IV • Guaranteeing the rights of minority women and girls C. Civil society 37. International and national institutions and non-governmental organizations working on women’s rights should review the extent to which they integrate minority issues into their work, with a view to strengthening their attention to the issues of women belonging to minorities. Equally, those working on minority rights and issues of racial discrimination should ensure that they integrate a gender perspective into their work and programmes. Organizations should consider developing joint programmes to ensure that issues of minority women and intersectional discrimination are made visible and addressed in their work. 38. Minority and women’s rights organizations should implement targeted programmes to address the exclusion and discrimination experienced by certain minority women. These could include literacy training and adult education programmes, support for the creation of women’s committees in communities, assistance for minority women to establish networks and organizations providing advice and social support, local advocacy groups to address problems as they arise, and the identification and sharing of experiences of positive role models. 39. Minority rights organizations should encourage a process of national consultation with minority communities with a view to studying the impact of customary practices, as well as national legislation and policies on the rights of minority women. Such studies could then be used to assist the Government in reviewing existing legislation and in designing targeted interventions in favour of minority women’s rights and empowerment. 40. All United Nations and regional human rights bodies should address minority issues specifically and systematically, and adopt a gender perspective throughout their programmes and activities. If it is not already the case, they should adopt a specific policy on minority issues, including paying particular attention to the rights of minority women. They should consider appointing a specialist to focus on intersectional discrimination and to help to address minority women’s issues. 41. Development agencies should work with minority women and minority non-governmental organizations to ensure that, wherever appropriate, their interventions address the specific issues faced by minority women, including by systematically collecting and disseminating disaggregated data to inform policy direction in all their fields of work. 42. Development agencies should provide adequate resources for detailed research on minority women for capacity-building support for minority women’s organizations, to help them implement effective advocacy and development Compilation of Recommendations of the First Four Sessions 2008 to 2011 53 WOMEN AND GIRLS D. United Nations system and human rights mechanisms