A/HRC/19/56 Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. Ms. McDougall delivered a statement on “Effective participation of minorities in public life: agenda for 21st century” and participated in a panel discussion on “Reflections on the Central Asian experience and international standards of minority rights”. The event had the objective of raising awareness and advancing the rights of ethnic minorities in Central Asia and set out proposals for future work of OHCHR and national Governments on minority issues in the Central Asian region. During her visit, Ms. McDougall consulted with the President of Kyrgyzstan, Ms. Roza Otunbaeva, on issues relating to minorities. 57. On 26 June 2011 the former independent expert hosted a conference in Geneva, Switzerland, “Discrimination on the basis of work and descent: next steps for engaging the United Nations human rights system”. The event brought together several special procedures mandate holders with mandates relevant to this issue. It included acknowledged experts in the field of discrimination on the basis of work and descent, while other participants had a wide variety of experience of working at the United Nations on other issues and an understanding of how to move forward difficult human rights agendas, engage the system to best effect and to inspire and convince those within the system to take action on behalf of victims. This strategy meeting proposed a range of concrete proposals for action which emerged from the discussions. 58. The former independent expert participated as keynote speaker in a conference “Recognition and the Politics of Identity and Inclusion in the 21st Century: Managing Diversity in Plural Societies” at the University of Hong Kong on 28 and 29 April 2011. At the conference Ms. McDougall highlighted many of the challenges facing minorities today and discussed the thematic work and country visits conducted by her mandate and work carried out in the context of the Forum on Minority Issues, including in the areas of minorities and the right to education, effective participation, and effective participation in economic life. 59. The mandate of the independent expert continued its collaboration with the Indigenous Peoples and Minorities Section of OHCHR in a series of regional expert consultations on effective practices in policing and minority communities, and participated in the regional consultation for Asia and the Pacific held in Bangkok on 30 and 31 May 2011. The goal of the consultations is to promote and share understanding as to good and bad practices in policing and minorities with the objective of creating a tool in the form of a set of guidelines that could serve to provide law enforcement agencies with advice on how best to approach the inclusion of minorities in policing through participation and representation. Expert participants were from Australia, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand, including members of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the Committee on Migrant Workers. United Nations agencies and programmes, including the Economic and Social Commission for Asia, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), UNICEF, UNDP, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) were represented. The Minority Rights Group International, the Human Rights Commission of Thailand and Forum Asia also participated in the consultation. The Deputy Inspector General of the Royal Thai Police represented the Government of Thailand. Country visits 60. The former independent expert, Gay McDougall, visited Rwanda from 31 January to 7 February 2011. She travelled to Kigali and to other regions, where she consulted with people in their communities, some of whom self-identify as Batwa and others who were formerly recognized as Hutu and Tutsi. She pointed out that the Government should be commended for initiatives and positive practices that have contributed towards healing and 15