Human Rights Council Forum on Minority Issues Fourth session Geneva, 29-30 November 2011 Prepared by: Nagwa Musa Konda Minority women and effective participation in economic, social and cultural life The President of the Human Rights Council, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Chairperson of the Forum, the independent expert on minority issues and all participants, I greet you all. I very much appreciate the opportunity to share with you my experience on effective participation of minority women in economic, social and cultural life. To me this is a very crucial and fundamental meeting as we discus practical and concrete measures aimed at “Guaranteeing the rights of minority women” across the globe. As it is clear from the previous sessions, it is evident that minorities are still often poorly represented in employment or work in an informal jobs, no access to loans, businesses and they live in the poorest and remote regions of the world, including slums, refugee camps and IDP camps. Just the living arrangements of these minorities limit their prospects for economic development and make them more vulnerable to human rights violations. A disproportionately high number of minority pupils who do not attend school and many others receive education of a lower quality, yet they have little or no access to information about their rights or about advocating for their effective participation and justice. Reflecting on the historical context, we see that although there have been massive global initiatives since the 1950s e.g. (The European Convention on the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in 1950) or even earlier, to ensure human rights of minority women and other vulnerable groups is respected and realized. While many countries are progressing towards achieving gender equality and realizing human rights principles, others are regressing by escalating more violence and discrimination against minority women such as Sudan, Somalia, Eretria and othersi To ensure effective participation of minorities in economic, social and cultural life, we need to consider full, equal and meaningful access to education, employment and housing, and access to sustainable return processes for displaced people and to credit and development programs. This means full reorganization of all structures, and recognition of all forms of diversity by governments and other duty bearers. That is why it is so important for this forum to break the long silence in many cases on the minorities’ issues and focus on practical mechanisms for transforming local realities. As it is well articulated in the recommendations of this forth session, most actions for guaranteeing the rights of minority women is the ultimate responsibility of governments. However, in most cases the minorities have been marginalized and oppressed by those who are in power (governments) themselves. Therefore, we need to rethink the principle of human rights “the moral obligation to protect” versus sovereignty. Thus, in many countries minority women count on the international community to lead and put an end to these sufferings “we need actions not just pretty worlds”.