• • Ensuring accountability for violation of minority women’s rights and helping them in ensuring their equal access to justice. The importance of the necessary political will to recognise minority groups within a State and that of involving minorities, including women, in resources management and the establishment of protected areas were also highlighted. Item VII. Concrete steps aimed at guaranteeing the rights of minority women Under this agenda item, discussion focused on improving the draft recommendations with a view to formulate practical policies, actions or programmes that would ensure the full enjoyment of the rights of minority women and generate a greater degree of participation in private and public life at the national, regional and local levels. Discussion The Chairperson opened the floor for discussion15. During the discussion under item VII, the following comments and/or suggestions of amendments to the draft recommendations were made by Forum participants: • • • • • • • The scope of the recommendations should be extended to minority girls in addition to minority women, in line with the Declaration on Minorities. The need to collect and disseminate data disaggregated not only by ethnicity and sex but also by nationality, religion and language in accordance with the Declaration on Minorities was reiterated. Paragraph 24 of the recommendations should be amended as follows: “in areas where minority predominantly live, knowledge of the minority language by public sectors employees would be an asset”. The following should be added to paragraph 48: “To warrant equal opportunity for women belonging to national minorities, it is essential that they and their children be offered the opportunity, upon their request, to have access to education in their minority language, without impeding the high level acquisition of the official state language”. Additional details about the specific experiences of minority women in conflict, particularly in reference to the issue of one-sided or state-sponsored violence should be included in the recommendations. The need to adopt a holistic approach to the situation of minority women. The need to acknowledge that harmful practices are not only found in minority communities. 15 The list of speakers, and when available the full text of their presentations, can be found on the Forum’s web site at: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/minority/session4.htm 26