activities. Those actors include educators, pupils or students and their parents3, minorities and their organisations, central, local and regional authorities. It should, however, be made clear from the very outset that, in view of the multiple aims of education and the multitude of factual situations, there are no ‘one-size-fits-all-solutions’ in this field. The purpose of the present Commentary is not to give an exhaustive analysis of all aspects of minority and intercultural education covered by the Framework Convention. The purpose is to summarise the experience of the Advisory Committee at the first cycle of monitoring and to emphasize some of the most crucial issues the Advisory Committee has encountered in its work. The second monitoring cycle may well include other issues which have not been prominent during the first cycle.4 Focus in the Commentary is put on the role of the Framework Convention in the task of balancing, on the one hand, the maintenance and development of the culture and the essential elements of the identity of persons belonging to national minorities and, on the other hand, their free integration and participation in the societies where they live. The Advisory Committee hopes that the present Commentary can be used as a tool in the design and implementation of relevant educational policies in State Parties and also as an additional element in the constructive dialogue it has developed during the first cycle of monitoring with State Parties. 1.2 The Framework Convention as an integral part of International Human Rights Instruments The protection of national minorities and of the rights and freedoms of persons belonging to those minorities forms an integral part of the international protection of human rights as provided in Article 1 of the Framework Convention: ‘The protection of national minorities and of the rights and freedoms of persons belonging to those minorities forms an integral part of the international protection of human rights, and as such falls within the scope of international co-operation.’ It follows that the right to education and the rights in education for minorities, as guaranteed by the Framework Convention, are an integral part of education rights as entrenched in a number of specific provisions in international instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in Education, the European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the Revised European Social Charter. A number of different rights are covered in these provisions, including: - the principle of a free and compulsory primary education; equal access to education and equal opportunities within the educational system; the liberty of parents to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children according to their own religious, moral or philosophical convictions; 3 The Commentary covers not only the education of children but also of older persons (young students, adults etc.) 4 For this reason the Commentary refers only to materials from the first monitoring cycle. 6