A/HRC/4/49 page 13 the work we undertake and to that end I am pleased to inform you that I have established a Women’s Rights and Gender Unit, which is now both staffed and functioning. The Unit will enable the office to consolidate its capacity and expertise to play a leadership role in overcoming the multiple forms of discrimination that women the world over confront. Efforts will be undertaken to ensure the systematic integration and mainstreaming of women’s human rights and gender issues in all aspects of our work and in that of the United Nations human rights mechanisms, including the Human Rights Council, and provide the appropriate analytical and operational capacity to enable me to play a more visible and catalytic role in promoting the equal protection of women’s rights across the world. It will also spearhead closer interaction between the Office and United Nations Country Teams and provide them with the necessary expertise and analytical and other tools to support the efforts of Member States and other actors at the country level to redress gender-based discrimination. Needless to mention, women face many challenges and we will have to prioritize our efforts and the focus of the work of the Unit. For that reason, the Unit will focus on strategic interventions that can empower actors, particularly at the country level. At the beginning it will also focus on a few issues, including violence against women, and access to justice. With the imminent transfer of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) to Geneva, our efforts to place women’s rights at the centre of the United Nations human rights system will be further enhanced. F. Minorities 50. The exclusion of minorities and the most vulnerable sections within minorities continues to contribute to the undermining of development and political and social stability. Challenges remain for the United Nations system to ensure that minority concerns are integrated into efforts of the Organization to reduce poverty, establish stable and socially inclusive societies and address systematic and long-standing discrimination against specific minority communities. 51. In August 2006, a needs assessment mission was undertaken to Nepal with a view to ensuring that our country office develop programmes and activities to assist the Government in combating the social exclusion of Dalits, indigenous peoples, ethnic and religious minorities, and particularly in addressing the situation of women belonging to these communities. Since 2005 OHCHR has been developing the Minority Fellowship Programme, which gives minority representatives an opportunity to gain knowledge about the United Nations system and mechanisms dealing with human rights in general and minority issues in particular so they can better assist in protecting and promoting the rights of their respective communities. Twenty-one minority fellows have participated in this programme since its creation, also conflict prevention and resolution and civil society partnerships. As a follow-up to the consultation, the Democratic Governance Group in the Bureau for Development Policy has prioritized further work on “Minorities in development” in its annual workplan of 2007. G. Indigenous peoples 52. Indigenous issues remain a priority area of the work of OHCHR with increasing efforts being made to strengthen activities at the country level. During 2006, the Office collaborated with the Government of the Congo in drafting a law for indigenous peoples that will be presented to Parliament in March 2007. Under the Andean Project for the promotion and