effective, however, these rights often need to be exercised in community with others. Under international law, States have the obligation to respect, protect and fulfill human rights. This applies also to minority rights. Key Messages Minorities have the right:     to exist to non-discrimination to protection of their identity to participate in public life and in decision-making that affects them Recognition of minorities facilitates development: if minorities are not recognized, steps to ensure they benefit equally from development cannot be implemented easily or directly. Recognition facilitates peaceful coexistence: the failure to recognize minorities and the marginalisation they face can create inter-communal tensions and even conflict. Recognition facilitates democratic governance: participatory and multicultural States acknowledge the diversity of communities that constitute the polity. Recognition also facilitates the protection of other minority rights. Recognition may enable:   3.2 RECOGNITION: Recognition of minorities facilitates the protection of minority rights. There is no right to recognition per se in international law. Recognition of minority groups by the State is not a necessary condition for claiming minority protection but it may help. The existence of minorities is a matter of fact, rather than a matter of law. According to the UN Human Rights Committee, such existence ‘does not depend upon a decision by that State party but [must] be established by objective criteria’.9 Even in the absence of legal recognition of minorities by the State, de facto recognition may assist States to acknowledge and respond to the problems faced by minorities. States will be able to better tackle inequality and reduce tensions within their societies if they acknowledge that ethnic, cultural, religious and linguistic diversity exists, and that groups may face discrimination and exclusion along these lines. the collection of disaggregated data identification of discrimination based on ethnicity religion, language or descent  participation in stakeholder consultations  access to citizenship  minority language education and media  affirmative action in employment. Key Messages  Recognition of minorities is instrumental for development interventions.  Recognition aids in participation, data collection, monitoring and evaluation. Human Rights Committee, General Comment 23, The rights of minorities (Article 27), UN Doc. CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.5 (8 April 1994): paragraph 5.2 9 16 M A R G I N A L I S E D M I N O R I T I E S I N D E V E LO P M E N T P R O G R A M M I N g