12 November 2009 UN Forum on Minorities Agenda Item 4 Conditions required for effective political participation Delivered by: Dr. Corinne Lennox, Lecturer in Human Rights, University of London, UK Corinne.Lennox@sas.ac.uk Madame Chairperson, I would like to address the subject of conditions required for the effective participation of minorities in institutions of global governance. Political opportunities in the domestic sphere often are blocked or ineffective for minority actors. In an effort to open these domestic political spaces, minority actors use spaces in the international sphere to engage in political dialogue with their own state actors, international organisations and other states. In the halls of international governance structures, barriers of discrimination can be less institutionalised, opportunities for dialogue with state actors can be more open and mobilisation among minority communities can be stronger. Minorities also are often affected differently by challenges faced in the global . commons. For example, environmental degradation can cause further harm to minorities who face environmental racism domestically. Minority participation in decision-making over solutions to these global problems is often weak. They typically are not invited to make recommendations based on their own experience and expertise that would help address these global problems — for example, minority actors could advise on, strategies to ensure that responses to the global economic crisis take account of discrimination and its impact on limiting access to financial services by minorities. Minority actors are often excluded from existing civil society participation structures in global governance. In the Central American Free Trade Agreement, for example, a civil society consultation mechanism was created but Afro-descendants were not given a seat until they mobilised .to demand one. In the UN, there has been decreasing space for consideration.of minority issues. While the UN Voluntary Fund for Indigenous Peoples has had some US$ 4.1 million in voluntary contributions from states and other actors over the period 1992-2007, there has been no corresponding Fund for minorities.1 The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues meets for 10 working days per year, the UN Forum on Minorities for 2 working days. The, recent Durban Review