Discussion During the discussion under item III, the following issues were raised: - the importance of setting up early warning systems, monitoring the human rights situation of minorities, in order to prevent escalation of conflicts. - the situation of Muslim minority in Myanmar. - the national efforts to guarantee peaceful coexistence of diverse components of societies. - the absence of human rights, and denial of minorities linguistic and cultural rights, and lack of participation of minorities in decision making processes can eventually lead to a humanitarian crisis. - the situation of Roma in conflict zone in Ukraine. Item IV. Protecting minority rights during crises This session identified some of the needs of minorities, including the specific needs of minority women and children, during humanitarian crises and assessed the risk they run of suffering disproportionately from the impact of such crises. Participants reflected on various factors that perpetuate the disproportionate impact of crises on minorities and discussed the need to develop more targeted strategies and to increase aid and security investments to better meet the specific needs of minorities. Participants exchanged about ways to ensure that minorities are not discriminated against in the process of delivering humanitarian assistance, and addressed the wide range of situations in which minorities can find themselves during a humanitarian crisis, including being forcefully displaced, trapped between conflict lines, dispersed or forced to flee to another state to seek international protection or to fulfil a life that is no longer sustainable in their fractured societies. Ms Michele Klein-Solomon, Director of the Migrants in Crisis Initiative, International Migration Organization (IOM), spoke of the State-led “Migrants in Countries in Crisis” Initiative, an initiative engaging international organizations, civil society organizations and private sector to look at the risks and vulnerabilities that migrants experience when crises occur, and look at what can be done to reduce vulnerability, enhance protection and promote solutions. The particularities of migrants throughout the three phases of a crisis is directly analogous to the situation of ethnic, national, religious and linguistic minorities going through crisis. Migrants, as well as other forms of minority populations are not accounted for in disaster response planning, and while nationals, as a majority population, will be affected by a crisis situation, minorities like migrants will experience additional barriers and vulnerabilities because of their unique characteristics. Such barriers include language barriers, cultural differences, lack of cultural connection with authorities, and unclear legal status, all of which thwart the possibility to come forward in a crisis situation and identify themselves for protection and assistance. Following consultations on good practices in six regions, a series of core principles emerged, providing targeted measures to overcome barriers, key principles as well as guidelines addressed to the pre-crisis preparedness phase, to the actual emergency 8