A/HRC/28/27 They explored key challenges and the role of forced evictions as a major threat to the obligations of States to recognize, respect, protect and fulfil human rights. During the discussions, the situation of women and children was highlighted, as they were particularly vulnerable to tenure insecurity, and to other human rights violations resulting from forced evictions. The vulnerability of Roma women to intersecting forms of discrimination that were manifested, for example, in stigmatization, marginalization and sexual violence increased when they fell victim to forced eviction. The participants pointed out that ensuring women’s security of tenure was crucial, regardless of age or marital, civil or social status, and independently of their relationships with male household or community members. The experts identified good practices that could be relied upon to prevent forced evictions and to secure the right to adequate housing. Minorities Fellowship Programme 6. The annual Minorities Fellowship Programme was held between 27 October and 28 November 2014. The fellowship enables individuals from minority groups to familiarize themselves with the United Nations human rights machinery and to reinforce their advocacy skills. Former OHCHR minority fellows have become leaders in minority rights advocacy, as exemplified by Rita Izsák, the current Special Rapporteur on minority issues. 7. In 2014, the programme was strengthened, including through the introduction of a practical training module that covered project design, effective fund-raising for human rights, and documenting human rights violations. A Russian-language component was added. The OHCHR Minorities Fellowship Programme benefits from interpretation into Arabic, English and Russian. In 2014, the fellows came from Egypt, Estonia, Georgia, Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Mauritania, Nepal, Nicaragua, Pakistan, the Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen. The Senior Minority Fellowship Programme brought to Geneva a minority advocate from Lithuania who worked within the Indigenous Peoples and Minorities Section of OHCHR in order to gain specialized knowledge that she could take back to her community. In parallel, as part of the National Minority Fellowship, two minority fellows continued their training by working with United Nations presences and human rights institutions in Colombia and Nigeria. B. Regional and country engagement activities: selected areas of focus 8. Many serious human rights violations targeting minorities were denounced by the High Commissioner during the reporting period. For example, the High Commissioner made several statements regarding gross violations by the takfiri group, the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). On 25 September 2014, he expressed his “deep dismay at the situation facing hundreds of captured Yezidi women and girls, as well as some from other ethnic and religious groups, who have reportedly been sold into slavery, forced into marriage and repeatedly raped by ISIL fighters since their home areas were overrun in August.” The High Commissioner said, “these latest killings, and the ongoing abductions and enslavement of women and children, illustrate the utterly poisonous nature of this takfiri group, and demonstrate the similarities between it and other groups such as Boko Haram in Nigeria, which is also treating large numbers of women and girls in an abominable fashion. The fact that such groups try to attract more people to their cause by asserting that their acts are supported by Islam is a further gross perversion.”1 1 4 Statement to the Security Council, on Iraq, by Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, 18 November 2014.