A/HRC/61/41 institutions should be closely monitored, in order to avoid perpetuating territorial and structural forms of discrimination. 62. Speakers of minority languages often suffer a barrier to access to health services and social services. Even more worrying, in their interactions with law enforcement authorities, they may not even be able to claim respect for their rights when they have been encroached by public or private actors. This type of discrimination is a clear violation of articles 2, 14 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and should be eliminated by all States. Discrimination in access to education should also be resolved. No child should be prevented from receiving education because his mother tongue is not a State language. Access to early education, and thereby the possibility to later learn in a national language, is to be guaranteed to all children, in conformity with articles 2, 4 and 28 (1) of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. 63. Discriminatory access to public or private services based on ethnicity is rarely entrenched in legal provisions but is unfortunately a common practice in many societies. Such discrimination is also very present in relations between private actors concerning access to private sector jobs and the housing market. In South Asia, caste-based discrimination continues to restrict Dalits’ access to employment, confining many to stigmatized occupations, despite formal legal prohibitions. Job applicants with Roma, African or Arab-sounding names in countries such as Belgium, France and Netherlands (Kingdom of the) receive significantly fewer interview invitations than equally qualified candidates bearing names from the dominant community.34 Similar patterns have been documented in Latin America, where applicants of African descent face lower hiring rates and wage penalties linked to skin colour.35 Access and representation in traditional, private and public, as well as social media is also a too frequent field of discriminatory practices. 36 64. When such discrimination is the result of the behaviour of public authorities, the State bears direct and full responsibility. States should take all measures – educational, combined with strong and precise regulations indicating prohibited conduct amounting to discrimination, which must be strictly implemented – to combat such forms of discrimination. The Caste-based Discrimination and Untouchability (Offence and Punishment) Act of Nepal is an example of legislation explicitly prohibiting discrimination by private individuals, including in employment, housing and access to services, and recognizing the rights of Dalits.37 Such legal provisions must not only exist, but also be strictly enforced, offering effective remedies for victims and genuine sanctions for offenders. Awareness-raising campaigns should not only emphasize equal rights for all, but also highlight the contributions (economic, cultural and political) that persons belonging to ethnic minorities bring to society as a whole. 65. Religious minorities are also often discriminated against in access to public spaces. Such discrimination may take the form of restrictions on places of worship, as illustrated by the 2009 constitutional ban on the building of minarets in Switzerland. 38 In Georgia, non-Orthodox religious communities often face bureaucratic obstacles or refusals when attempting to establish, expand or maintain places of worship. Such barriers are frequently 34 35 36 37 38 10 Stijn Baert, “Hiring discrimination: an overview of (almost) all correspondence experiments since 2005”, Audit Studies: Behind the Scenes with Theory, Method, and Nuance, ed. by S. Michael Gaddis (Springer International Publishing, 2018). German Freire et al., Afro-Descendants in Latin America: Toward a Framework of Inclusion (World Bank, 2018). See also Edward Telles, René D. Flores and Fernando Urrea-Giraldo, “Pigmentocracies: educational inequality, skin color and census ethnoracial identification in eight Latin American Countries”, Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, vol. 40. Hazel Atuel, Viviane Seyranian and William D. Crano. “Media representations of majority and minority groups”, European Journal of Social Psychology, vol.37 No. 3. OHCHR Nepal, Opening the door to equality: the Caste-based Discrimination and Untouchability (Offence and Punishment) Act, 2011 (OHCHR Nepal, (7 December 2011). Available from https://nepal.ohchr.org/en/resources/Documents/English/reports/HCR/2011_12_07_Opening_the_Do or_to_Equality_E.pdf. See www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2009/12/swiss-law-banning-minarets-clearly-discriminatoryun-human-rights-chief. GE.25-20927