A/HRC/11/36 page 9 effective policies, we need to understand the specific needs and situation of each minority group. While housing may be the most important problem for a certain group, employment discrimination could be the key issue for another. A common policy would fail to meet the expectations of either. 23. Some arguments against the collection of ethnically disaggregated data also allude to the possibility that such data would lead to further prejudice and stereotypes about the exclusion of certain groups. The Special Rapporteur rejects this notion. If certain groups are excluded within a country, it is already likely that they are victims of discrimination and subject to stereotypes. Data that further confirm this condition cannot be denied on the grounds that it would lead to further discrimination; rather, it is precisely the lack of data that would lead to less visibility and, probably, to more exclusion.2 24. In this regard, the Special Rapporteur would like to make reference to a particularly useful suggestion made by a scholar analysing the two dimensions of ethnic statistics: (a) A right: the fundamental right to be free from racial discrimination should be interpreted as implying the right of the victim to obtain statistical data broken down by race/ethnicity, if such data would be critical evidence proving discrimination; (b) A duty: the positive obligation of the government to ensure effective equality irrespective of race or ethnicity should be interpreted as including the collection, processing, analysis and use of impersonalized statistics disaggregated by ethnicity.3 25. The potential problems raised by the collection of ethnically disaggregated data, in particular the possibility of misuse of such data for racist and exclusionary policies, can be overcome by the introduction of key safeguards. The Special Rapporteur would like to note, in this regard, some of the principles mentioned in the outcome document of the Durban Review Conference: the right to privacy and the principle of self-identification (para. 104). 26. Self-identification should be a pillar of the collection of ethnically disaggregated data. This principle flows directly from the interpretation of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination of the International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination under General Recommendation VIII, in which it states that identification as members of a particular racial or ethnic group should, if no justification to the contrary, be based upon self-identification by the individual concerned. While self-identification is not without problems - for example, individuals belonging to minorities may refrain from self-identifying as such for fear of persecution or prejudices - it is based on the important notion that the State should not impose an identity on the individual. 2 See for example K. Ramsay, Disaggregated Data Collection: A Precondition for Effective Protection of Minority Rights in South East Europe, Minority Rights Group International, August 2006. 3 D. Petrova, “Ethnic statistics”, Roma Rights: Quarterly Journal of the European Roma Rights Centre, No. 2, 2004.