A/HRC/14/43/Add.3 the country. The Special Rapporteur strongly believes that the future of all societies will be determined in schools. It is therefore of utmost importance that policies concerning access to public school are designed in a way to instil a long-lasting and genuine mentality of understanding and respect towards cultural diversity and equal opportunities for all in any society. 59. Although most foreign workers who live in the United Arab Emirates are unaccompanied by their families, there remains a significant number of them residing in the country with their families. This has created tremendous challenges to the Emirati public education system, both in terms of capacity of absorption and social integration. In view of the inability of the public education system to absorb the large number of foreigners and the language barrier, the Special Rapporteur was informed by government officials that foreign communities have the right to establish their schools with their own curriculum. The government officials explained that given the temporary nature of foreigners’ stay in the United Arab Emirates, these private schools allow foreign children to quickly readapt to their national education system when they return to their respective countries of origin. 60. In most cases, these private schools are established with the support of the Government providing foreign communities with land and other subsidies allowing for their construction and maintenance. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the generous support provided to foreign communities’ schools and acknowledges that these private schools enable foreign communities to maintain a strong link with their countries of origin. He also understands the fact that a large majority of parents prefer sending their children to their communities’ schools, so that the children can speak and study in their native language. 61. As a result of the educational policy described above, Emirati children, and other Arabic-speaking children whose parents work in the public sector, are enrolled in the public school system, whereas all other foreign children are enrolled in their respective communities’ schools, without much permeability between these two parallel school systems. While the Special Rapporteur was informed that there exists no legislation specifically prohibiting the access to public schools for foreign children who do not speak Arabic, he received reports indicating that it is de facto impossible for them to join the public education system. The Special Rapporteur believes that such educational policies are hampering effective social integration of foreigners into Emirati society. These policies also reflect the authorities’ views that foreigners do not come to the United Arab Emirates to have a new home and start a new life, but that they rather come to work for a few years, before returning to their respective countries of origin. 62. Although the Special Rapporteur recognizes that at present there may not be numerous requests from non-Arabic speaking parents to send their children to Emirati public schools, he nonetheless would like to recommend the authorities to open up the public education system to non-Arabic speaking foreigners, as done by the Emirati Universities about a decade ago. Indeed, whereas the Universities used to be reserved for Emirati citizens, they now accept foreign students, thereby facilitating close interaction between Emirati and foreign students. In a similar manner and in line with general recommendation No. 30 (2004) of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination which states that States parties should “ensure that educational institutions are open to non-citizens”, the Special Rapporteur would like to recommend that the authorities reconsider the current educational policies, so as to offer the choice to foreign children who do not speak Arabic to integrate into the public school system. V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 63. The United Arab Emirates is a unique country where non-nationals represent the vast majority of the population. The influx of foreign workers which has GE.10-12576 17