secure equal ooprtunities for the participation of Roma minorities or groups in all central and local governmental bodies, to develop modalities and structures of consultation with them, to involve Roma communities and their representatives in the development of Roma policies and programmes and to organize training programmes for them. In another General Recommendation of 2002 on descent-based discrimination, CERD asked the States concerned to take special and concrete measures to guarantee to members of such communities the right to participate in elections, to vote and stand for election on the basis of equal and universal suffrage, and to have due representation in government and legislative bodies. Other documents stipulate also such rights in explicit terms. The UN Declaration of 1982 on the rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and liguistic minorities proclaimed that these persons have the right to participate effectively in cultural, religious, social, economic and public life and to participate effectively in decisions on the national and, where appropriate, regional level concerning the minority to which they belong or the region in which they live, in a manner not incompatible with national legislation. According to the UN Declaration of 2007 on the rights of indigenous peoples, these peoples have the right to participate in decision-making on questions which may concern their rights, through representatives elected by themselves in conformity with their own procedures, as well as the right to preserve and develop their own decisionmaking institutions. The Durban Declaration of the World Conference against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerence recognised the necessity of measures to encourage equal participation of all racial and cultural, linguistic and religious groups in all sectors of society and to achieve appropriate representation in political parties, parliaments, judiciary, police, army and other civil services. The document adopted by consensus at the Durban Review Conference of Geneva in April this year is urging States to encourage political parties to work towards fair representation of national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities within and at all levels of their party system, to ensure that political and legal systems reflect the muticultural diversity of their societies , and to develop more participatory democratic institutions in order to avoid the discrimination, marginalization and exclusion of specific sectors of society.