Strengthening the Capacity of Minority and Indigenous Peoples to Advocate for the Implementation of International Standards

Location(s) of Project:  One regional training workshop will be held in each of the following four regions: West Africa (Senegal), Central America (Costa Rica), Central Asia and Caucasus (Kyrgyzstan), and Asia (Cambodia).  Participants will come from: Guinea, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Philippines, Cambodia.  Follow up projects will take place in each of these countries.  Access will be facilitated to the treaty bodies in Geneva. 

Name of local partners:  This programme will be jointly managed and implemented by the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) and Minority Rights Group International (MRG) and a range of partners and participating organisations in each region. For the full list of partners with details, please see Annex 1. 

Goal of Project:  To protect and promote the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples and address the marginalisation and poverty they are facing, by contributing to the effective implementation of relevant international human rights standards at a national level.

Purpose:  To improve the capacity of minority and indigenous peoples’ NGOs to effectively use treaty bodies at an international level and improve their related advocacy initiatives at a national level.

Main activities:

1. Regional Training workshops: Four regional training workshops will be held, one in each of the following regions: West Africa, Central America, Central Asia & Caucasus, and Asia. The project will focus on: the content and scope of the rights contained in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD); the monitoring process provided for by the treaties; human rights fact-finding, drafting alternative reports to those submitted by the state; submitting focused information and questions to the relevant treaty bodies; lobbying the treaty bodies to take up particular issues; designing strategies for the dissemination and lobbying for implementation of the recommendations of the treaty bodies; strategies for lobbying at a national level.

2. Follow up: national networking, training, advocacy and dissemination initiatives, and preparation of input into treaty bodies

3.Facilitating access to treaty bodies: Financial and logistical support will be provided through the project to facilitate the participation of one minority or indigenous peoples’ representative from each of the participating countries, up to 12 in total, in the sessions, working groups and theme days of the treaty bodies in Geneva.

Expected results:
 
1. Increased capacity of minority and indigenous peoples’ civil society organisations to understand available mechanisms, to demand their rights and to hold their governments accountable through the mechanisms of treaty bodies and international human rights standards.
2. Civil society organisations engage in increased and improved advocacy and lobbying activities at a national level, and governments respond positively. 
3. National civil society networks are developed and strengthened.
4. Minorities and indigenous peoples have a greater voice and increased profile at national/international levels.

Ultimately this initiative will contribute to improving the human rights situation of minorities and indigenous peoples in the programme countries, thereby increasing the social inclusion and consequent economic and social well-being of these groups.
Main intended beneficiaries: Representatives of minorities and indigenous peoples, members of minority and indigenous communities.  Members of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) and the Human Rights Committee (HRC), especially UN Rapporteurs for programme countries, local and national policy and decision-makers and government representatives, other human rights and development actors and the media.

Project Justification
The marginalisation and violations of the rights of minority and indigenous groups continue
Reports such as Amnesty International’s annual reports and the US Senate’s country reports on human rights practices, as well as the concluding observations of the treaty bodies, confirm that human rights abuses remain endemic in the world today, with minorities and indigenous peoples suffering particularly heavily. The published reports and studies of ICES and MRG, including the MRG World Directory of Minorities also document the extent of poverty and abuses of civil and political rights that are experienced disproportionately by minority and indigenous communities as a result of racism and discrimination.  

Violations of rights are failures to implement international agreed standards
Since the adoption of the 1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, states across the world have ratified a wide range of legally-binding human rights instruments offering disadvantaged minorities protection under international human rights law. These include international conventions, such as the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and others. However, as set out in Annex 2, many members of minority and indigenous communities continue to suffer from racism, discrimination, poverty and social and political exclusion.  Governments have in some cases made progress in implementing international standards and laws but in other cases, including the programme countries, they seem to be either unable or unwilling to do so.  Faced with this situation, minority and indigenous communities have few avenues open to them.  By definition, with little political or economic clout, they are often in a negative cycle of exclusion; they have little influence at a national level which mean their needs are seldom addressed and they become even more poor and excluded which further undermines their ability to take part in participatory processes or influence decisions.  Ultimately in some cases, where minorities have felt that there was no other way out of this cycle they have turned to violence to try to secure secession from or to overthrow oppressive regimes.

