EDUCATION RIGHTS The UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Indigenous Peoples, Rudolfo Stavenhagen, points to some progress, as well as noting problems where bilingual and intercultural programmes have had inadequate resources and have not been complemented by sufficient or well-trained teachers. Success has been most profound where there is monitoring by civil society organizations.62 Enforcement mechanisms A key means of promoting minority rights in education is at the national level. This may include the national human rights institution.63 Such institutions may consider individual complaints on the basis of the constitution, undertake investigation of apparent human rights abuses, and take class actions to judicially review government policies. Where there is a need to seek international redress, there is the possibility to bring individual complaints under certain human rights treaties. At the regional level these include: the African Commission (and soon Court) on Human and Peoples’ Rights; the Inter-American Commission and Court on Human Rights, (it is worth noting that the right to education is one of only two rights which permit individual communications under the San Salvador Protocol); the European Court on Human Rights; and the European Committee on Social Rights (which receives only collective complaints). Today, one of the key international debates surrounding ESC rights is the extent to which they are ‘justiciable,’ that is whether they can be claimed, enforced and guaranteed in a similar way to civil and political rights. The justiciability of the right to education should be in no doubt. This extends to all elements of governmental obligations. Indeed constitutional and other courts have considered the acceptability of educational content in many states, including India, Japan, the Russian Federation and Venezuela, on grounds related to religious intolerance, historical misrepresentation and the promotion of militarism, and potential violence against the marginalized or vulnerable.64 Getting involved in the work being done by many NGOs to establish a complaints mechanism under the ICESCR could be an important way to work towards strengthening the implementation of the right to education. UN treaty bodies which already receive individual complaints on aspects of the right to education are the Human Rights Committee (HRC) and the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD).65 There is also the possibility to submit alternative or shadow reports, and engage in the review process under all relevant UN treaties, ICESCR, ICERD, and the CRC being of particular importance when it comes to the right to education. 59