A/70/255 16. The High Commissioner also urged European countries to take a firmer line on racism against marginalized minorities such as Roma. Extensive work was also undertaken to advance the human rights of Roma by the OHCHR Regional Office for Europe in Brussels and other field presences in Europe. Efforts to improve the protection of the right of Roma to housing included the development of criteria for the evaluation of locations for social housing for Roma in Bel grade, where OHCHR assisted with the development of a methodology for community consultations. OHCHR also issued a fact sheet focusing on the housing rights of Roma. In the Republic of Moldova, OHCHR and the Prime Minister ’s adviser on Roma community issues carried out seminars within the framework of the Government bureau on inter-ethnic relations to resolve matters regarding the segregated education of Romani children in several municipalities. OHCHR also helped to develop the capacity of the bureau and non-governmental organizations to monitor and report on minority rights issues in the Republic of Moldova, in particular in the field of education, and together with the United Nations country team, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empo werment of Women and the United Nations Development Programme it sought to empower Romani women and girls by supporting the establishment of a civil society network of Romani women and girls. 17. Violations of the rights of religious minorities in the Middle East and other regions were a major issue of concern for the United Nations. OHCHR and other United Nations entities pursued a range of work in this area. The protection of religious minorities was addressed at the dialogue on the role of the United Nat ions in preventing and addressing violence and atrocity crimes against minorities, which was organized by OHCHR in November 2014 before the seventh annual session of the Forum on Minority Issues. Moreover, in 2014, OHCHR issued a fact sheet on the inclusion of religious minorities in consultative and decision-making bodies, which was distributed to civil society and State authorities during consultations and other events with a view to raising awareness on what could be done to improve inclusion of religious minorities. OHCHR also carried out a range of work in specific countries and regions on religious minorities. For example, it organized a conference in Tbilisi on the freedom of religion or belief with the European Centre for Minority Issues and the embassy of the Netherlands. 18. In a number of countries, OHCHR carried out detailed research on key themes of minority rights, which resulted in concrete recommendations on strengthening legislation, policies and practices and formed the basis for its future work at the regional level on the protection of minority rights. Cases in point were the studies conducted by the OHCHR Regional Office for Central Asia on minorities and the media in Kazakhstan, the participation of minorities in public life in Kyrgyzstan and access by minorities to education in Tajikistan. Fact sheets containing the main findings and recommendations of the studies were issued in English, Kyrgyz, Russian, Ukrainian and Uzbek to make them accessible to a broad audience and to strengthen advocacy at the regional level. The participation of minorities in public and political life, language rights and education were among the main themes discussed by State authorities, civil society and national human rights institutions at national consultations on the universal periodic review, supported by OHCHR, in Kyrgyzstan in May 2014. In Serbia, OHCHR conducted a human rights assessment of the Sandžak/Raška region, with a view to identifying implementation gaps and highlighting the role that national stakeholders, non-national stakeholders and the 15-12580 5/14