78 PROMOTING AND PROTECTING MINORITY RIGHTS not mention persons belonging to minorities per se but sets out standards for the treatment of domestic workers. Supplemented by the Domestic Workers Recommendation, 2011 (No. 201), the Convention aims at protecting and improving the working and living conditions of domestic workers worldwide, estimated to number between 53 million and 100 million. Supervision, reporting and complaints procedures Supervision of ILO standards is mainly carried out by the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations and the Conference Committee on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations. The Committee of Experts is composed of 20 independent legal experts from all the major social and economic systems and all parts of the world. It meets annually to examine reports received from Governments, which are obligated to report periodically on how they are applying the conventions they have ratified. Under article 23 of the ILO Constitution, the workers’ and employers’ representatives of a State member that has ratified conventions may also submit comments on how the conventions are applied in practice, thus offering a valuable supplement to their Government’s reports. The Committee of Experts reports publicly on its comments and observations concerning specific conventions and specific countries. The Conference Committee on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations represents the next level of supervision. Established each year by the International Labour Conference, it reflects the tripartite structure of ILO. On the basis of the report of the Committee of Experts, the Conference Committee selects a number of especially important or persistent cases and asks the Governments concerned to appear before it and explain the situations on which the Committee of Experts has commented. At the end of each session, the Conference Committee reports to the full Conference on the problems encountered by Governments in fulfilling their obligations under the ILO Constitution or in complying with conventions they have ratified. The Conference Committee’s report is published in the Proceedings of the International Labour Conference each year, along with the Conference’s discussion of that report. Most of the supervisory work of ILO takes place through an ongoing dialogue between the Committee of Experts and ILO member States, on the basis of State reports supplemented by comments submitted by the workers’ and employers’ representatives under article 23 of the ILO Constitution. Members of minority groups or NGOs promoting minority rights may wish to investigate the possibility of submitting information to the Committee of Experts through a workers’ or employers’ organization. Minority groups and NGOs can send documentation on the situation of minorities directly to ILO. Such information cannot be formally submitted to the supervisory bodies, but it is useful in expanding the ILO knowledge base. In addition to report-based supervision, ILO has complaints procedures which can address problems of discrimination on the basis of ethnicity which affect working life. Of the various mechanisms established by ILO, the most relevant to discrimination against minorities is the possibility of filing a “representation” against a State member under article 24 of the ILO Constitution. A representation will be considered if it originates from “an industrial association of employers or of workers”; it concerns a member State of ILO; it refers to a convention ratified by the State against which it is made; and it alleges that the State “has failed to secure in some respect the effective observance within its jurisdiction of any Convention to which it is a party”. After a representation has been received, the substance of the allegation(s) is examined by a special tripartite committee appointed by the Governing Body. The committee submits its report to the Governing Body for consideration and adoption, and questions raised in the representation are normally followed up by the regular supervisory machinery, that is, the Committee of Experts and the Conference Committee on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations.