Check against delivery Applied Research Association on Justice . Peace . Development (ara.jpd) Statement at the fifth session of the United Nations Forum on Minority Issues 27/28 November 2012 Thank you Madam Chair, The Applied Research Association on Justice, Peace and Development (ara.jpd) wishes to comment on draft recornmendation 28 on the collection of disaggregated data on ethnicity, religion and language. ara.jpd, a Vienna-based research institution, has-been active in the monitoring of policies targeting minorities, including in Austria. We agree that monitoring the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of. Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities requires clear data to.assess the impact of projects.and policies targeting minorities. United.Nations human rights mechanisms, such as the treaty bodies, as well. as the Forum on Minority Issues, invariably call 'for the need to collect disaggregated data to reveal the socio-economic situation.of minorities and to obtain a reliable picture of the minorities' situation that can then be used as a basis to monitor discrimination, to design sound policies and to develop sustainable interventions. It also allows to assess whether these policies are effective, and to make necessary changes and adjustments. There is indeed often little clear and unambiguous data regarding the socio-economic indicators related to minorities, and the lack of data Can impede the design of policies and programmes that specifically target minorities. Comparability of data is another recurrent issue, which is at times the result of differing research methodologies. The Applied Research Association recognizes that the lack of data on minorities may present a serious obstacle to translating into deeds the promises of the UN Declaration.