Overcoming marginalisation by building the capacity of minorities to fully engage in economic and political spheres is a major undertaking for governments. The UN Millennium Campaign offers grants to civil society for advocacy on the MDGs. These programmes can be used for pilot projects that demonstrate good practice in overcoming marginalisation and protecting minority rights. Other UN agencies have targeted efforts at building capacity of minorities for cooperating with governments and the UN.

Minority Fellowship Programme: OHCHR organizes annual human rights training programmes specifically addressed to minorities. The Minority Fellowship Programme aims to strengthen the knowledge of minority representatives of the UN system and relevant mechanisms so minorities can better promote and protect the rights of their communities. The Minority Fellowship Programme started in 2005 and, by end 2009, over 40 minority representatives from different ethnic, religious and linguistic communities had already benefited from this programme. It is currently available in English and Arabic.³⁷

Community-Led Training for Minorities: Through OHCHR, the UN also conducts community-led human rights trainings to encourage former minority fellows and other representatives to share their knowledge with the entire community. The proposals are submitted to OHCHR (to the Indigenous Peoples and Minorities Unit), which analyses their relevance and presents them to the OHCHR Grants Committee for possible funding. The community-led training deals with the promotion and protection of human rights, with the direct involvement of minority representatives in the training formulation, methodology, implementation and evaluation.

In the long-term, a harmonized Inter-Agency Programme could be developed, providing more opportunities for the fellows to cooperate with UN agencies and national human rights institutions upon return.

	COMMUNITY-LED TRAINING IN BULGARIA One Community-Led Training supported by OHCHR was submitted by a former minority fellow from a Roma community in Bulgaria, to organize a training course in the Municipality of Polski Trambesh in Bulgaria in December 2006. The project enabled “Roma Together”, the former minority fellow’s organization, to organize a training workshop for local Roma representatives. The workshop aimed to engage and equip the local Roma community to put into practice the 2005-2015 “Decade of Roma Inclusion”, as designated by nine countries in Central and South Eastern Europe. Participants devised a strategy to enhance Roma participation in the official decision-making process, especially in areas where their rights and daily lives are most affected. They all agreed that the Municipal Council should set up a standing body of local minority representatives to provide policy input concerning minority issues. This proposal was accepted by the Mayor and Head of the Municipal Council, who then presented the proposal to the local council members. The standing body has now been established. The former minority fellow was excited to see the knowledge and skills he acquired making a difference at home.

The United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery: The Fund gives small grants to organizations for projects that provide legal, financial and humanitarian assistance to victims of contemporary forms of slavery, and often supports projects of minority organizations. The maximum grant for any project is US$15,000 and the average grant is about US$10,000. The deadline for applications is December each year.³⁸

Programme in Peacemaking and Preventative Diplomacy: The focus of the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) Training Programme to Enhance the Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding Capacities of Indigenous Peoples’ Representatives is a problem-solving negotiation approach to strengthen participants’ capacity to more effectively negotiate to have their needs met, while also promoting constructive relationships between members of minority communities and those in the dominant community. UNITAR also organizes this programme at the regional level, which includes specific sessions on identity and conflict. In addition, UNITAR organizes an annual regional training programme for African Government officials and UN peacekeeping operation staff, and the UNITAR-International Peace Academy Fellowship Programme in Peacemaking and Preventive Diplomacy for mid and senior-level UN staff and international diplomats using negotiation simulations focusing on minority concerns and strengthening skills in conflict analysis and mediation.³⁹