However, she noted the impact of the current recession on women in general and minority women in particular. Lasting progress will only be achieved for minority women by minority women she noted. Ms Crickley concluded with recommendations including: there needs to be explicit mainstreaming of the rights of minority women including when women’s rights are considered by treaty bodies; measuring is essential and special measures and positive actions need to be taken; there is a need to go beyond the idea of the equality of opportunity as the goal, to equality of participation, equality of outcome, and to the measuring of impact; there is a need to link rights, recognition, and redistribution and ensure that these go hand in hand, so that the most vulnerable and disadvantaged women from minorities, can share progress and realise their rights. Ms. Soyata Maiga, Special Rapporteur on the rights of women in Africa of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, first gave an overview of the legal framework for the promotion and protection of women’s right in Africa, including the recently-adopted Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the rights of Women in Africa. She then focused on the challenges that might be faced specifically by women belonging to minorities in Africa, including in terms of access to justice, quality education and healthcare. She informed Forum participants of the different measures that have been taken at the level of the African system for the promotion and protection of human rights to address those challenges, including the establishment of the mandate that she has been entrusted with. She concluded by mentioning additional obstacles to the full implementation of the existing standards such as past and on-going conflicts in some African States and the famine that has hit the Horn of Africa, and their impact on women belonging to minority groups. Mr. Leonardo Reales Jimenéz, from Columbia, presented on the situation of AfroDescendant women in Latin America. He noted that the poverty, exclusion and racial discrimination that they have historically faced are structural problems that should be of concern to NGOs, governments and international institutions. He underlined that the region urgently needed its minority women to have equal access to the education systems and health services, as well as to loans and labour markets in order to stimulate social development. He suggested that there is a socio-political context in which Afro-Latinas suffer permanent violations of their rights, although many public and private institutions disregard the existence of problems affecting Afro-descendant women. He noted that these abuses often began at the family level and that there had been many cases of AfroLatino girls who had been direct victims of gender and racial discrimination in their schools. He noted that most people in the region did not recognize such abuses as human rights issues and that distinct stereotypes against Afro-Latinas are perpetuated, reinforcing their exclusion and lack of empowerment at all levels. The media had been one of the main reproducers of racism and gender discrimination in the region. He highlighted strategies to help overcome the current situation regarding education, including: the importance of strengthening Afro-descendant networks in order to design and implement inclusion projects and programmes; the need to establish clear priorities to 6