United Nations Forum on Minority Issues – Inaugural session Geneva, 15th – 16th December 2008 Intervention by Anastasia Crickley __________________________________________________________________ _ I welcome and would like to thank you for the opportunity to participate in today’s important discussion on Minorities and the Right to Education. I particularly welcome the choice of the right to education as topic for this first Forum on Minority Issues and welcome the approach taken by Gay McDougall and her colleagues to the Forum’s organisation and process towards inclusiveness and participation and thank you Madam Chairperson, Victória Mohácsi, MEP. Education is a fundamentally important tool for empowerment of minorities and marginalised so that rights denied, including the right to education, can be named and claimed by all. In my intervention as well as drawing in particular on my role as Personal Representative to the Chairman in Office of OSCE on Combating Racism, Xenophobia and Discrimination, also focusing on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians and Members of Other Religions, I will also refer to the work of the European Union Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) which I have the honour to chair as well as my work with Roma, Sinti and Travellers and migrants over three decades and finally in Ireland