A/HRC/58/34 6. The impact of the Practical Guide has already been significant. Since the beginning of the year, public authorities and national human rights institutions in Australia, Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico have initiated anti-discrimination law reform projects, citing the Practical Guide as both the reason for doing so and the basis for recommendations to begin revisions of national law. In addition, in Armenia, Costa Rica and Japan the Practical Guide is being used by civil society organizations advocating for new laws. In the period 2025– 2027, OHCHR plans to support efforts at the national level in 34 countries that work on equality law reform. 7. In March, OHCHR, Equal Rights Trust and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) organized a panel discussion on the theme of “Protecting minority rights: towards comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation” for parliamentarians taking part in the IPU Assembly. The aims of the panel discussion were to raise parliamentary awareness of the need for, and necessary contents of, comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation, in line with the Practical Guide, share good practices on the parliamentary process for the adoption of comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation, discuss common challenges and problems in legislating in this area and identify potential solutions, including the role of IPU. 8. In November, during the seventeenth session of the Forum on Minority Issues, OHCHR held a side event on the theme of “Protecting minority rights: towards comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation”. The aim of the side event was to raise awareness of the need for, and necessary contents of, comprehensive anti-discrimination law, in line with the Practical Guide. The side event provided an opportunity to share good practices on adopting comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation and on their positive impacts, as well as to discuss common challenges and problems in legislating in this area and identify potential solutions. 9. In November, the OHCHR Regional Office for South-East Asia and Equal Rights Trust joined forces in a workshop to support civil society organizations in Indonesia working toward the adoption of a comprehensive anti-discrimination law. At the request of the Indonesian organizations, the workshop focused on how to address questions of enforcement in the draft bill. The workshop was the first of three online workshops planned to support the process of legislative drafting in Indonesia. B. Promotion of comprehensive anti-discrimination legislation by the human rights treaty bodies 10. In July, in its concluding observations on the fourth periodic report of India, the Human Rights Committee expressed concern at the absence of a comprehensive anti-discrimination law that provided full and effective protection as required under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, as well as at the lack of effective judicial and administrative remedies against discrimination. The Committee recommended, inter alia, that India adopt comprehensive legislation prohibiting discrimination, including intersectional, direct and indirect discrimination in both the public and the private sectors and on all grounds prohibited under the Covenant, and ensure access to effective and appropriate remedies for victims.2 11. In August, in its concluding observations on the combined twentieth to twenty-seventh periodic reports of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed concern about the lack of an explicit definition of racial discrimination on all the grounds enumerated in article 1 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and of an express prohibition of intersecting forms of discrimination or structural, direct and indirect racial discrimination in the national legislative framework. The Committee also expressed concern that some articles of the Islamic Penal Code seriously endangered and disproportionately restricted the legitimate exercise by members of ethnic and ethno-religious minority groups of the rights to freedom of expression and of association and allowed for arbitrary arrest and detention and for harsh punishment and the use of the death 2 GE.25-00006 CCPR/C/IND/CO/4, paras. 13 and 14 (a). 3