A/HRC/49/46 drivers of conflicts – long-standing grievances of exclusion, discrimination and inequalities along the lines of the culture, language or religion of some minority groups. 73. The Special Rapporteur further recommends the mainstreaming of a minority human rights perspective at the Department of Political Affairs, the Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect, the Crisis Bureau and other relevant international and regional entities to enhance conflict prevention policies and practices that address and are sensitive to the actual main drivers of conflict – human rights grievances of minorities around claims of exclusion, discrimination and inequalities. This mainstreaming must also include appropriate minority rights training programmes and resources for staff throughout the United Nations system, including OHCHR and UNDP country teams. 74. The Special Rapporteur is of the view that one of the few United Nations initiatives specifically dealing with the human rights of minorities, the Minorities Fellowship Programme, constitutes an invaluable resource that can help to fill the expertise gaps in the absence of widespread institutional expertise on a much-needed minority rights framework to address the main drivers of contemporary conflicts. He recommends that former minority fellows be included in all country teams, and particularly those in countries where conflicts have emerged or where long-standing grievances of minorities could lead to such conflicts. 75. Many of the research programmes and centres that more than a decade ago collected data and produced analyses on minority issues and the prevention of conflict (such as the Minorities at Risk and the Carnegie Commission on Preventing Deadly Conflict) have largely ceased activities. Given the rise in conflicts involving minorities since then, the Special Rapporteur urges the United Nations and regional organizations, as well as existing civil society organizations and other interested parties, to collaborate in developing new centres of expertise, or work with existing research centres and initiatives, and to refocus conflict prevention efforts, data collection and minorityspecific early warning indicators towards the prevalent drivers of most contemporary conflicts – grievances over breaches of the human rights of minorities resulting in exclusion, discrimination and inequalities. 76. Civil society organizations and human rights defenders working on minority issues are more than eyes and ears on the ground. They themselves are early warning indicators and provide insights and expertise on the extent to which exclusion, discrimination and inequalities on ethnic, religious and linguistic grounds are often precursors to conflicts. The Special Rapporteur invites the United Nations, its entities and country offices, as well as regional organizations, to include minority participation in conflict prevention research and initiatives. 77. The Special Rapporteur commends Member States that have recognized the importance, and provided for the full protection, of the human rights of minorities. He urges States that have not already done so to adopt comprehensive human rights protection legislation that includes the prohibition of discrimination on all grounds covered by international treaties, and especially those such as race, ethnicity, religion and language. He further invites States to consider further measures, including minority rights regimes in areas such as education, language, political participation and representation, along with the good practices outlined in such guidance documents as “Language rights of linguistic minorities: a practical guide for implementation”, the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, the Oslo Recommendations Regarding the Linguistic Rights of National Minorities, the Hague Recommendations Regarding the Education Rights of National Minorities and the Lund Recommendations on the Effective Participation of National Minorities in Public Life. 17