STATEMENT ON DISCRIMINATION AND POSITIVE MEASURES/AFFIRMATIVE ACTION. PRESENTER MS HAWE BOUBA VICE PRESIDENT OF THE MBORO SOCIAL AND CULTURAL DEVELPOMENT ASSOCIATION CAMEROON EXPERT ON INDIGENOUS ISSUES IN AFRICA I want to thank you Madame Chair for give me the floor once more. I will intervene on the use of positive measures in combating discrimination in Central Africa. Some states in this region like Rwanda and Burundi have made important attempts at promoting positive action. Minorities in these two countries have a right to two sits in the parliaments, without necessarily competing in national elections. This action has given the minorities an indigenous communities the opportunity to voice out their issues at a higher level, where the laws of the country are made. Other countries in the region as I said yesterday made moves towards legislative actions, by initiating special laws for the promotion and protection of the minorities and indigenous peoples and later in 2006 and 2008, but retracted. Nothing is being said about the action for now. With the ratification of the ILO convention 169 by CAR. Hopefully we are expecting its effective application in the up coming years by providing for special measures for minority groups in that country. I know that the ILO and the civil society are very keen in the follow up. That may be the break through for Africa.