including deteriorating economic conditions, ethnic and religious tensions and rising discrimination. In some countries, unequal regional distribution of resources and services and a lack of basic infrastructure in regions where minorities live often have the effect of preventing minorities from fully exercising their economic and social rights. Hate speech may fuel a climate of mistrust and tensions and may, in most extreme cases, constitute incitement to atrocity crimes with devastating consequences for minority groups. The High Commissioner for Human Rights has recalled that in recent years incidents involving hate speech, negative stereotyping in the media, and even advocacy of religious or national hatred by public officials and political parties have resulted in killings of innocent people, attacks on places of worship and calls for reprisals. As a consequence, the UN launched in February 2013 the Rabat Plan of Action on the prohibition of advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence (A/HRC/22/17/Add.4). The Rabat Plan of Action was based on five workshops on the prohibition of incitement to national, racial and religious hatred, organized by OHCHR in various regions of the world. The Rabat Plan of Action recommends the adoption of comprehensive anti-discrimination national legislations with preventive and punitive action to effectively combat incitement to hatred, as well as the empowerment of minorities and vulnerable groups. 20. As we consider measures to address violence and atrocity crimes against minorities, there is a pressing need to take into account that minority women and girls are often particularly targeted, including for sexual violence in detention or in armed conflicts. The Guidance Note on Racial Discrimination and Minorities recalls that situations involving minority women and girls require special attention and protection, as well as tailored intervention in areas ranging from crime prevention and criminal justice to harmful traditional practices and violence against women. In this respect, the Network also stresses the importance of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, including CEDAW General Recommendation No. 30 on women in conflict prevention, conflict and post-conflict situations. This recommendation highlights that during and after conflict women and girls belonging to minorities are at particular risk of violence, especially sexual violence. Similarly, the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women reminds us that women and girls belonging to minority groups are especially vulnerable to violence. 21. The Guidance Note on Racial Discrimination and Minorities also emphasizes the need to focus on those minorities who are politically, economically and/or socially most marginalized, and whose rights are therefore most at risk. In many cases this translates into focus on religious minorities. 22. OHCHR has been closely following human rights violations and attacks against religious minorities in Syria, where abductions and killings of religious figures and members of specific communities, as well as destruction or desecration of places of worship and pilgrimages have taken place during the conflict. In its report from August 2014, the International Commission of