A/HRC/46/57/Add.1 diversity, or of being an effective form of political participation of most minorities. After they have registered with the Central Election Commission, these minority candidates can be reshuffled in the party lists, with candidates coming from minorities being disadvantaged, or, even if they are elected, they may be replaced by an ethnic Kyrgyz at a later stage if they step down. 52. Minority representation on local councils is more significant, particularly in areas with a higher concentration of minorities, but is still subject to serious underrepresentation. Statistical data from 2016 show that in all government bodies, 93 per cent were ethnic Kyrgyz, whereas only 6.2 per cent were from minorities. In that year, at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, 95.3 per cent were ethnic Kyrgyz and only 4.7 per cent were from minorities. In local self-government, minority representation was higher, at 10.6 per cent. 53. According to the State Personnel Agency of the Kyrgyz Republic, as at January 2019, minorities represented only 5 per cent of the total number of State civil servants, and 10.7 per cent of employees at the municipal level. Among them, ethnic Russians represented almost half of minority State civil servants (2.1 per cent of the total), and about a quarter of minority municipal employees (2.5 per cent of the total), whereas ethnic Uzbeks accounted for just over a fifth of minority State civil servants (1.2 per cent of the total), and more than half of minority employees at the municipal administration level (5.6 per cent of the total). 54. This disproportionate underrepresentation of minorities, or, more accurately, near exclusion of minorities, particularly from the Uzbek community, has been linked in part to a language barrier, as one of the main reasons explaining the low level of representation in public life. In 2015, amendments to the law on the civil service introduced requirements for Kyrgyz language competence for all civil servants, and tens of thousands of civil servants had to pass Kyrgyz language proficiency exams. In addition, under the 2004 law on the State language of Kyrgyzstan, the State language, Kyrgyz, and, “if necessary”, the official Russian language, are the languages of the official documents issued by State and local government agencies. The absence of any status or prescribed use for the Uzbek language, given that it is the biggest language group after Kyrgyz, the State language, and in view of its geographical concentration in the south of the country, would therefore seem problematic. 55. The representation of minorities in the area of law enforcement is also very weak. In 2018, only 5.5 per cent of the total police force of 15,684 officers were from minorities. Ethnic Russians constituted the largest community with 2 per cent of officers, ethnic Uzbeks accounted for 1.6 per cent, and 0.7 per cent were ethnic Kazakhs. All other minorities only accounted for 1.2 per cent of the police force. Furthermore, there are no official figures about the representation of minorities in prosecutors’ offices and the court system. Finally, minorities apparently only account for 3 per cent of the total number of military officers in the country. It has been claimed that one of the reasons for this low representation of minorities is fear of harassment and intimidation by ethnic Kyrgyz soldiers and commanders. 56. The Special Rapporteur, as mentioned previously, was particularly concerned by the failure to provide requested disaggregated data in relation to employment patterns in the civil service, particularly in security and policing departments. Not all government departments were willing to collaborate with the Special Rapporteur’s visit, despite assurances made to him by government officials. On more than one occasion, particularly in response to questions about the proportion of minorities present in police or security forces, the judiciary and the civil service, in regions where minorities are concentrated in the south of the country and where the Uzbek minority is concentrated, officials refused to share this information, stating that it was confidential or was unavailable. 57. In relation to the quota for minority representation in Parliament, it was suggested to the Special Rapporteur that this is largely ineffective and symbolic. The Special Rapporteur was concerned by the example brought to his attention which suggested that after being elected as part of the minority quota, individuals would soon resign or be appointed to another position, and the vacated “minority quota” position would subsequently be filled by a member of the Kyrgyz majority until the next election. 58. While most State officials were able to provide some data at the request of the Special Rapporteur, much of it was not disaggregated. Available data showed consistently very low participation levels or presence of minorities in civil service employment. Anecdotal 10