International mechanisms offer an opportunity to break negative cycles
This cycle can be successfully broken by giving minority and indigenous communities access to international fora and mechanisms, and encouraging and supporting them to undertake advocacy for their rights with reference to international standards.  With this comes the backing of international organizations and mechanisms which can help minorities and indigenous communities to persuade governments to change policies and enter into dialogue with them.  Minority and indigenous communities need to be aware of their internationally recognized human rights so that they can measure their actual experiences with the rights they are entitled to and can use this to put pressure on unwilling governments to elaborate and implement legislation and policies that meet their needs.  The treaty bodies need independent evidence from grass-roots organizations to point to areas where states have failed to fulfill their obligations, thereby also putting pressure on states to act.  Civil society, especially non-governmental organizations (NGOs), acts as a vital bridge between decision- making elites and individuals whose rights are all too often not respected, and NGOs can contribute invaluable expertise, local knowledge and experience.  In their monitoring of country situations , the international bodies often fail to refer to minorities at risk, few minority rights cases are brought before the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC) or the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD); and applicable international law is rarely invoked in local or national courts.  This is due to a lack of awareness of the existing rights and their applicability, as well as of the mandates of these treaty bodies and their procedures; the treaty bodies’ own relative lack of relevant information or resources, and the lack of specialist legal expertise among domestic human rights or minority rights organisations in international minority rights law and case preparation.  

Over the past few years more effective measures have been introduced to ensure that State parties to international human rights treaties fulfil their commitment to respect their human rights obligations, including: the introduction of general comments, recommendations and concluding observations, and the involvement of a wide range of actors, in particular NGOs. This development has also provided NGOs with greater scope to channel grievances through the treaty bodies, to bring issues of concern to the attention of the international community, and to urge governments to improve the situation highlighted.  A number of treaty bodies now actively encourage both national and international NGOs to: submit alternative reports which provide them with a fuller and often more critical analysis of the state of human rights in a given country; attend pre-sessional working group meetings and in some cases plenary informal meetings to provide country-specific information on those states parties under consideration; to contribute to thematic sessions with a view to focusing the international community on particular themes of relevance to many states and to the treaty in question, and recommending strategies to improve the situation, and to input into the drafting of general comments and recommendations which serve to elaborate or develop further the scope and understanding of the various treaty provisions.  In addition, civil society and minority and indigenous community based organizations have a crucial role to play in the dissemination of the recommendations and concluding observations of the treaty bodies and to lobby for their effective implementation at national and local level.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) are the two key treaties that have been chosen as the focus of the programme activities because they are the most relevant to minority and indigenous rights.  They have committed supervisory bodies namely the Human Rights Committee (HRC) and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) to monitor compliance of states parties.  In addition, ICERD and the First Protocol to the ICCPR provide for a right of individual complaints provided that States parties have recognised the competence of the Committee to receive and consider such complaints. These conventions have demonstrated that they can play an important role in ensuring state compliance with legal standards and therefore have the greatest potential for having a real impact in improving the human rights situation of minorities and indigenous peoples.  

Barriers to access by minority and indigenous peoples to international mechanisms need to be overcome
Minority and indigenous communities in the programme countries are not currently able to use the opportunity of the international fora and mechanisms to raise their concerns and urge governments to act because some communities are unaware of their rights under international law, and the fact that their day to day experiences amount to a failure of their state to respect these rights. Communities who are aware of their rights under international law may still lack the necessary knowledge of processes and opportunities and a lack of confidence may prevent them from raising their concerns at these complex and, to some, daunting
fora. In addition, even those who have the necessary knowledge and confidence may not be able to get to fora through lack of funds, or may feel too vulnerable to state reprisals unless they act with the backing of internationally respected organizations.  Finally, NGO coalitions and networks on minority and indigenous peoples’ issues at the national and regional level remain weak.  These factors result in a lack of awareness, in-country, among government officials, local officials, development actors, development NGOs, and members of communities of the relevant international human rights instruments and of the monitoring processes.  Further, few alternative reports on the rights pertaining to minorities and indigenous peoples are submitted to the treaty bodies overseeing implementation of treaty rights. The above factors mean that relevant recommendations and concluding observations adopted by the treaty bodies are often unknown locally and there is no local pressure for their implementation.

