A/HRC/14/33 70. Joint work with UNESCO included the participation of OHCHR in seminars to support the adoption of the general comment on the right to participate in cultural rights by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and to clarify the scope of the right to benefit from scientific progress and its applications. 71. Regarding collaboration with civil society, OHCHR continued to facilitate a consultation process among representatives of indigenous communities and seven Governments of the Amazon Basin and El Chaco to formulate guidelines to protect the rights of indigenous peoples in voluntary isolation and in initial contact. A first draft of the guidelines was revised at a consultation meeting convened in Geneva in March 2009. The draft guidelines include principles for the development of policies and programmes in key areas such as health, and underscore the interdependence between the cultural rights of indigenous peoples and other rights such as the right to self-determination. 72. OHCHR continued its work related to the impact of extractive industry activities on indigenous peoples and their land. It participated in an expert meeting held in Spain in October 2009 to examine existing international and other initiatives and mechanisms for the prevention of conflict related to extractive industries and indigenous peoples. As part of its substantive and organizational support to the United Nations Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, OHCHR organized a technical workshop on the right of indigenous peoples to education in order to contribute to the study on lessons learned and challenges to achieve the implementation of the right of indigenous peoples to education. 73. The work of the OHCHR in the field of minority rights also contributed to the promotion and implementation of economic, social and cultural rights. This included a comprehensive minority fellowship programme that contained substantive elements of economic, social and cultural rights, building minorities’ capacity and skills in these areas. The Office has also launched a regional capacity-building project for Afro-descendants in the Andean region, aimed to strengthen their capacity and skills to invoke human rights standards, including economic, social and cultural rights. D. More synergy with United Nations human rights bodies 74. OHCHR has worked on strengthening the capacity of States parties to submit their reports to treaty bodies and engage with special procedures, as well as the capacity of civil society to participate in these mechanisms, in the area of economic, social and cultural rights. 75. OHCHR encouraged and systematized inputs to ensure the inclusion of economic, social and cultural rights in the UPR conducted by the Human Rights Council. During the first seven sessions of the Human Rights Council Working Group on the UPR held in 2008–2010, recommendations were made to a number of States concerning economic, social and cultural rights. Recommendations request States to ensure that national legislation and policies comply with international obligations; ratify relevant instruments, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and its Optional Protocol, cooperate with special procedures United Nations human rights mechanisms, meet reporting obligations and implement their recommendations. Furthermore, recommendations were made to intensify efforts to guarantee the right to food; strengthen poverty alleviation strategies and policies; enhance efforts in the provision of adequate housing, access to clean water and sanitation; ensure access to quality education, especially for girls and women; and ensure equal access to health services, including children and migrant women, refugees and asylum-seekers, indigenous peoples and persons belonging to minorities. GE.10-12597 15