A/HRC/12/33 page 26 Annex EXPERT MECHANISM ADVICE No. 1 (2009) ON THE RIGHTS OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES TO EDUCATION 1. Education is a universal human right fundamental to the exercise of other human rights; everyone has the right to education pursuant to international human rights law. Education is also an empowerment right, through which economically and socially marginalized individuals can obtain means to participate fully in their communities and economies, and in the society at large. 2. Education is the primary means ensuring indigenous peoples’ individual and collective development; it is a precondition for indigenous peoples’ ability to realize their right to self-determination, including their right to pursue their own economic, social and cultural development. 3. The right of indigenous peoples to education includes the right to provide and receive education through their traditional methods of teaching and learning, and the right to integrate their own perspectives, cultures, beliefs, values and languages in mainstream education systems and institutions. The right to education for indigenous peoples is a holistic concept incorporating mental, physical, spiritual, cultural and environmental dimensions. 4. The full enjoyment of the right to education as recognized in international human rights law is far from reality for most indigenous peoples. Deprivation of access to quality education is a major factor contributing to social marginalization, poverty and dispossession of indigenous peoples. The content and objective of education to indigenous peoples in some instances contributes to the assimilation of indigenous peoples into mainstream society and the eradication of their cultures, languages and ways of life. 5. The right of everyone to education is enshrined in numerous international human rights instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, ILO Convention No. 117 on Social Policy, the UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in Education. It is also reaffirmed in various regional human rights instruments. 6. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and ILO Convention No. 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries contain specific provisions on indigenous peoples’ right to education. Several treaties between indigenous peoples and States acknowledge the right of indigenous peoples to education and educational services as a treaty right. 7. The Declaration is coherent with and expands upon legally binding human rights instruments and international jurisprudence developed by international supervisory bodies and mechanisms. The Declaration, interpreted in conjunction with other international instruments, provides an authoritative normative framework for the full and effective protection and