6  •  Guidance Note of the Secretary-General on Racial Discrimination and Protection of Minorities mendations of human rights mechanisms, including those devoted to racial discrimination and rights of persons belonging to minorities.7 12. A human rights–based approach is crucial in development programming as it analyses the underlying and structural causes of the violations of rights; assesses the capacities of both rights holders and duty bearers; and supports capacity development measures, including by examining the causes of non-realization of rights for persons belonging to minorities and building capacity to exercise and fulfil these rights. 3. Address multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination 13. The UN action and policies need to take into account the prevalence of multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination. They need to reflect particular experiences within minority communities of common targets of multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, such as minority women, stateless persons, internally displaced persons, persons with disabilities, older persons, children, people living with HIV and LGBT persons. UN entities, together with other partners, should support measures to identify and address such discrimination, as part of States parties’ obligations under human rights treaties and taking into account the relevant recommendations by treaty bodies, special procedures and other human rights mechanisms, including UPR. Dissemination of success stories should also be supported. 14. Addressing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination requires a holistic look at the way societies are organized and at the differential impact of discrimination on the various groups within it. Such an approach has revealed, for example, that in many countries minorities face particular challenges with respect to the implementation of the right to health; they are disproportionately affected by poor-health, malnutrition and diseases, and HIV/AIDS prevalence among minority groups is far higher than within the majority population. This is due to a variety of legal, social and structural barriers and constructs as well as stigma, which in many cases amount to discrimination. Moreover, people living with HIV are often stigmatized and discriminated against because of their HIV status, thus further compounding multiple forms of discrimination. The UN must be sensitive to these realities and ensure that programmes and policies on health, education and other pertinent fields address the needs of persons belonging to minorities. 4. Apply a gender perspective 15. As the Durban Declaration and the Programme of Action states, “racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance reveal themselves in a differentiated manner for women and girls, and can be among 7 The term “international standards” refer to norms and standards contained and developed under the core international human rights treaties as well as relevant instruments of specialized agencies, and the term “human rights mechanisms” is meant to include the Charter- and Treaty-based bodies as well as monitoring and standard-setting mechanisms of relevant instruments of the specialized agencies, such as the ILO supervisory bodies.