A/HRC/19/71
discrimination against them. States should consider issuing a national status report or a
white paper on the status of minority women.
19.
Governments should evaluate and, where necessary, improve minority women’s
access to information, including with regard to such areas as service provision, social and
child services and health care. Where appropriate, this should be provided in their mother
tongue and to those living in remote regions, and should include measures to facilitate
access to and use of new information technologies, including social media.
20.
Governments should take measures to identify and integrate consideration of
minority women and the intersectional dimensions of discrimination, as well as a gender
and minority perspective, in all national programmes, policies and initiatives relevant to
minorities. Decisions on policy choices should be fully transparent and made with the full
and effective participation of minority women. Obstacles preventing minority women’s
participation in decision-making should be identified and addressed by prioritizing the
development of a systematic and consistent approach to identifying, evaluating, monitoring
and eliminating existing forms of discrimination against minority women and girls.
21.
Governments should systematically include principles of gender equality in their
planning and budgeting processes and policies, and allocate adequate resources to projects
to address the priorities of minority women. Where they have gender-sensitive budgets,
Governments should ensure that these include minority women, as should Governments
where they have budgets for minorities or marginalized groups.
22.
Governments should build multidimensional partnerships at the national and local
levels with ministries, training institutions, parliaments, minority groups, women's
organizations and, more broadly, civil society organizations operating at policy or
community levels. When working on gender equality and minority rights, all should
collaborate in the development of clear, long-term strategies and programmes that reflect
the needs, expectations, priorities and agendas of the different minority groups in society
and minority women belonging to these particular groups. These programmes could include
training sessions tailored for minority women in leadership and negotiation skills, as well as
in civic representation.
23.
Governments should work together with minority communities, minority and
women’s rights organizations to develop and implement programmes to sensitize minority
women about their rights, and men about minority women’s rights. Carefully designed and
implemented public sensitization programmes should also address discrimination and
violence against minority women perpetrated by both majority communities and in minority
communities. Such public sensitization programmes should be sensitively carried out so
that they do not exacerbate discrimination against the minority communities.
24.
Efforts to identify and address violence against minority women should be made in
close collaboration with local and minority institutions and existing administrative
structures. Governments should also ensure that their strategies to tackle violence against
women include – and are culturally sensitive and relevant to – all women, including by
reflecting the views, opinions and experiences of minority women, and make sure that they
have full access to protection and effective remedies. Violence against women occurs in all
communities, not only minority communities, and minority women have the right to
protection as much as majority women.
25.
Government and law enforcement officials, social workers, health professionals and
other relevant actors should receive training on non-discrimination, women’s rights and
violence against women, including domestic violence, and on the particular situation of
minority women who may be disadvantaged or vulnerable. In areas where minorities
predominantly live, public sector employees should be encouraged to have at least a basic
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