A/HRC/46/44 rights concerns and provided recommendations to address these concerns and mitigate risks related to the pandemic.44 OHCHR issued a report on the human rights situation of Roma in Belarus, which included recommendations on intersectional forms of discrimination affecting Roma women and girls, on Roma children and their access to education and on access to employment and professional training for members of Roma communities. The report, shared with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Belarus in 2020, may form the basis for further cooperation and OHCHR activities in this area. In September, OHCHR took part in the online Roma national congress in Argentina entitled “Education and equality for Roma”, in which OHCHR focused on the challenges in obtaining disaggregated data and the essential requirements for an effective strategy on education. K. Rights of linguistic minorities In the Republic of Moldova, in the context of COVID-19, the essential information materials developed with the support of the United Nations on the prevention of COVID-19 were translated into Ukrainian, Russian, Bulgarian and Romani and distributed. OHCHR also translated all of its nine guidance notes on various human rights issues and COVID-19 into Russian and disseminated them widely to civil society actors and activists, including in the Transnistria region. In Ukraine, the 2019 “Law on ensuring the functioning of Ukrainian as the State language”45 mandated the submission to Parliament by January 2020 of a draft law on the realization of the rights of indigenous peoples and national minorities of Ukraine. Following the passing of the deadline and in the absence of action,46 OHCHR continuously advocated with authorities for the elaboration of the law, urging that this be done in consultation with representatives of national minorities and indigenous peoples. On 8 July, following a meeting organized by the parliamentary committee on human rights with State authorities and representatives of minorities, Parliament established a working group tasked with elaborating the law. OHCHR produced briefing materials and conducted four webinars on COVID-19 and human rights in Myanmar to assist civil society in assessing the human rights aspects of the authorities’ response to the pandemic. Three of the webinars were for ethnic minority participants, including representatives from Kachin, Mon, Karen, Karenni, Rakhine, Chin and Ta’ang communities. Moreover, OHCHR continued to work with civil society organizations to strengthen their capacities in human rights monitoring, reporting and documentation, by organizing an in-person training session in March and two online sessions in August. The OHCHR office in Tunisia facilitated the participation of several civil society organizations working on minority rights in two consultations organized with the national mechanism for reporting and follow-up on human rights, in preparation for the periodic report of Tunisia submitted under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Several United Nations human rights experts issued a public statement calling for Pakistan to end the enforced disappearance of Idris Khattak, a human rights defender working on minority issues.47 44 45 46 47 14 See www.un.org.ua/images/documents/4932/BN C19 Roma ENG.pdf. The law provides a general framework for the use of the State language, although it does not regulate the use of minority languages in Ukraine. A number of provisions, which, in the absence of special legislation safeguarding the rights of linguistic minorities, could jeopardize their rights, have already taken effect. This relates, in particular, to provisions on the use of language by public authorities and in advertising, and in the educational sphere. See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=26207&LangID=E.