governments, aimed at women; and access to justice and security for women belonging to minorities should also be enhanced. Ms. Nagwa Musa Konda, from the Nuba Mountains in Sudan, made a presentation on the multiple forms of discrimination that might be faced by minority women in view of the current context. With regard to access to education, community schools were used in her region as a result of which a considerable amount of girls belonging to minorities have had access to primary education. In addition to the promotion of girls’ education as a long term strategy, she mentioned the conduct of targeted trainings for potential minority women leaders as well as those who have already gained a seat into Government, in order to build their capacity to effectively fulfill their roles. She further underlined the importance of promoting role models to win the understanding of minority communities, while implementing different activities advocating for a holistic gender mainstreaming. She concluded with recommendations which included: empowering the local communities by strengthening their capacity through different forms of education and targeted training; NGOs should take the lead in working for the rights of minority women and girls with multiple stakeholders including national and international human rights institutions, and the private; International Development Agencies must have training on minority, gender and human rights issues to effectively work to identify barriers to development and remedy the root causes of multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination faced by minority women. Discussion The Chairperson opened the floor for discussion14. During the discussion under items VI, participants raised the following issues in relation to national practices and experiences: positive measures/affirmative action and role models: • • • The representative of one State indicated that minority women in that State enjoy special constitutional rights with regard to protecting their own language and culture in the country. Minority women and girls have a whole set of legal means at their disposal to deal with discrimination and they are supported in this by the ombudsperson for equal treatment and the equal treatment commission. The representative explained that protection measures to deal with violence against women and trafficking have also been expanded and improved, including a network of intervention centres that has been established across the country. Examples of practices in gathering reliable gender-specific data across minority groups which are critical in assessing improvement with regard to the situation of minority women were given. The importance of taking into account the rights of minority women in a postconflict context was also discussed as well as the many remaining challenges to 14 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 24