A/HRC/43/47 instruction where this would be nearly impossible, as where the language is only spoken by a small number of individuals. 57. Most treaty bodies appear to be less hesitant to recognize the right to be educated in the mother tongue when dealing with a large, well-established minority. This is particularly true when education in a minority language has been used as a medium of instruction or has a long literary tradition with educational material already available in that language. In such situations where there is no reasonable justification to refuse or restrict the use of a minority language as a medium of instruction in public schools, various treaty bodies have been more willing to recognize the right to education in a minority language. In this type of situation, what is “reasonable and justified” would be for the minority language to be used as the main language of instruction to the final years of public education, up to and even including general instruction in the minority language in public university programmes. The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages recognizes this possibility when it refers to the obligation of Governments “to make available university and other higher education in regional or minority languages” where appropriate for the situation of a particular language. 58. When dealing with much smaller groups of students or where there is not a wellestablished educational tradition, particularly with indigenous populations, many of the treaty bodies tend to lean towards what is called a “bilingual, multicultural” form of education, though what this means in practice is of course vague and will depend on the circumstances in place. At a minimum, some teaching of the mother tongue during the primary years of education would seem to be required, if at all possible. Beyond that, the degree to which a minority language should be used in upper grades would be to the degree possible, in a type of sliding scale based on local conditions, such as the number of students, if education is already provided in a minority language, and the availability of teachers and educational material in a minority language. 59. The easiest way to describe what would be “reasonable and justified” in the use of a minority language in education could be as much teaching as possible, at the highest level possible: for pedagogical and other reasons a mother tongue should be the language of instruction, where practical, and at the very least be taught as a subject where this is not really feasible. While no treaty body has yet commented directly on the use of sign languages in education based on the prohibition of discrimination, the Special Rapporteur is aware of a number of national judgments that have made such a linkage. In his view, it is clear that users of sign languages can face barriers that are discriminatory in some contexts if their languages are not used as a medium of instruction where it would be reasonable to do so.17 2. Public and private education 60. A few treaties, such as the UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in Education and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, make it clear that minorities have the right to establish and operate private schools and educational institutions that use their language as a medium of instruction. General human rights treaties do not clarify this, nor do such provisions as article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights on the right of linguistic minorities to use their own language among themselves, or article 28 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the right to education. 61. The concluding observations from different United Nations treaty bodies seem, however, to take it for granted that minorities are entitled to such private schools, and have been willing to recognize it in their responses – even though at times it is not always clear if they are referring to public or private schools, or what a national Government’s legal 17 12 Article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities makes the linkage between equality and the use of sign language, stating in paragraph 3, among others, that States parties shall take appropriate measures, such as facilitating the learning of sign language and the promotion of the linguistic identity of the deaf community, and ensuring that the education of children who are deaf is delivered in the most appropriate languages, and employ teachers who are qualified in sign language.