the Forum, including representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), academia and experts as well as delegates from United Nations member States.1 A note by the Independent Expert on minority issues, Ms Rita Izsák, on “Guaranteeing the rights of minority women” and a set of draft recommendations has been made available to all Forum participants prior to the session, and formed the basis for the discussions2. Format of the Forum The Forum followed the procedure that has been developed over the past three sessions and has proven successful. To help focus the discussions during the two days of the Forum and ensure that they would be highly inter-active, each agenda item was introduced by a few pre-determined presentations, most of which were provided by minority women. These presentations were followed by additional interventions from all participants, based on a sign-up sheet. Forum Reports The present document is prepared in accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 6/15 which requests the Chair to prepare “a summary of the discussion of the Forum, to be made available to all participants of the Forum”. This summary complements the outcome document containing the recommendations from the Forum that will be presented by the Independent Expert on minority issues to the Human Rights Council at its 19th Regular Session in March 2012. This summary does not provide the full details of all presentations made during the Forum’s proceedings. However, the consolidated list of speakers and, where available, the full text of the presentations can be found on the Forum’s website at the following address: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/minority/session4.htm Item I. Opening statements3 Ms. Navanethem Pillay4, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, attended and made a statement in which she underlined that, by bringing together different actors from within and outside of the United Nations system, the Forum has been essential in providing valuable guidance to the work of her Office, the Independent Expert on minority issues and other actors at international, regional and national levels. 1 The list of the organizations and delegations that participated in the Forum is available on the website of the Forum on Minority Issues: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/minority/docs/session4/ListofdelegationorganizationtotheFourthForumonMinority.pdf 2 See A/HRC/FMI/2011/2 and A/HRC/FMI/2011/3 available on the Forum’s website. 3 The full text of the opening statements is available on the Forum’s website: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/minority/session4.htm 4 The High Commissioner delivered her statement on 30 November due to other commitments. 2