A/HRC/10/11/Add.1 page 2 I. EDUCATION 1. Education is an inalienable human right, and is more than a mere commodity or a service. Furthermore, education is a human right that is crucial to the realization of a wide array of other human rights, and an indispensable agency for the expansion of human capabilities and the enhancement of human dignity. Education plays a formative role in socialization for democratic citizenship and represents an essential support for community identity. It is also a primary means by which individuals and communities can sustainably lift themselves out of poverty and a means of helping minorities to overcome the legacies of historical injustice or discrimination committed against them. 2. The right to education is not in practice enjoyed equally by all. Minorities1 in various regions of the world suffer disproportionately from unequal or restricted access to quality education and inappropriate education strategies. Lack of education leads to denial of civil and political rights, including rights to freedom of movement and freedom of expression, and limits participation in the cultural, social and economic life of the State and in public affairs, such as in the exercise of voting rights. Lack of education also limits the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights, including rights to employment, health, housing and an adequate standard of living. Lack of education results in reticence to engage with law enforcement authorities, inhibiting access to remedies when human rights are violated. 3. Women and girl members of minority communities suffer disproportionately from lack of access to education and from high illiteracy levels. Lack of education represents an absolute barrier to their progress and empowerment. 4. Bad education strategies can violate human rights as much as good strategies enhance rights and freedoms. Unwanted assimilation imposed through the medium of education, or enforced social segregation generated through educational processes, are harmful to the rights and interests of minority communities and to the wider social interest. 5. In the context of rights and obligations recognized at the level of the United Nations and regionally, education should serve the dual function of supporting the efforts of communities to self-development in economic, social and cultural terms while opening pathways by which they can function in the wider society and promote social harmony. 1 The term “minorities” as used in the present recommendation should be understood as it is used in the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities (General Assembly resolution 47/135), the commentary of the Working Group on Minorities to the Declaration (E/CN.4/Sub.2/AC.5/2005/2) and the first annual report of the independent expert on minority issues (E/CN.4/2006/74). It encompasses the persons and groups protected under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination from discrimination based on race, colour, descent (caste), national or ethnic origin, citizen or non-citizen (General Assembly resolution 2106 (XX)).