A/CONF.189/PC.2/22 page 36 B. International measures 1. Standard-setting 124. As rightly noted by the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities in its resolution 1998/11 of 20 August 1998, “the question of the right to education has not been sufficiently dealt with in the framework of the United Nations bodies responsible for the protection of human rights” (seventh preambular paragraph). A standard-setting effort should therefore be undertaken with a view to improving on existing international instruments by adopting texts and documents of an interpretative nature that would go beyond merely setting general goals and would clarify for the benefit of Governments and the international community precisely what strategy is required for non-discriminatory and tolerant education. The core of this strategy should include the preparation of school curricula and textbooks for teaching tolerance (especially religious tolerance) and the avoidance of racial discrimination in history and other sensitive subjects where instruction can shape pupils’ minds, enhancing their perception of cultures and civilizations different from their own. 125. This standard-setting work could be formalized and supported by adopting specific resolutions dealing particularly with racial discrimination and religious intolerance in education at the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, to be held in Durban, and at the international consultative conference on school education in relation to freedom of religion and belief, tolerance and non-discrimination, to be held in Madrid in 2001. 126. Finally, it seems to us that the instruments relating to racial discrimination and religious intolerance in education are generally quite dispersed, coming within the mandates of several treaty and non-treaty human rights bodies.134 This dispersal, although justified given the cross-cutting nature of the right to be protected, nevertheless creates difficulties in determining which principles are applicable and to what areas. It therefore seems necessary, in our view, to centralize all the relevant legal and jurisprudential information, including through the use of Internet media. 2. The role of the relevant international organizations 127. UNESCO has a fundamental role to play, in accordance with its statutes and specific procedures,135 in encouraging States to take appropriate steps to review and, where necessary, amend laws that appear to be discriminatory in the field of education on the grounds of religious beliefs or language. 128. The international financial organizations (the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, regional banks, etc.) should target their action in developing countries so that the right to education is not too adversely affected by the debt burden and structural adjustment policies, in particular benefiting the most vulnerable minorities and ethnic groups in society.