A/HRC/10/38 page 2 I. INTRODUCTION 1. The Human Rights Council, in its decision 2/102, requested the Secretary-General and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue with the fulfilment of their activities, in accordance with all previous decisions adopted by the Commission on Human Rights, and to update the relevant reports and studies. Accordingly, the report of the Secretary-General on the rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities (A/HRC/4/109) was submitted to the Council at its fourth session. At the ninth session, an interim report on the rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities (A/HRC/9/8) was submitted, in which some of the main interventions undertaken by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to strengthen the promotion and protection of the rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities since the previous report were outlined. They included efforts to promote dialogue and mutual understanding on thematic issues, to support capacity-building of OHCHR staff, public officials from Member States and civil society, and to strengthen inter-agency cooperation. 2. The present report, the final report supplementing the interim report, contains a review of relevant developments arising out of the work of the treaty bodies and special procedures and information on OHCHR activities in the field in 2007 and 2008 and at headquarters since the submission of the interim report. The addendum to the present report (A/HRC/10/38/Add.1) is a summary report of the expert meeting on integration with diversity in policing, held on 15 and 16 January 2008, mentioned briefly in the interim report. 3. On the basis of General Assembly resolution 56/162 and Commission on Human Rights resolution 2003/50, human rights treaty bodies and special procedures (thematic and to a lesser extent country mandates) continue to monitor situations and rights of persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities. Some examples of such focus are given below. They do not include the work of the independent expert on minorities, who will submit a separate report. II. TREATY BODIES Human Rights Committee 4. At its ninety-second session, held from 17 March to 7 April 2008, the Human Rights Committee expressed concern at the persisting problems faced by minorities in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, such as police violence, lack of language support in judicial proceedings, inadequacy of educational opportunities and lack of a protective and non-discriminatory learning environment (CCPR/C/MKD/CO/2). 5. At its ninety-third session, held from 7 to 25 July 2008, in its concluding observations, the Committee regretted that the report submitted by France lacked sufficient empirical information on issues such as the political participation of members of ethnic minorities, and suggested that the State review its position concerning the formal recognition of ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities, and reinforce its legislative framework and institutional mechanisms to exclude all discriminatory practices that prevent equal access to employment for persons belonging to ethnic, national or religious minorities (CCPR/C/FRA/CO/4). The Committee also recommended