In French. 4th Session on the Forum on Minority Issues Ms. Libérate Nicayenzi – Burundi on Item VI Thank you Madam Chair. I would like to start with a little reminder that Burundi is a country in central Africa with a population of 8 million. And the population density is 254 people per square kilometres and the area is just over 27 000 square kilometres. There are three ethnic groups Hutus, Tutsis, and Twas. The Twas or the Batwas are an ethnic minority which suffered and continues to suffer from marginalisation, discrimination and exclusion in all areas of society, economic, politics, society and cultural life. But UNIPROBA has been set up. This is an NGO to protect and promote the rights of the Batwa minority. And with political will and I underline that expression certain positive changes are taking place to the benefit of the Batwa minority. Firstly, the national constitution in article 164 and 180 provides for the co-optation of a certain number of Batwa people to the national assembly parliament: three that are in the lower house and three in the Senate – the Upper House. And they represent therefore the ethnic minority, this ethnic minority. During the first transition period in 1998 we saw the appointment of a woman for the minority in the national assembly and the Parliament and then following the Erusha Agreement in the 2000 which led to the creation of the second house of Parliament we saw the appointment of 3 Batwas including a woman to represent the Batwa minority. And following the election in 2009 the 2005 Constitution reserved 6 seats in Parliament for the Batwa minority including 2 for Batwa women. And following the 2010 elections the constitution has in Article 164 and Article 180 kept the 6 seats for the Batwa minority. The electoral code of 2010 spells out how the Batwa minority should be co-opted that is to say on the pass of the basis of the assertions which up and running of the representative on the ground. The community Law dated 2010 indicates that amongst the 15 members of the community council 1 Batwa should be co-opted where the Butwas are representative and where they are represented in the list of a political party. Hence, taking the total of 1139 member of community council there are 69 of them who belong to the Batwa minority of which 12 are women in the community council representing that is to say if the political party did not withdraw from the respective elections. In addition, the Batwa minority also has a member in the national land and property commission and another member in the state inspectorate general appointed by presidential decree. Three presidential decrees are important to us. Because they provide for free healthcare for children under the age of 5, for free maternity care and for free primary school education. Along side this we have seen the Religions for Peace set up and this has helped the co-existence of the 3 ethnic minority above mentioned. In addition, thanks to awareness raising and lobbying which has been undertaken by UNIPROBA we now see collaboration with various different stakeholders when it comes to promoting and developing the rights of the Batwa minority. I am thinking in particular of [forums] such as ministries, United Nations agencies, the media, civil society, NGOs, international NGOS. And we are involved in a number of projects here, providing for access to justice, access to land, to citizenship, and education on human rights, specifically the rights of ethnically…women from ethnic minorities and determining why it is that some young girls are not going to school. Girls that is who come from the Batwa minority and there are also agriculture and [huspentry]