A/HRC/44/57/Add.2 representatives focusing on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex issues have expressed their commitment to taking an intersectional approach through which they strive to ensure a meaningful accounting for the needs and experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons belonging to racial, ethnic and religious minority communities. 91. In consultations, it has been suggested that a number of areas require urgent improvement, however, including in the adjudication of asylum claims. Advocates spoke with the Special Rapporteur of their concerns that asylum officers and adjudicators reinforce racial and religious stereotypes. Some asylum officers and adjudicators reportedly conceived of Islam as so fundamentally incompatible with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex status that they tended to consider asylum seekers who identified as both devout Muslims and as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex as not credible. Advocates cited additional examples of asylum officers and adjudicators interrogating asylum-seeking lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons from Muslimmajority countries on their intimate sexual practices. Asylum officers and adjudicators have reportedly challenged such individuals to prove their sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression according to Western European sensibilities or according to stereotypes about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons in Muslim-majority countries. 92. In a positive development, the Immigration and Naturalization Service has introduced instructions for determining and hearing asylum cases involving lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex persons. The Special Rapporteur has learned that the instructions outline special trainings for Immigration and Naturalization Service staff interviewing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex asylum seekers and strengthen the Service’s capacity to investigate discrimination against such persons. The Special Rapporteur urges the Government to build on these efforts and to bridge the gaps remaining between the instructions and existing safeguards for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex asylum seekers. 93. The Netherlands has made great strides to promote gender equality. Consultations held by the Special Rapporteur with national and local authorities highlighted initiatives to take into account intersectionality where women with a migration background faced complex forms of discrimination. Advocates, however, highlighted the need for the Government to deploy a more rigorous intersectional approach to gender equality. Racial and ethnic minority women reported being unable to avail themselves of some gender equality protections, noting that those protections were designed and/or implemented in ways that excluded women on account of their ethnicity, national origin or religion. 94. The Special Rapporteur did not receive submissions addressing the circumstances of racial and ethnic minorities with disabilities. She notes, however, that disability status was the most frequent basis for anti-discrimination complaints received by the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights in 2018. As a result, the Government should ensure that antidiscrimination measures for peoples with disabilities also address the racial and ethnic stereotypes to which minority persons with disabilities are subject. V. Recommendations 95. The Special Rapporteur lists below several categories of recommendations for the Government of the Netherlands. Adopting these recommendations should better position the Government to realize its human rights obligations to achieve racial equality and eradicate discrimination. 96. In respect of political will, and as an overarching matter, the Special Rapporteur calls on the Government to demonstrate further leadership in the pursuit of racial equality and non-discrimination. The Government must consider racial and ethnic equality and non-discrimination a policy priority. To protect the rights of racial and ethnic minorities and to ensure their equality with their white counterparts, the Government must invest sufficient resources and provide technical guidance at all levels. 19