Identification of the Issues Addressed

The idea behind this project was first voiced by ICES and MRG partners.   Many partners who took part in the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) gained experience of international advocacy and realized the potential that it had to improve the condition of the communities they represent.  The WCAR was, however, a one off process, and many partners suggested that it might be possible to transfer the skills and experiences gained there to other ongoing regular multilateral advocacy fora.  Many other partners have expressed their frustration at not feeling able to use international processes when they feel that they are making little or no progress at a domestic level. In responding to this expressed need, ICES and MRG have used their combined experience and expertise to build on this idea and elaborate the details of this programme.  While the need expressed by partners was from a broad range of countries and settings globally, ICES and MRG have decided to focus on a limited number of programme countries and the two selected treaty bodies to ensure that the programme is manageable and coherent.  Partners in these regions and the specified programme countries have been consulted or involved in the planning process of this project,

Experience of ICES and MRG and their partners working on these issues

The project will be jointly implemented by the International Centre for Ethnic Studies (ICES) based in Colombo – Sri Lanka and the Minority Rights Group International (MRG) based in London – UK. Both organizations have complementary skills and experience in implementing the project activities.  For further details of this partnership, see Annex 1.

ICES, established in 1982, is a non-governmental organisation based in Colombo, Sri Lanka, whose four broad objectives include: the promotion and protection of human rights; working towards national cohesion in countries within South Asia and beyond; contributing to conflict prevention and to the promotion of international peace, and; furthering a more equitable and inclusive development process.   The aims of ICES are achieved through research and policy formulation programmes and projects in areas such as ethnicity, minority protection and multiculturalism. To this end, ICES has been working closely with the United Nations in order to channel information to the Special Rapporteurs, the Working Groups of the Commission, and the treaty bodies, and has published a toolkit for NGOs on the means to access and effectively use the United Nations mechanisms and procedures to submit information and complaints. ICES has carried out a number of projects on the protection of minorities and indigenous peoples in Asia and Africa, and on the promotion of diversity, pluralism and multiculturalism. ICES has provided training for NGOs on international human rights instruments, the supervisory bodies and the means by which these can be more effectively accessed and used. ICES has also very recently prepared a statement of principles on minority and group rights in South Asia which was submitted to the 2003 session of the Working Group on Minorities and will be further discussed by Governments and NGOs in the region. In addition, ICES works closely with a wide range of partners to strengthen their capacity to collect information, channel their grievances and obtain redress for violations.

MRG is an international non-governmental organization (NGO) working to secure rights worldwide for indigenous and tribal peoples and ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities, and to promote co-operation and understanding between communities. It does this through research, publishing and advocacy on minority, indigenous and tribal rights and issues, and by providing specialist training and other support to locally-based NGOs enabling them to protect and promote their own rights.  MRG has designed, run and evaluated many training courses, usually regionally or internationally.  Most of these focus on human rights standards, and mechanisms and advocacy strategies. MRG has a long track record in contributing to the elaboration and implementation of international human rights standards. MRG was instrumental in the elaboration and adoption of both the 1992 UN Declaration on the Rights of Minorities and the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention on National Minorities. MRG works with over 150 partner organizations worldwide, mainly organizations representing ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America. It has close working links with UN human rights bodies, and has run joint events with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Working Group on Minorities.  MRG has published a report on minority rights in Cambodia in co-operation with ICES, and has direct experience of working in Bangladesh and the Philippines in its “Programme to Promote the Rights of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Asia”.  On the Caucasus, MRG has recently published a report on this region. Before and during the World Conference Against Racism (2001), MRG offered training to and facilitated participation of numerous minority and indigenous peoples’ NGOs from Central America and West Africa, and as part of MRG’s Minority Rights and Development Programme, is currently publishing and translating a number of issues papers and studies examining the situation of minority and indigenous peoples including those in West Africa and in Central America.   MRG has published over many years on Central America including a well-respected book “Invisible Americans” on Afro-Latin communities across Central and Southern America.

