Madame chair,
I would like to offer some recommendations on how to strengthen,mechanisms for
minority participation in the spaces of global governance:
1. Structures of global governance that engage with civil society should ensure that
minority groups are able to participate in decision-making that will affect them; for
example, the UNDP Civil Society Advisory Committee could, in addition to the
current indigenous actor, include alSo other minority actor representatives.
2. Encourage states and other donors to provide adequate resources to a UN
Voluntary Fund for' Minorities and to create similar structures at the regional level
for engagement in regional organisations like the OAS, ASEAN, SAARC or the
OSCE to enable minority actors to participate in global governance structures
whose decisions affect them
3. Governments should be encouraged to create bilateral or regional structures for
cooperation on issues of concern to minorities who exist across borders, either for
reasons of migration or kin groups.
In the words of one minority actor from Iran, these international spaces are vital for
facilitating 'voices of moderation', particularly where domestic politics are blocked, and
such space can enable minority groups to be subjects - not objects - in .international
society.