Priorities for the work of the Independent Expert and the twentieth anniversary of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities 2012, para. 73
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At its second session, the Forum recommended, inter alia, that States should ensure that all mechanisms, procedures and institutions established to promote and increase the political participation of persons belonging to minorities take into account the specific needs of minority women. The political rights of women are established in, inter alia, article 7 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, whereby women are guaranteed the rights to vote, to hold public office and to exercise public functions. Minorities often lack a say in national and local bodies responsible for policy, including in relation to economic life, national development and budgeting, and this is doubly the case for minority women. Consequently, the issues and situations of minority women may be neglected or not be given the priority that is required to achieve meaningful change.