12th Session of the Forum on Minority Issues “Education, Language and the Human Rights of Minorities” Panel 4: Language, education and the empowerment of minority women and girls Madame Chairperson Ireland welcomes the theme of this year’s Forum on Minority Issues and the focus of this panel discussion on the empowerment of minority women and girls. We would like to thank the panellists for their contributions and the co-chairs of this year’s Forum for their successful stewardship. We also wish to extend our appreciation to the Special Rapporteur on minority issues for his work in this area and reiterate our support for his mandate. Gender equality and the promotion and protection of the rights of women and girls continue to be key policy priorities for Ireland. Across the globe, women belonging to minorities continue to face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, as well as exclusion and marginalisation. With a view to addressing obstacles to women’s equality, Ireland launched its National Strategy for Women and Girls in 2017. The Strategy recognises the specific challenges facing women belonging to minorities and sets out a number of actions with a view to addressing women’s needs across a diversity of identities and situations. In conjunction with the National Traveller and Roma Inclusion Strategy, the Strategy identifies key actions to facilitate the inclusion of women in minorities, including in relation to education. Ireland is also committed, through A Better World, its Policy for International Development, to prioritising education for girls and scaling up our funding to education especially for girls in emergencies. Thank you.