Check against delivery Human Rights Council- Forum on minority issuesFourth Session- 29-30 November 2011- Room XX Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland Minority women and effective participation in economic, social and cultural life – a CEDAW perspective Today the injustices suffered by minority women are well documented: limited employment opportunities, high illiteracy rates, poor access to health care and endemic poverty, trafficking in women, and race-based violence against women are only a few among these. Minority women encounter distinct forms of discrimination due to the intersection of sex with such factors as: race, language, ethnicity, culture, religion, disability, or socio-economic class. They suffer multiple discrimination with different factors compounded. Being socially and economically marginalized, they are faced with more difficulties in almost every aspect of life than both male members of the same group and women belonging to the majority. For many women such factors relating to their social identity such as race, colour, ethnicity and national origin become "differences” that make a difference. These factors can create problems that are unique to particular groups of women or that disproportionately affect some women relative to others. Historically, discrimination based on gender, race and other forms have been seen as parallel but distinct forms of discrimination. But in recent years, the international community has come to recognise the fact that factors such as age, disability, ethnicity and socio-economic status can compound discrimination based upon sex, forming further multiple barriers to women's empowerment and social advancement. A CEDAW perspective In General Recommendation No 25 on “temporary special measures” under Article 4 ( 1) of the Convention adopted in 2004, the Committee spelt out that “certain groups of women, in addition to suffering from discrimination directed against them as women, may also suffer from multiple discrimination based on additional grounds such as race, ethnic or religious identity,