PART THREE: PROTECTING MINORITY RIGHTS As noted above, in 2011, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women and the Committee on the Rights of the Child adopted detailed guidance on ending harmful practices, including aspects of these questions related to minorities, and in particular the need to avoid stigmatizing them.1049 IV. LANGUAGE, LINGUISTIC MINORITIES, DISCRIMINATION, EQUALITY AND INCLUSION PART THREE Articles 2 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, article 2 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and article 2 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child all prohibit discrimination on the basis of language. Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights makes specific provision for the rights of linguistic minorities and also identifies language as means for identifying “those who belong to a group” sharing a common culture.1050 In particular, as concerns linguistic minorities, the Human Rights Committee has elaborated that: The right of individuals belonging to a linguistic minority to use their language among themselves, in private or in public, is distinct from other language rights protected under the Covenant. In particular, it should be distinguished from the general right to freedom of expression protected under article 19.1051 The Human Rights Committee has also held that positive measures by States “may also be necessary to protect the identity of a minority and the rights of its members to enjoy and develop their culture and language … in community with the other members of the group”. 1052 The Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities reaffirms that linguistic minorities have the right “to use their own language, in private and in public, freely and without interference or any form of discrimination”; “to participate effectively in cultural, religious, social, economic and public life”; “to participate effectively in decisions on the national and, where appropriate, regional level concerning the minority to which they belong or the regions in which they live”; “to establish and maintain their own associations”; and “to establish and maintain, without any discrimination, free and peaceful contacts with other members of their group and with persons belonging to other minorities, as well as contacts across frontiers with citizens of other States to whom they are related by national or ethnic, religious or linguistic ties”.1053 Guidance on access to public services in minority languages has been elaborated in a number of areas, as well as affirmed in cases adjudicated at the supranational level, such as: • The right to vote and participate in electoral services through the provision of these services in minority languages where minorities are concentrated in sufficient numbers.1054 • The right to education in, and teaching of, minority languages.1055 • The right to access government services in minority languages in general, where appropriate.1056 1049 Joint general recommendation No. 31 of Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women/general comment No. 18 of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (2019). 1050 Human Rights Committee, general comment No. 23 (1994), para. 5.1. 1051 Ibid., para. 5.3. 1052 Ibid., para. 6.2. 1053 Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, art. 2. 1054 See, for example, High Commissioner on National Minorities of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, “The Lund recommendations on the effective participation of national minorities in public life and explanatory note” (The Hague, 1999). Available at www.osce.org/files/f/documents/0/9/32240.pdf. 1055 Human Rights Committee, Mavlonov and Sa’di v. Uzbekistan (CCPR/C/95/D/1334/2004). 1056 Human Rights Committee, Diergaardt et al. v. Namibia (CCPR/C/69/D/760/1997). 153