A/HRC/52/71 (d) Providing clear legal protection for minorities, including in situations of armed conflict; (e) Placing greater emphasis on minorities’ socioeconomic and cultural rights; (f) Calling for flexible adoption of constitutional provisions by States parties that will not restrict the scope of minority protection to citizens only, but will extend it to non-citizens belonging to minorities; (g) Enshrining in the protection of minorities inclusion on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. 16. All States should align their legislation with the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities. 17. All States must elaborate, adopt and implement normative frameworks to protect and promote the linguistic rights of minorities which should guarantee, among other things, access to public services in minority languages. 18. All States should take all appropriate measures to ensure the respect, protection and fulfilment of the right of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities to continued instruction in their mother tongue throughout all levels of their education, including preschool and tertiary education. 19. States should revise laws and practices, including laws on building and construction that are invoked in the management of religious centres and places of worship, that restrict the activities of religious minorities based on public order and national security concerns and ensure that laws regulating the activities of religious organizations are in conformity with international human rights standards. 20. All States should ensure that minorities are represented in the development of policies and laws aimed at their inclusion through affirmative action, such as quotas in parliaments and by considering alternative methods of representation, such as consociationalism. 21. All States, the United Nations and regional organizations should acknowledge that the minority question, especially in postcolonial States, is intrinsically connected to the decolonization process and the creation of new States. Thus, they should acknowledge the special status of minorities, compared to other vulnerable groups, in relevant international and national legal norms and their implementation. 22. All States and the United Nations need to devise a more specific provision for the meaningful participation of minorities in development decision-making, in both individual and collective capacities, building on article 2 of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities. 23. All States should develop long-term, comprehensive policies for combating negative stereotypes of, and discrimination against, minority individuals and groups, and should promote intercultural understanding by, among other things, the teaching of the culture and history of minorities in the national curriculum. 24. State policies should acknowledge the diversity of minority groups, including Roma, and address any intersectional discrimination they might be facing. 25. All States, the United Nations and international and regional organizations should identify, mainstream, maintain and renew best practices on minority language policies such as official multilingualism and the use of minority languages in education, State institutions, toponymy and the public media and their promotion in all possible areas. 26. All States, the United Nations, international and regional organizations, civil society and businesses should ensure that their efforts to eliminate racial discrimination include caste- and descent-based discrimination. 4 GE.22-29477