Regional project partners and other participating organisations have been/will be chosen according to the following criteria:  i) They have detailed knowledge of their governments’ statements and actions; as well as detailed knowledge of the central concerns and priorities of their communities;  ii) they have strong grassroots links and networks and have their unique perspective and ability to speak to their needs and concerns, advocacy skills and experience which have often been tested and developed in difficult domestic circumstances, and; iii) they have the capacity to ensure that international discussions are relevant to local circumstances, and are reported back and acted upon locally.  Regional partners to assist in coordinating activities in West Africa and Central America have been identified and have agreed to participate in this programme.  Potential regional partners in the remaining two regions have been identified – their participation will be confirmed over the coming months before the start of the project.  Please see Annex 1 for more detail of partners and their experience.

ICES and MRG experience as “added value” to this initiative:
ICES and MRG will take the lead in managing and implementing this project, with the regional lead partners.  Without the support and involvement of ICES and MRG, it is believed that such an initiative as this would be very unlikely to take place or succeed.  ICES and MRG have the ability to act as a bridge between local organizations and the international community and to link the local to the global and vice versa.  Further, both ICES and MRG can facilitate networking between organizations and communities that would not be willing to work together without the involvement, expertise and leadership of respected specialist international NGOs, and can facilitate regional cross-border links.

Lessons drawn from ICES and MRG experience:
 both organisations have extensive experience in facilitating and delivering training initiatives, and have gained an international reputation for training in advocacy skills. While this particular project is the first of its kind, strengthening international standards and mechanisms for the protection of minorities and indigenous peoples is central to much of the ongoing work of both ICES and MRG.

From the WCAR experience, MRG learned that there is a need for more comprehensive training, which includes follow-up and lobbying for implementation of standards.  MRG also has many years’ experience of preparing minorities and indigenous peoples for, and facilitating their access to, international fora including sessions of the UN Working Group on Minorities, World Conference and more recently to CERD sessions.  From these initiatives, MRG has learned the value of its region-wide approaches to cross-cutting issues that transcend state borders. This approach, also used in this project, allows the sharing of experiences and building of links between NGOs from countries which all, to a lesser or larger degree, are undergoing changes and in which civil society remains weak.  In addition, MRG recognises that indigenous and minority communities are best placed to advocate for their own needs and address their problems and demand that their governments respect and implement legal standards.

Throughout its research, monitoring and advocacy work, especially in the Asian region, ICES has learned that the violations of the rights of minorities and of indigenous peoples are all too often the root causes of tensions and conflict. ICES activities have thus been guided by the need to focus on the causes of conflict, implementation of the rights of vulnerable and marginalised population groups, and means by which the capacity of NGOs and national institutions can be strengthened to address complaints and provide redress. ICES work in the area of training and capacity-building has also brought to light the need for greater awareness raising and training, especially among members of civil society, about the content and scope of the obligations of states in promoting and protecting human rights in accordance with the international human rights instruments which they have ratified, the national and international mechanisms and procedures available to channel grievances, and the means by which respective Governments may be urged to adopt measures to improve the situation and fully implement the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples.

Both organisations can effectively enhance the work of the partners by equipping them with tools to represent themselves, and can provide the crucial links to international fora, which allow groups to link their national situation with international legal mechanisms, and relate the latter to the situation in-country.   Lessons have also been drawn from past training work and work around international standards including the need for participation in training, the view that advocacy should be carried out by the members of the communities affected (but with suitable support), the fact that national advocacy strategies are best developed by coalitions of national actors (with suitable support), the need for consultation with communities before strategic planning for advocacy work, and the usefulness of follow-up projects in putting training into practice and sharing it with the wider community.

