A/HRC/55/35 who were themselves alumni of the Minorities Fellowship Programme, assisted with the coordination of the Programme. In addition, a total of 34 fellows from previous years have been posted since the start of the programme as “senior fellows” in OHCHR country and regional offices and United Nations country teams and peacekeeping operations, in 29 locations in all regions. 51. In the Republic of Moldova, OHCHR created a civil society platform for promoting human rights and social cohesion in the country, including in the Transnistrian region. The platform also engaged representatives of minorities in capacity-building programmes. Furthermore, OHCHR contributed to the amendment of the national regulation on public participation in the decision-making process in the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection in order to ensure the genuine and inclusive participation of all, including minorities. 52. Also in the Republic of Moldova, OHCHR, in cooperation with other United Nations agencies, relaunched the Diversity Internship Programme, for underrepresented and vulnerable groups in the country. Selected through a competitive process, seven representatives of ethnic minorities contributed to the work of OHCHR, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women). 53. In its concluding observations on Turkmenistan, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination reiterated its concern about the insufficient representation of ethnic minorities in public institutions and elected bodies at the national and local levels. The Committee recommended that Turkmenistan adopt effective measures to ensure the fair and equitable representation of ethnic minorities, including women with an ethnic minority background, in public decision-making bodies and the civil service.56 54. In its concluding observations on the United States of America, the Human Rights Committee raised concern about the increase in legislative initiatives and practices that limited the exercise of the right to vote, which, inter alia, had a disproportionate impact on racial and ethnic minorities .57 The Committee asked the United States of America to ensure that electoral districts were designed by non-partisan commissions subject to checks and balances and did not have the purpose or effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on racially discriminatory grounds.58 J. Linguistic minorities 55. The human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine expressed concerns regarding the law “on national minorities (communities) of Ukraine”, adopted by the Parliament of Ukraine in December 2022, which limited the use of national minority languages in various fields and restricted certain rights of minorities “belonging to the aggressor State”.59 In its opinion on the law issued on 12 June 2023, the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) echoed those concerns and made specific recommendations to the Ukrainian authorities to bring the law into line with international standards.60 56. In September 2023, the Parliament of Ukraine adopted amendments to that law.61 Despite the implementation of some recommendations made by the human rights monitoring 56 57 58 59 60 61 12 CERD/C/TKM/CO/12-13, paras. 23 and 24. See also the conference room paper of the International Independent Expert Mechanism to Advance Racial Justice and Equality in Law Enforcement, available from https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessionsregular/session54/A_HRC_54_CRP.7.docx, paras. 115–117. CCPR/C/USA/CO/5, paras. 64 and 65. See https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/report-human-rights-situation-ukraine-1august-2022-31-january-2023, para. 114. See https://www.venice.coe.int/webforms/documents/default.aspx?pdffile=CDL-AD(2023)021-e. Ukraine, draft law No. 9610 “on amendments to the law of Ukraine ‘on national minorities (communities) of Ukraine’” regarding some issues related to exercising the rights and freedoms of persons belonging to national minorities (communities) of Ukraine. GE.23-26212