(A/HRC/10/11/Add.1) and submitted to the Human Rights Council at its tenth session in March 2009. In guiding the work of the Forum on Minority Issues, the Independent Expert also contributed substantively towards the preparation of the second session, which focused on minorities and effective political participation, and submitted a background document on the subject (A/ HRC/FMI/2009/3). In it she discusses the right to effective participation as a fundamental human right affirmed in several key international legal instruments and underpinning the realization of all human rights of women and men belonging to ethnic or national, religious and linguistic minorities. The Forum produced action-oriented recommendations, which are intended to increase the inclusion and recognition of minorities in decisionmaking processes while enabling them to maintain their own identity and characteristics. The Forum’s recommendations were submitted to the Human Rights at its thirteenth session (A/HRC/13/25). The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights provided substantive support to the Forum. One of its contributions was a document with an overview of its work and that of human rights bodies with regard to minorities and the right to effective participation (A/HRC/ FMI/2009/5). It also organized a panel discussion entitled “The Minorities Declaration: challenges and opportunities” to examine the extent to which regional organizations, civil society and other stakeholders have been using the United Nations Minorities Declaration as a tool and source of reference in their work. The event offered an opportunity for the panellists and the other participants to identify positive examples of and major obstacles to the use of the United Nations Minorities Declaration. Preceding the Forum, the United Nations Working Group on Minorities held 12 sessions between 1995 and 2006 and provided a platform for representatives of minorities to raise issues within the United Nations and enter into a dialogue directly with Governments. The Working Group not only contributed to the conceptualization of the rights of persons belonging to minorities but also identified good practices and other measures for the promotion and protection of minorities. Numerous papers were prepared and submitted for its consideration. A list of those documents is available on the OHCHR website. Other special procedures OHCHR provides secretariat support to several other special procedures with mandates to examine, monitor, advise and publicly report on human rights situations. Those with responsibility for specific countries or territories are known as “country mandates”; those working on specific major human rights concerns worldwide are known as “thematic mandates”. These mechanisms 23