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the right of individuals and legal entities to establish and direct their own
educational institution;
the right to language education for migrant workers and their families.
Much guidance in matters concerning the education rights of national minorities can also be
found in the OSCE Hague Recommendations Regarding the Education Rights of National
Minorities. With regard to issues of minority languages in education, additional guidance is
found in the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
The Framework Convention ensures rights to ‘persons belonging to national minorities’. It is
clear that these ‘persons’ can be men or women, children or adults. Indeed, the provisions of the
Convention do not only refer to formal school activities, but refer to education and education
systems in broader terms. In recent years, the Advisory Committee has been increasingly
sensitive to the varying implications of rights for persons belonging to different national
minorities, or groups within minority groups, for men and women, for citizens and noncitizens.5
However, the Framework Convention not only deals with the rights of minorities to education
and specifically to a certain type of education. It is of equal importance for the promotion of
awareness and knowledge amongst the majority population concerning the language, culture
and traditions of minorities.6 Further, Article 14 (3) provides that the educational rights of
persons belonging to national minorities to be taught the minority language or receive
instruction in this language should not prejudice the learning and teaching of the official
language of the State.
As already mentioned, the right to education is a right in itself but it is also instrumental as a
precondition for the full enjoyment of many other rights, such as the right to participation,
expression, association, etc. For that reason the importance of the place of the Framework
Convention in the nexus of human rights provisions is crucial as a guarantee of the full
spectrum of human rights of persons belonging to national minorities.
Planning and activity in the field of education needs to take into account the work done in those
various fora, including the Treaty Monitoring Bodies of the United Nations (UN), the UN
Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, the European Court of Human Rights and bodies
of the Council of Europe (such as the Committee of Experts monitoring the European Charter
for Regional or Minority Languages, the Directorate of School, Out-of-School and Higher
Education and its Language Policy Division). Rights to and in education need also to be situated
5
For instance the Slovak Republic included in its State Report ACFC/SR(99)8 information on special
educational efforts for Roma women. In its State Report ACFC/SR(99)13, the United Kingdom noted that the
‘Government is concerned about the disproportionate number of ethnic minority pupils, particularly AfricanCaribbean boys, who are … excluded from … schools’. The Advisory Committee noted in its Opinion on the
United Kingdom ACFC/INF/OP/I(2002)006 with regard to access to higher education that ‘while certain ethnic
groups are well represented …, other groups, such as Bangladeshi women and African and African Caribbean
men remain seriously under represented’ (paragraph 85).
6
See the Advisory Committee Opinion on Cyprus ACFC/INF/OP/I(2002)4, paragraph 30. In other opinions, the
need of education of persons belonging to specific professional groups is highlighted. This is the case in the
Advisory Committee Opinion on Albania ACFC/INF/OP/I(2003)004 where the Advisory Committee stresses the
need for education among professional groups such as law enforcement officers, the judiciary and the media on
the situation and needs of Roma and Egyptian communities in order to encourage tolerance (paragraph 94).
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