heightened risk of violence, including sexual violence, during and after conflicts. 34. States should take effective measures to prevent the promotion of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence. In this respect, States should effectively investigate and prosecute individuals for hate crimes, incitement to hatred, persecution, systematic and widespread violence, atrocities, sexual violence and acts of genocide perpetrated against minorities. 35. States should establish a complaint mechanism for minorities to voice their concerns as a minority and ensure that the public is aware of the existence of such a mechanism. This can be established within national human rights institutions established in line with the principles relating to the status of national institutions for the promotion and protection of human rights (the Paris Principles). States, as well as the United Nations and civil society actors should work to ensure that minorities are made aware of the existence of such mechanisms. 9 See Guidance Note of the Secretary-General on Racial Discrimination and Protection of Minorities (March 2013), para. 46. Available at www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Minorities/ GuidanceNoteRacialDiscriminationMinorities.pdf. 7