encourage knowledge of the history, traditions, language and culture of the minorities existing within their territory. Persons belonging to minorities should have adequate opportunities to gain knowledge of the society as a whole. […]  International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), 1966. http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CCPR.aspx Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 23 (1994): Article 27 (Rights of Minorities) CCPR/C/21/Rev.1/Add.5. http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/TBSearch.aspx?lang=en&treatyid =8&doctypeid=11 ICCPR: Article 25: Every citizen shall have the right and the opportunity, without any of the distinctions mentioned in article 2 and without unreasonable restrictions: (a) To take part in the conduct of public affairs, directly or through freely chosen representatives; (b) To vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot, guaranteeing the free expression of the will of the electors; (c) To have access, on general terms of equality, to public service in his country. Article 27: In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise their own religion, or to use their own language. Human Rights Committee General Comment No. 23: […] The Committee observes that this article establishes and recognizes a right which is conferred on individuals belonging to minority groups and which is distinct from, and additional to, all the other rights which, as individuals in common with everyone else, they are already entitled to enjoy under the Covenant […] (para. 1).