New Approaches to tackling the problem

This project has developed a new approach to tackling the problem by planning to provide highly specialised training to NGO staff in order to increase their input into the treaty bodies, the first training of its kind in these regions.  Minorities and indigenous groups in the programme countries will benefit from training which will not only increase their advocacy skills at a national level, but also bring in a “third party” ie, treaty bodies, who will be able to add to and strengthen national advocacy initiatives undertaken by trained NGOs.  The programme will also serve as model of a strategic partnership, as it brings together a Northern International NGO (MRG), a Southern International NGO (ICES), National NGOs and minority and indigenous CBOs. The programme will link some of the poorest and most vulnerable communities from some of the most remote and inaccessible parts of the world to international decision-makers.  It will give them voice on the international stage where they can articulate their grievances and thus break their isolation and, hopefully in the long term, the cycle of exclusion and oppression that they face. By targeting some countries where civil society is relatively undeveloped, the programme will help to strengthen civil society organisations at a local, national and regional level.  The regional training will facilitate the exchange of experiences and good practice between organisations and countries which will be at varying stages of development.  Finally, ICES and MRG are targeting countries in which civil society remains weak and where international interventions on human rights issues have been limited to date – this is particular the case for Kyrgyzstan and Cambodia. While this is innovative and opens new avenues for the NGO community in these countries, it does mean that confirming the participation of regional partners has taken longer than anticipated.

GOALS, PURPOSE, OUTPUTS AND MAIN ACTIVITIES OF THE PROJECT

Goal: To protect and promote the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples and address their situation of marginalisation and poverty, by contributing to the effective implementation of relevant international human rights standards at a national level.

Purpose:  To improve the capacity of minority and indigenous peoples’ NGOs to effectively use treaty bodies at an international level and improve their related advocacy initiatives at a national level.

Activities and Outputs

Output 1

Activity 1
Regional Training workshops
One five-day regional training workshop will be held in each of the following four regions: West Africa (Senegal), Central America (Costa Rica), Central Asia and Caucasus (Kyrgyzstan), and Asia (Cambodia).  Participants will come from: Guinea, Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Philippines, Cambodia .  Each workshop will bring together up to 30 participants (10 from each country) from NGOs, minority and indigenous representatives, and international and regional experts.  As well as conveying information, the training workshops will function as a planning and strategy meeting for the key players from the relevant countries, and will have a multiplier effect as their lessons are later disseminated at a national level.

Methodology and Trainers
The methodology will be participatory, and will include presentations by experts and sharing of information.  In addition, smaller, country-specific sessions within the workshop will allow participants to discuss and prioritise action points for each country, with a view to launching joint work and coalitions to carry out advocacy work and follow up projects after the training (see below).  Trainers will be either local or international experts, depending on availability– the training will therefore be held either in the relevant regional language, or in English (translation costs have been included in the budget).

Selection of participants 
On the basis of their extensive contacts, ICES and MRG will invite organizations to nominate candidates. ICES, MRG and regional partners will select candidates based on an application form; consultations with those familiar with the work of candidates and their organisations will be held, and priority will be given to ensuring a gender balance.

Pre-training information and consultation
As soon as participants have been identified, ICES/MRG will send them a compilation of information on their states’ record of reporting to CERD and the HRC.  This will include a schedule of upcoming reports and any recent state reports, alternative reports and any concluding observations and comments as well as an idea of any upcoming thematic sessions that may be relevant.  A condition of participation in the training will be that the organisation uses existing consultation mechanisms to gain the views of the community about these documents and comes to the training with an idea about the communities’ priorities in terms of issues and concerns that they would wish to raise.  The background materials will explain some of the possibilities including organising collection of material for alternative state reports, campaigns for the implementation of a specific observation or conclusion which will therefore be discussed in advance of the training with members of the organisations and communities represented by trainees at the training. This will feed into the strategy development sessions (see below).

Strategy development sessions
Between 3 and 4 days of the training will be spent sharing information and discussions and practical sessions on the above topics. The training will then divide into 3 groups based on the three countries participating.  Each group will discuss the priorities for taking forward issues jointly in their country.  These might include:

These strategies will be translated by trained participants into proposals for national follow-up activities and a selection will be supported by this programme (see below).  We will also explore with regional partners the usefulness of holding an informal networking session (probably an evening event) during the training to which we will invite national government and key NGOs in the host country as well as diplomats in the country from the other two programme countries in the region and other key stakeholders such as UN, EU, DFID and other key donors, as well as regional body staff and experts.  This would engage these key stakeholders at an early stage and allow for networks to develop and contacts to be made.  Such bodies will often agree to attend events associated with respected international NGOs such as ICES and MRG where they would not attend an event only associated with a group of national NGOs.  Once contacts have been established in this way, we hope and expect that they will develop and deepen as the different actors appreciate how their efforts can be mutually supportive and complementary.

