A/65/295 policy, so as to ensure that public education institutions are de facto open to all children, including non-nationals. B. Mission to Singapore 72. The Special Rapporteur visited Singapore from 21 to 28 April 2010. He would like to express his sincere gratitude to the Government of Singapore for its full cooperation and openness in the preparation and conduct of his visit. A detailed report containing the observations and conclusions of the Special Rapporteur on the visit will be submitted to the Human Rights Council at its seventeenth session, in 2011. 73. At the press conference held in Singapore on 28 April 2010, 12 the Special Rapporteur emphasized that Singapore was rightly proud of its richly diverse society where individuals from a wide range of backgrounds manage to cohabit and interact with each other on a small portion of territory. 74. Owing to the historical legacy of ethnic and religious tensions, the Government is acutely aware of the threats posed by racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. In that regard, the authorities have endeavoured to put in place laws, policies and institutions that seek to combat those scourges and to continuously promote social cohesion, religious tolerance and what they refer to as racial harmony. 75. While most of those measures are widely appreciated by all sectors of the society, the Special Rapporteur noted that the legitimate goal of searching for racial harmony may have created blind spots in the measures pursued by the Government. In that regard, the Special Rapporteur raised issues relating to restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly, the significance of ethnic identity within Singaporean society and the situation in the areas of housing, education, employment, as well as human rights issues concerning migrant workers. For each set of issues, he highlighted a number of recommendations. 76. For instance, the Special Rapporteur recommended that the Government remove legislative provisions which unduly restrict the rights to freedom of expression and assembly and prevent Singaporeans from holding open and fruitful public debate on matters of ethnicity. He also recommended that the authorities remove the indication of one’s ethnic background from identification documents, so as not to perpetuate the ethnic categorization of Singaporeans. In the area of education, the Special Rapporteur recommended that the Government consider making small adjustments to the public education system, for instance, with special temporary programmes, to allow Malay students to catch up with their Chinese counterparts. In respect of employment, the Special Rapporteur recommended that the Government urgently review all laws, regulations, guidelines, policies and practices which may prevent employment of members of ethnic minority groups in institutions that ought to reflect the diversity of Singapore. The Special Rapporteur also recommended that the Government act swiftly to ensure the protection of the human rights of migrant workers, as this is one area where the situation is quite dire. Finally, he urged the Government to accede to international human rights __________________ 12 10-48481 Available from http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/racism/rapporteur/docs/ StatementVisitSingapore.pdf. 17