A/HRC/25/49/Add.1 1. Two-schools-under-one-roof system 38. The Special Rapporteur is concerned at the two-schools-under-one-roof system, by which children from different ethnic groups attend classes in the same building but are taught in segregated sections, have different curricula and rarely mix within the school environment. Institutional arrangements render it virtually impossible for pupils to interact, even in the playground. The schools have separate administrative bodies, school boards, parents’ and student councils, as well as student clubs, for such activities as sports or theatre. This system operates in 54 schools in three cantons of the Federation of Bosnia Herzegovina, in municipalities with mixed Bosniak/Croat population. Sixteen have now been administratively unified under pressure from the international community.14 39. Many of these schools were formed to accommodate returnee children in school buildings catering to the dominant ethnic group of the area in the wake of the reconfiguration of population demographics caused by the conflict. Conceived of as a bridging step, the schools became cemented and are now justified by some as a means to protect the right of children to learn in their mother tongue. 40. Some initiatives have been undertaken to suppress the two-schools-under-one-roof system. In 2010, the Federation Parliament of invited the cantonal ministries of education to take the measures necessary to bring the system to an end before the beginning of the new school year, but was unsuccessful.15 In April 2012, the Mostar Municipal Court ruled that the two-schools-under-one-roof system operating in the towns of Stolac and Čapljina was illegal and discriminatory. It ordered the Education Ministry of the Herzegovina – Neretva canton to end the practice by the start of the new school year. The judgement is yet to be implemented.16 In August 2012, the Ministry of Education of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina outlined a two-year plan to end segregation, although strong political resistance at the local levels is likely to hamper progress.17 41. The Ministry of Education of the Herzegovina – Neretva Canton explained to the Special Rapporteur that municipal councils resisted implementing the ruling, but that efforts were being made at the cantonal level to move forward. The Special Rapporteur also met the Mayor of Stolac, and agreed with him that the two-schools-under-one-roof system was often used as the symbol of the country’s segregated educational system, although mono-national/ethnic schools, which are equally problematic, are far more numerous (see paras. 44-47 below). 42. The two-schools-under-one-roof system exemplifies how divisions between children based on their national or ethnic affiliation become entrenched by establishing different entrances and staircases, erecting walls and fences, and even scheduling a 15-minute gap at recess and the start and end of school. It is disturbing to see how those schools deliberately seek to prevent any kind of interaction between children. Multiplying joint activities and integrating these schools should be easy to organize; all that is lacking, clearly, is political will. Reforming the system should pave the way for broader reforms to address the mononational/ethnic schools system throughout the country. In the Stolac school she visited, the Special Rapporteur met the directors of both the Bosnian and the Croat wings, and felt the necessity of building trust among the various communities through joint activities. She was pleased to note in this regard the joint drawing exhibit organized at the time of her visit by 14 15 16 17 10 See Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Finding Long-term Solutions for the Elimination of Discrimination, Assimilation and Segregation (available from www.oscebih.org/documents/osce_bih_doc_2010122216365135eng.pdf), p. 1. Report of the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe (see footnote 13), para. 28. See also S/2012/813, annex, enclosure, para. 63. A/HRC/22/49/Add. 1, para. 75.