Guidelines to Assist National Minority Participation in the Electoral Process Page: 11 It should be noted that although the right to participate in public life may be enshrined in the constitution and in legislation, it is also necessary to ensure that there are no administrative and other barriers preventing persons belonging to national minorities from the full exercise of their rights. Steps should be taken to ensure that: • so far as is feasible, persons belonging to a national minority are made aware in their language of their rights to participate in public life and how those rights may be exercised; • the voter registration process is administered in such a way so as to ensure that persons belonging to a national minority may register without difficulty or material cost. The following kinds of administrative issues are implicated under this head: - so far as is feasible, the registration forms and any explanatory documentation should be in the language of the national minority; - the registration offices should be located and open for registration at places and times that do not make it difficult or costly for a person to register. • a climate is created where persons belonging to a national minority may recruit, canvas, vote, stand for office and participate in public life. The State should openly discourage discrimination and violence against national minorities and take active steps to prevent discrimination and violence and to punish perpetrators of these offences; • impediments are not too onerous preventing persons from standing as candidates or registering as political parties, such as unreasonable costs including the imposition of high deposits; • political party funding legislation should not be discriminatory or unfair. In particular, the issue of external or foreign funding of political parties or national minority movements should not be regulated in a way that is discriminatory; • any funding of political parties from state funds should be non-discriminatory in terms of discrimination between ethnic or national minority groups; • the collection of signatures by candidates is regulated in a manner or form which does not unfairly discriminate against minority groupings; • distribution requirements in terms of requiring parties to field candidates in a specified number of constituencies or regions, do not discriminate; • there should be no restriction on campaigning in a particular language; • language proficiency should not be used for eligibility to register as a voter or to stand for public office; • residence outside the country, particularly in post-conflict situations, where there may be substantial numbers of refugees from a minority grouping, should not be used as an eligibility criteria. The issue of external voting is important insofar as it may affect the rights of minorities.