identify priority areas for post-crisis assistance. Minority participation was recognized as key to preventing minorities, including women, children, older persons, youth, people with disabilities and LGBTI members of minorities, from being socially and economically left behind at the recovery stage of crises. Mr Andrew Wyllie, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), emphasized that conflict and displacement can affect individuals in different ways depending on factors such as age, gender, and ethnic, linguistic, social, religious and other backgrounds. He stated that certain groups of persons, such as minorities, may face multiple or intersecting forms of discrimination and are more often marginalized within communities and less represented in formal decision-making structures, resulting in their specific concerns being overlooked in needs assessments and in aid programming and delivery. He referred to key areas of progress, including that humanitarian agencies have already developed policies, tools and approaches to address the special needs of minorities and to reduce discrimination through particular methods of data collection, assessment, communication and monitoring. In this regard, he recalled the IASC Principals’ Statement on the Centrality of Protection (December 2013), which recognizes that identifying at the very outset of a crisis who is at risk, how the risk affects them and why, is essential. Mr. Wyllie also addressed a number of areas that yet require targeted efforts to combat discrimination and exclusion at all stages of the humanitarian programme cycle. He highlighted the need to engage minorities more often and more deeply in our assessments and monitoring; to collect data that is disaggregated by sex and age, and where possible by other factors such as ethnicity, language and religious affiliation; to include minorities in prevention, preparedness and disaster risk reduction efforts at the operational level; and to ensure that minorities are benefiting equally from assistance and receiving the resources they need to rebuild better after emergencies and to protect them from further marginalization. Ms Cecilia Jimenez-Damary, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights of internally displaced persons, noted that many IDPs around the world belong to minorities and have fled their homes for a variety of causes. She focused her presentation on the topic of achieving durable solutions for minorities in the context of humanitarian crises. She stressed that due attention should be given to the specific reasons for the displacement of minorities, particularly in relation to discrimination on the grounds of their minority background. She referred to the criteria for the attainment of durable solutions contained in International Standards provided by the IASC Framework on Durable Solutions. She highlighted that States need to pay attention to the protection risks faced by minorities in the attainment of those criteria, simply because of the different needs and cultural sensitivities of minorities who suffer discrimination. She further noted that one of the reports she had co-authored as a government representative reflected on respecting diversity as a strength in addressing the protection risks of minority populations, rather than seeing diversity as a problem. She concluded by drawing attention to the participation of IDP minorities in the context of durable solutions, noting the need to enhance genuine and free political participation regardless of the fact of displacement, as well as the need to be included in the discussion and design of responses to displacement, so the minorities can return, locally integrate or settle elsewhere. 11