Item VI - The Relationship between De-Segregation Strategies, Cultural Autonomy and Integration in the Quest for Social Cohesion Several Experts made presentations regarding Item VI 9. Issues for presentation and discussion included the following: contacts and exchanges between minorities and the general population; relations between religious minorities and secular schools; and opportunities for persons belonging to minorities to learn their mother tongue or learn through the medium of the mother tongue. The floor was then opened to all participants. Ms. Anurima Bhargava, National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People – Legal Defense Fund, USA discussed de-segregation strategies in the field of education. She made several recommendations: 1. The Draft Recommendations must acknowledge the extent to which educational institutions are segregated by race, class, language, immigration status, disability, caste, religion, and other related factors, and recognize the harms that can be associated with attending schools where students are isolated along these lines. 2. The Draft Recommendations should note that in a racially and ethnically diverse nation such as the United States, the schools should also be racially and ethnically diverse. 3. The Draft Recommendations should indicate that efforts to promote integration and social cohesion should be conscious of and properly take account of race, language, immigration status, religion, caste and other factors that have underlied segregation. Mr. Claude Cahn of the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) in Switzerland made recommendations for the improvement of language in Draft Recommendations 21 and 27. On the latter, Mr. Cahn noted that the draft recommendation provides an important basis from which to recognize that the denial of rights outside the field of education can have a devastating impact on the ability of minorities to realize effectively the right to education. The current draft text would be strengthened via explicit links to the developing international law acquis, including but not necessarily limited to the following: • The right to adequate housing – including a prevalence of forced evictions, and other systemic frustrations of secure tenure; • Land rights, including the land rights of minorities and indigenous peoples; • The right to water and sanitation; • The right to a healthy environment. Mr. Tahir Alam, Education Policy and Community Engagement Advisor for the Muslim Council of Britain, UK, made his intervention regarding Draft Recommendations 45 and 48, namely desegregations strategies in the field of education and specific instruments of dialogue between minorities and local authorities. On desegregation strategies, he would caution against advocating that desegregation should be “actively pursued”. In certain 9 The full text of the Experts’ presentations is available on the forum’s web site at: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/minority/oral_statements_forum_minority_2008.htm 13