Check against delivery Fourth session of the UN Forum on Minority Issues on the topic of “Guaranteeing the rights of minority women” (Geneva, 29-30 November 2011) Presentation on “Minority women and effective participation” Ms. Mercedes Barquet, Member of the Working Group on Discrimination against Women in Law and in Practice At the outset allow me, on behalf of the Working Group on Discrimination against Women, to thank the Independent Expert on minority issues, the Chair of the Forum on Minority Issues and OHCHR for this kind invitation to address the Forum on Minority issues. This year’s focus is of particular interest to the Working Group as it addresses multiple forms of discrimination, that is to say the complex layers and interplay of various forms of discrimination that women face because they are women and members of a minority. Let me take this opportunity to shortly say a few words about the Working Group on Discrimination against Women, which was established by the Human Rights Council through resolution 15/23 in October 2010. Members of the Working Group, including myself, took up their functions on 1st May of this year. The Working Group has so far met twice and has adopted its methodological and analytical approaches to its future work. Among the various tasks mandated by the resolution establishing it, the Working Group is to prepare a compendium of best practices related to the elimination of laws that discriminate against women or are discriminatory to women in terms of implementation or impact. It was also tasked to undertake a study on the ways and means of cooperation between the Working Group and States to eliminate discrimination against women in law and in practice and make recommendations on the improvement of legislation and implementation of law to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women. The Working Group intends to carry out these tasks in dialogue and in cooperation with States, human rights mechanisms, inter-governmental bodies, relevant UN entities, regional and national human rights institutions, experts and civil society. The Working Group intends to build on existing standards and initiatives developed by other stakeholders and I was impressed at the wealth of concrete recommendations that have already emanated from the past three years’ sessions of the Forum on minority issues and upon which the Working Group will be able to refer to for its own work. In that respect, let me mention to you that the Working Group will focus its work for the biennium 2012-2013 on two thematic areas. In 2012, the Working Group intends to address, as thematic priority, the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice in public and political life. Within this thematic area, the Working Group intends to pay particular attention to the efforts undertaken to eliminate discrimination against women in law and in practice in times of political transition as situations of political transitions provide a unique opportunity to address women’s participation in the political system and women’s human rights in the legal and social systems as well as through transitional justice mechanisms. In 2013, the Working Group intends to address the issue of discrimination against women in law and practice in economic and social life paying particular attention to those efforts undertaken in times of economic crisis. Needless to say that the 1