UN Working Group on Minorities 5th Session

5 May 1999

Mr Chairman,

On this last day of the current session of the Working Group on Minorities, Minority Rights Group International would like to present the following recommendations with regard to the future role of the Working Group. These recommendations are based on an international meeting of minorities preceding this session of the Working Group, on the Working Paper prepared by the International Centre for Ethnic Studies on this issue, as well as on the conclusions of a meeting with specialized scholars participating in this session. Most importantly, MRG has drawn upon its regular consultations with the representatives of minorities, many of whom are present here today and, I hope you will agree, have made many valuable interventions.

These recommendations are as follows:

The Working Group should consider the organization of its agenda in a more efficient way in order that it may substantially fulfil the three major objectives of its mandate. In the five days available to this Working Group this should cover 24 agenda items this year. Eight working papers were prepared to be discussed under various agenda items. This resulted in a disproportionate focus on the discussion of these Working Papers, marginalizing the minorities and other participants interventions on concrete possible solutions which would enable meaningful dialogue. The formulation of the agenda along broader thematic lines could allow the Working Group to commission Working Papers on related issues and organize the participation of governments and of minorities in a more coherent way. We agree with the proposal of the governments of Austria and Finland to restrict the debate to fewer agenda items. A timetable of the agenda should be prepared and distributed in advance and respected as far as possible.

The topics of the Working Papers should be selected in a transparent way and should reflect the interest of all participants. To this end the Working Group could invite suggestions for relevant issues from participants and establish priorities through a discussion on the last day. Such a transparent procedure should be relevant for the choice of the topics of expert seminars held between the sessions.

Bearing in mind the time constraints as well as the scarce resources of this Working Group, we propose that local and regional meetings be organized under the auspices of the Working Group with the participation of some of its members. A restriction of issues to be debated under a smaller number of agenda items would contribute to this. Regional meetings could contribute to raising awareness of the UN Declaration as well as to the collection of concrete information on country-specific issues. These regional meetings could serve as a framework for bringing together governments and minorities to address these issues in depth. In addition, a broader participation of minorities as well as experts, relevant government officials and scholars could be guaranteed. The fundraising and organization for these regional meetings should be done by a consortium of local NGOs representing the regions specific national, ethnic, linguistic and religious distribution.

Expert members of the Working Group should pay visits to countries, based on an equal regional distribution, upon the request of governments or minorities, as also happens in the case of the Working Group on Indigenous Populations. These visits will also contribute to the identification of examples of good practice. We believe that this could contribute to a constructive inter-community dialogue.

The promotion of mutual understanding and dialogue between and among minorities and governments within the framework of this Working Group needs a concerted effort to be made to improve the participation of states at the sessions of the Working Group as also stated in the Working Paper prepared by the International Centre for Ethnic Studies. MRG welcomes the fact that the Working Group submits country-specific information which is presented to it to the relevant governments and requests information on the implementation of the Declaration from governments in question. However, governments should be encouraged to submit more information on examples of good practice regarding the realization of the Declaration to the Working Group. In addition, minority organizations could send the information to their governments prior to the session of the Working Group so that they have the opportunity to respond. The Secretariat of the Working Group should encourage governments to invite their specialized experts to participate in the sessions of the Working Group. Participation of experts who themselves are members of minorities should be encouraged.

Under Article 9 of the Declaration, UN specialized agencies shall contribute to the full realization of the rights and principles as set forth in this Declaration, within their respective fields of competence. UN Agencies should be requested to submit written information on their activities concerning the implementation of the Declaration to the working Group. This written information should be submitted to the Working Group prior to its session and be made available as Working Papers.

UN Agencies and the office of the High Commissioner should examine the possibilities of minorities access to technical assistance programmes.

Local offices of specialized UN Agencies should appoint a minority rights officer to respond to specific needs.

The office of the High Commissioner should establish, with the help of relevant NGOs, transparent formal procedures for the management of voluntary contributions. This should be key in ensuring the sustained participation of minority representatives.

A database of information on minorities of Treaty Bodies, Special and Thematic Rapporteurs, as well as UN Agencies should be set up by the Secretariat to facilitate the dissemination of the existing information and to avoid duplication.

With regard to the effective organization of the information submitted to and generated by the Working Group, a website should be created to assist in the dissemination of this information. This information should be provided in all possible languages.

The evaluation of the work of the Working Group should be continued through an annual Working Paper in order to contribute to the meaningful improvement of the organization of the Working Group.

As Resolution 1999/L.71 of the Commission on Human Rights invites the Working Group to contribute to and participate in, the preparations for the World Conference on Racism, the Working Group should request NGOs to submit their concrete suggestions on this matter for discussion in the next session of the working group.

Thank you Mr Chairman.