Ms. Risha Syed, human rights lawyer from the North Indian State of Uttar Pradesh, presented on “Moving forward: a way ahead” focusing on the challenges faced by the Muslim community in India including in terms of access to education, employment in the public and private sectors, and access to Government schemes and programmes. She indicated that a Ministry of Minority Affairs had been established to look into matters relevant to minorities with specific funds allocated towards their development. She however expressed concerns that efforts to implement programmes that had been developed to this end were met with serious problems in terms of implementation, including due to corruption in some instances, and that it remained a difficult task for those who wished to avail of the benefits of relevant schemes. She concluded by expressing the need for more monitoring of programmes designed to implement the Declaration and other minority rights standards and principles. Discussion The following issues were raised during the second segment of the discussion under Item VI: - The need for the international community to respond in a united and effective way to the increasing acts of violence and discrimination against religious minorities worldwide; - The importance for States to engage further with civil society organisations advocating for the rights of minorities; - The importance of training, both to ensure that public officials are aware of the rights of persons belonging to minorities and to ensure that members of society more broadly and made directly aware of their rights; - The European Roma and Travellers Forum which was created to give a voice to the Roma and establish a body through which the Roma could be heard at the European level, its achievements but also the room for improvement; - The importance of implementing the Declaration in post-conflict and peace-building situations, with a view to offset the human rights violations often disproportionately affecting minorities during such times; - The situation of minority rights defenders and the need to protect them; - The need for adequate protection of cultural heritage; - The need for strengthening the exchange of experiences in terms of implementation of the Declaration at the regional level; - The need to translate the Declaration and the Recommendations of the Forum into the native languages of the groups that make up the cultural diversity of nations; - The need for all relevant Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council to examine the situation of minorities within their own mandates and for human rights treaty bodies to ask States to provide information on the situation of minorities under relevant provisions of their respective mandates; - The need for minority issues to be an integral part of the universal periodic review of the Human Rights Council. 19