Outputs 2 and 3

Activity 2
Follow up: National networking, advocacy and dissemination initiatives, and preparation of input into treaty bodies
The four regional training workshops will be followed by financial or material support for three national follow-up initiatives in each of the programme countries, which will include:  campaigning at national level for the implementation of concluding comments and recommendations of recent treaty body country reports;  national or local workshops with government representatives, and meetings and dialogue with national governments to lobby for implementation of the recent relevant concluding observations and recommendations adopted by the treaty bodies;  training seminars, in which learning will be disseminated to other civil society organisations or activists;  fact finding, information gathering and drawing up alternative reports;  media work;  any of the above projects may also involve an element of coalition building, and support the formation and development of networks on these issues within each country.

The design of the follow-up projects at the national level will be decided by the participants from that country who will bring to the training the views of their members and communities who will have been consulted beforehand.  This will ensure that the aims, and methods of the follow-up activities will be the most appropriate for those communities .  Each project, whilst hopefully involving several organizations, will have an identified lead national NGO who will be responsible for drafting the proposal and budget, monitoring progress and ensuring the programme is implemented as planned and producing narrative and financial reports when the work is completed.  It is expected that NGOs will undertake other in-country activities over and above project-supported follow-up activities.

Output 4

Activity 3
Facilitating access to treaty bodies
Through the project, financial and logistical support will be provided to facilitate the participation of one minority or indigenous peoples’ representative from each of the participating countries, up to 12 in total, in the sessions, working groups and theme days of the treaty bodies, where their collected information, alternative reports and analysis will be presented. The project staff will also support these partners to develop a media strategy including press releases and media interviews, where appropriate.  Upon their return, these representatives will be in a strengthened position to apply international standards to their national situation, to lobby their national governments and disseminate their experiences to other civil society organisations.

Direct and Indirect Beneficiaries of the Project

Direct beneficiaries
Of regional training:  30 participants per region x 4 regions = 120 representatives of minorities and indigenous peoples ; 
Of input into international fora: Members of CERD and HRC, especially Country Rapporteurs = approx. 30;  
Of in-country follow up activities, including advocacy, training workshops, media work and website information:
- Local and national policy and decision-makers and government representatives  = 100s in all programme countries
  other human rights actors and representatives of minority and indigenous peoples groups = 1000s in all programme countries and other countries outside the range of this programme; through media =1000s

Indirect beneficiaries 
NGOs/CBOs, whose staff member participated in training, (through sharing of information and improved capacity) = 100s ;  Other inter-governmental bodies and international fora (through sharing of experience of this training) = 10s; 
Wider community of minorities and indigenous peoples in the respective countries represented by the NGOs/CBOs through incremental change in their situation = many thousands.

The primary beneficiaries (regional partners and other participating organisations) in this project were/will be identified on the basis of: their ongoing work with minorities and indigenous peoples, intercommunal conflict-transformation and peace building; a commitment to a rights-based approach, to non-violence and to work on gender and double discrimination issues;  their ability to make an effective contribution to the programme with expertise and experience; their mandate within their respective communities; their ability to influence change at local, state, regional or international level; their links to grass roots organisations,  their democratic structure which is transparent and accountable to its members; their track record of delivering projects; and sound financial systems.  Regional partners and other international NGOs and experts working in a project country will assist ICES/MRG in identifying further reputable partners and participating organisations, which fulfil the above criteria.

Involvement of beneficiaries in the project

]The original suggestion for this project came from staff of minority and indigenous NGOs, and as the programme has developed we have consulted with them.  This process will continue once the project is underway. The four key “regional partners” (ie in those countries where the workshops will be hosted) will be closely involved in the development and design of the workshop in their region. Partners will be asked to nominate potential trainees and publicise the training events through their networks.  Selected training participants will be required to discuss the CERD and HRC documentation with their communities before attending the training as described above.  Proposals for follow-up initiatives will be designed, implemented and evaluated by participating organisations.  Evaluations of the regional training events and the programme as a whole will involve participants and partner organisations.  Partner organisations will represent and speak for their own community at international fora.

Gender Balance and Gender Issues