February 2006 police have generated negative reactions among national minority communities in a number of situations and even become a conflict catalyst. In contrast, the HCNM has seen in other States how efforts to make the police service more representative of the community it serves and to enhance communication between police and national minority communities not only strengthened inter-ethnic relations but also increased the operational effectiveness of police. Reflecting this important role of the police, the HCNM engaged in a process of analysis of international standards and practices in the area of policing. To this end, the HCNM, in consultation with the Strategic Police Matters Unit in the OSCE Secretariat, appointed a consultant (Dr Robin Oakley, independent consultant and Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Ethnic Minority Studies, Royal Holloway - University of London) to advise him and brought together a group of highly experienced experts comprising representatives of relevant international organizations along with senior police officers, independent experts and non-governmental actors with particular expertise in the field. An initial meeting of the experts was convened by the HCNM in June 2005, followed by a meeting in October and a concluding meeting in December. As a result of this process, the following set of recommendations on policing in multiethnic societies was elaborated. The independent experts were: Mr. Steve Bennett, Director, Police Education and Development, OSCE Mission in Kosovo; Ms. Ilze Brands Kehris, Director, Latvian Centre for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies; Dr Anastasia Crickley, Chairperson, European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia; Mr. Francesc Guillen, Chief of Staff, Deputy Minister of the Interior, Government of Catalunya, Spain; Professor Kristin Henrard, Department of International and Constitutional Law, University of Groningen; Dr Gordan Kalajdziev, Member Executive Board, Macedonian Helsinki Committee on Human Rights; Dr Jenô Kaltenbach, Parliamentary Commissioner of Hungary for National and Ethnic Minorities Rights; Mr. Michael Kellett, Representative of the Network of Police and Human Rights Co-ordinators of the Council of Europe, Head of North West Regional Asset Recovery Team, United Kingdom; Dr Robin Oakley, Independent Consultant; Mr. Stig Odorf, Police Unit, General Secretariat of the European Union, Council of the European Union; Mr. Timothy Parsons, Hate Crimes Expert, OSCE ODIHR Tolerance and Non-Discrimination Programme; Mr. Karl Pettersson, Police Affairs Officer, Strategic Police Matters Unit, OSCE Secretariat; Mr. Ivan Shushkevich, Police Colonel (ret.), Deputy Director General, 2