A/51/536 English Page 37 Minority Rights Group 141. The Minority Rights Group had recently embarked on a new venture which it hoped would have a significant impact on the participation of minority groups in the United Nations Working Group on Minorities. 142. The Minority Rights Group had run a training workshop in Geneva, from 27 April to 4 May 1996, just prior to the Working Group. Those who participated in the training had come from organizations working for minority rights in Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, the Baltic countries, Africa and Eastern Europe. 143. In addition to the training workshop, brief meetings had been held during the Working Group session allowing participants to learn about specific international instruments and the mechanisms of the United Nations in the field of minority protection before they attended the Working Group session. The contributions made by the participants at the Working Group were particularly welcome because they submitted first-hand information on situations involving minorities, and engaged governmental and non-governmental representatives in discussion, which had led to the adoption of useful recommendations by the Working Group. 144. Through that training initiative, the Minority Rights Group had offered representatives of minority groups the opportunity to participate in the Working Group, and to learn about the procedures and mechanisms in the field of minority protection at the regional and international levels, thereby allowing them to better focus some of their activities in the future. The training had also provided an opportunity for the representatives of different minority groups to get to know each other, to exchange information, to identify similar problems, to learn from other groups’ experience, and to work together. The Group hoped that further to that initiative, a larger number of minority groups would be able to participate in the future sessions of the working group. 145. The Group was currently looking at ways of developing that work so that minorities could work towards identifying their own training needs and develop their own networks. Further projects of that kind would, it was hoped, involve closer links with other non-governmental organizations, interested Governments and international organizations. IX. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 146. The contributions made in the Commission on Human Rights and the Subcommission, on the promotion and protection of the rights of persons belonging to minorities by States, agencies, and intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations about situations involving minorities, proved most valuable. The submission of information about concrete situations should be further encouraged, and it is recommended that the Commission and Subcommission continue, at their future sessions, to discuss the rights of persons belonging to minorities as well as the measures taken to reduce ethnic and religious tensions between various groups. /...