Whatever the causes of exclusion, if left unaddressed they can pose a real risk to the stability of societies. If minorities do not feel that their voices are being heard through the democratic process, they will be more likely to resort to less acceptable means for promoting their interests. Nothing is more dangerous in the long term than a cohesive group of disgruntled citizens who sees no point in showing loyalty to a State because it feels “foreign” to them. If however, they feel that they “belong”, that the State is also “theirs”, then civic identity is more likely to transcend that of ethnicity, linguistics or religion. Given the complexity of the problems faced by minorities, as well as the limits of most majority decision-making processes, special arrangements are often needed to ensure that the voices of minorities are heard and their interests considered. This is why the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities in 1999 invited recognized international experts to draw up a set of thematic guidelines, namely The Lund Recommendations on the Effective Participation of National Minorities in Public Life, also known simply as the Lund Recommendations after the Swedish city in which they were first presented. These Recommendations aim to facilitate the inclusion of minorities within the State, while at the same time enabling minorities to maintain their own identity. Rather than pointing to one single model, the Lund Recommendations are extremely rich in offering different choices and models regarding all relevant aspects of political participation of minorities. These include advisory and consultative bodies, electoral-system design, decentralization and territorial and non-territorial models of minority self-government. All these options are often largely unknown to politicians, minority leaders and other members of civil society. The suitability of a certain mechanism or model will depend on the historic, geographic, political and economic circumstances of each individual case. Certain models work better in certain circumstances. Whatever the concrete design or mechanism finally chosen, experience across the OSCE area has shown that the best way to preserve interethnic peace and stability is to allow minorities to participate. This is a delicate process demanding sensitivity from the minority as well as the majority. On the one hand, one has to bear in mind that having a “voice” does not necessarily equate to being “heard”. Our emphasis must be on both words when discussing “effective participation”. Token minority participation is dangerous as it only breeds cynicism and in the end encourages these groups to pursue their goals outside the democratic framework. On the other hand, it is important to remind ourselves that minority rights do not give minorities the final say in all decisions.