A/HRC/19/71
38.
Minority and women’s rights organizations should implement targeted programmes
to address the exclusion and discrimination experienced by certain minority women. These
could include literacy training and adult education programmes, support for the creation of
women’s committees in communities, assistance for minority women to establish networks
and organizations providing advice and social support, local advocacy groups to address
problems as they arise, and the identification and sharing of experiences of positive role
models.
39.
Minority rights organizations should encourage a process of national consultation
with minority communities with a view to studying the impact of customary practices, as
well as national legislation and policies on the rights of minority women. Such studies
could then be used to assist the Government in reviewing existing legislation and in
designing targeted interventions in favour of minority women’s rights and empowerment.
D.
United Nations system and human rights mechanisms
40.
All United Nations and regional human rights bodies should address minority issues
specifically and systematically, and adopt a gender perspective throughout their
programmes and activities. If it is not already the case, they should adopt a specific policy
on minority issues, including paying particular attention to the rights of minority women.
They should consider appointing a specialist to focus on intersectional discrimination and
to help to address minority women’s issues.
41.
Development agencies should work with minority women and minority nongovernmental organizations to ensure that, wherever appropriate, their interventions address
the specific issues faced by minority women, including by systematically collecting and
disseminating disaggregated data to inform policy direction in all their fields of work.
42.
Development agencies should provide adequate resources for detailed research on
minority women for capacity-building support for minority women’s organizations, to help
them implement effective advocacy and development programmes for minority women and
support initiatives on the access of minority women to legal remedies, economic
opportunities, education and health.
43.
The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women
(UN-Women) should take the lead on issues related to multiple or intersectional forms of
discrimination faced by certain minority women, and collaborate with other agencies with a
view to addressing those issues in an effective manner. The approach taken by UN-Women
in putting emphasis on particularly vulnerable and marginalized groups should encompass a
minority rights-based focus with a view to ensuring that the situation of minority women is
addressed and mainstreamed into all their programmes, and that national frameworks
ultimately cover the full range of women’s rights concerns.
44.
Individual mandate holders and working groups of the Human Rights Council and
special representatives of the Secretary-General mandated by the General Assembly are
encouraged to continue to examine, where appropriate within their mandates, the situations
of minority women and intersectional discrimination affecting them. The existing
collaboration between special procedures mandate holders in this regard, at the United
Nations level and with the regional mechanisms, should be further strengthened and
consolidated. Greater collaboration could lead to a more efficient information-gathering
process, enhanced discussions with States with a view to revising discriminatory laws and
facilitate the exchange of best practices.
45.
Treaty bodies should require States to provide information in their periodic State
reports on the situation of minority women and on policies and programmes of the State to
ensure the full enjoyment by minority women of their rights.
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