National Human Rights and Minority Rights Institutions: Support to National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) to improve their capacity to protect minority rights could be encouraged. In addition to improvements in non-discrimination legislation and enforcement, NHRIs may need guidance on the content and application of minority rights. Issues such as linguistic rights (e.g. mother tongue education), freedom of religion, freedom to practice one’s culture, citizenship entitlements and regional autonomy can be complex areas of law with which some NHRIs are not adequately familiar. Examples of good practice in regions where minority rights issues have been well addressed by national legislation and institutions could be disseminated. Information on best practice in treaty body reporting on minority issues would also be useful, both for state reports and NGO shadow reporting. Some States have created statutory bodies specifically to monitor minority rights. For example, the Government of Serbia has established the Agency for Human and Minority Rights. Its responsibilities include: monitoring the harmonization of local regulations with international standards for human and minority rights; reporting on the implementation of international agreements on human and minority rights; supporting the Council of National Minorities; and establishing connections between national minorities and their countries of origin. In Vietnam, the Committee for Ethnic Minorities (CEMA) is a ministerial level agency with numerous duties including to: coordinate government ministries on laws, policies and programmes pertaining to ethnic minorities; draft laws and regulations pertaining to ethnic minorities; conduct surveys and research on ethnic minority groups of Vietnam; monitor the implementation of policies on ethnic minorities; and consider petitions of citizens regarding these policies.26 The Government of India has established a National Commission for Scheduled Castes. The Commission can investigate individual complaints, advise on government policy vis-à-vis Scheduled Castes and monitor general trends in the implementation of relevant legislation.27 The Government of Nepal established a similar body in 2002, the National Dalit Commission. In 2003, the Government of Brazil created the Special Secretariat for the Promotion of Racial Equality (SEPPIR) at the ministerial level, the first institution of its kind in Latin America. SEPPIR works closely with a National Council of Racial Equality Promotion, consisting of 20 representatives of civil society, including representatives of ethnic and religious minorities, and government actors. There are numerous combinations of electoral structures and policy interventions that can be adopted and ‘hybrid’ systems are increasingly common. Options include: adoption of a proportional representation voting scheme; exemptions for minimal voting share threshold for minority parties; redrawing of electoral district boundaries to increase the influence of minority voters; requirements that party voting lists include a certain percentage of minority candidates; and designating seats for minorities in parliament. In post-conflict states, power-sharing models may need to be developed, although experience suggests that even in these systems space should be left for multi-ethnic parties to participate. Source: A. Reynolds, Electoral Systems and the Protection and Participation of Minorities, London: MRG, 2006. See http://cema.gov.vn/index.php (accessed 9 August 2009). 26 See http://ncsc.nic.in/index.asp (accessed 9 August 2009). 27 50 M A R G I N A L I S E D M I N O R I T I E S I N D E V E LO P M E N T P R O G R A M M I N g