Promotion of Gender Equality, particular attention will be given throughout these Recommendations to measures that States should implement to ensure that women belonging to national minorities also have effective access to justice. These Recommendations are based on the accumulated experience of the Institution of the HCNM and combine a normative and practical approach. Many HCNM staff actively participated in the development of the Recommendations, in particular Henrik Villadsen, Laurentiu Hadirca, Tihana Leko and William Romans. The Recommendations also benefitted from the engagement and insights of external experts, especially Dominique Orsini. Other experts who have been consulted and who have contributed valuable comments and criticisms include Ilze Brands Kehris, Amarsanaa Darisuren, Vincent de Graaf, Jürgen Heissel, Jennifer Jackson-Preece, Emma Lantschner, Tove Malloy, Roberta Medda-Windischer, Kerem Öktem, Declan O’Mahony, Alexander Osipov, Francesco Palermo, Petra Roter, and Richard Winkelhofer. The HCNM is also grateful for the input received from the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. The HCNM has been assisted greatly by the extensive research in this field conducted by Joseph Marko and his team at the University of Graz. These Recommendations are, however, based on specific HCNM experience and do not reflect the views of any single expert. These Recommendations offer a practical, policy-oriented approach to the issue of access to justice for national minorities. They are grounded in the HCNM’s extensive experience dealing with minority issues and conflict prevention, including access to justice for persons belonging to national minorities. This document does not purport to be exhaustive or to offer ready-made policy options. Rather, it recognizes that while general human rights standards apply to all, not all good practices, standards, minority rights and policy options presented in these Recommendations apply to every situation in the same way. These Recommendations aim to encourage States to implement policies on access to justice that will alleviate tensions involving national minorities, thereby serving the HCNM’s main objective of conflict prevention. Lamberto Zannier OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities The Hague, 14 November 2017 The Graz Recommendations on Access to Justice and National Minorities 7