A/CONF.189/PC.2/22
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78.
In accordance with their mandates, the various committees set up by the relevant
international conventions take the content of education into account in a wide variety of ways.
Paradoxically, it is not the committees with the most direct competence that have had the most
satisfying results. According to one study, only the Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination and the Committee on the Rights of the Child take the content of education into
account in their guidelines for periodic reporting by States.82 Even so, these guidelines merely
recall the general principles set out in the two Conventions and recommend that States should
indicate in their reports what steps have been taken to ensure that the aims of education are
consistent with the relevant provisions (articles 7 and 29, respectively).83 On the other hand, the
guidelines of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights make no reference
whatsoever to the obligations of States regarding the content of education.84 This absence is all
the more regrettable in that the Committee is the obvious body for the formulation of
recommendations in this area: matters relating to education, and in particular, to its aims as set
out in article 13, paragraph 1, of the Covenant, fall directly within the full competence of this
Committee, and as such, its guidelines as well as the interpretations it has given would be
extremely useful.85
79.
Finally, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights envisages
no procedure like that established under article 41 of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights. This is indeed regrettable and does nothing to enhance the protection of the
right to receive education in conformity with the objectives of non-discrimination and tolerance
set out in article 13, paragraph 1.86 It must be recognized, however, that the Human Rights
Committee does not hesitate to monitor, through individual complaints, pursuant to article 26 of
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, compliance by States parties with their
commitments under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights - in
other words, under an instrument which does not fall self-evidently within its purview and which
has its own monitoring body. In reality, the Human Rights Committee monitors, not the content
of the right to be protected but rather, in an audacious manner, the right not to be subjected to
discrimination in conformity with article 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, even though the right in question is not covered in that instrument.87
II. FACTUAL ASPECTS OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION
AND RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE IN EDUCATION
80.
Taking account of the conceptual considerations presented in the first chapter of this
study, we shall now discuss the practical and factual aspects of racial discrimination and
religious intolerance in education, so as to be in a better position to make recommendations on
how to combat them.88 It is possible to draw up a typology on the basis of a range of examples
of discriminatory practices throughout the world. This chapter does not seek to be exhaustive
and is concerned less with the number of examples cited than with the category to which each of
them can be assigned in the context of the overall purpose of the study. In this regard, it should
be noted that factual aspects must cast light on people’s attitudes to others, as well as the
representation of their own identity, bearing in mind that, even where no minorities are present in
a country, these may still be intolerant and discriminatory. Moreover, the choice of classification
does not always have legal implications with respect to the violations committed; the intention is
purely pedagogical. Thus, subclassifications may overlap within one and the same typology, and
sometimes in any one example; likewise, other typologies can be used, and these may also