Friends, may I now speak briefly to four matters to which my experience, including as a
migrant and work, has led me to give importance. All are complementary to the
recommendations circulated and are presented to inform dialogue and discussion on
the important issues they raise.
Firstly, in considering the right to education for minorities it is clear, as has been
pointed out by earlier interventions, that one size cannot fit all. We are women and men,
girls and boys. Even limited access to education may be experienced differently. If
women and girls are not named in our discussion, they will be excluded and their issues
will not be addressed. Disaggregated data, as the experience of the FRA and earlier
the EUMC in researching various forms of discrimination indicates, is an essential
component in this process. You cannot manage, let alone address what you cannot
measure in some way.
Secondly, from the work of the National Consultative Committee on Racism and
Interculturalism in Ireland I am clear that in considering these matters, the development
and implementation of an intercultural approach in education represents a positive
approach to the question of the realisation of the right to education for minorities.
An intercultural approach recognises and values cultural diversity and the
accommodation of diversity within education while at the same time acknowledging the
existence of racism and the need to eliminate discrimination, be it manifested directly