E/CN.4/2000/16/Add.1 page 12 42. Children learn about minorities that have been living on Czech territory for centuries only episodically and pupils learn almost nothing about the Roma in school. However, knowledge of the culture of people living on the same territory is probably best for an understanding of other cultures. In all cases, knowledge of other cultures helps to create a positive or neutral approach, which in turn eliminates prejudices and xenophobic and hostile attitudes. Successful education for tolerance may in the future render the anti-discrimination measures currently in force redundant. 43. Education for tolerance, like information about national minorities, cannot become a separate subject. On the contrary, education for tolerance should permeate all subjects; students should learn about the history of national minorities in their history lessons, just as they should learn about specific historic periods affecting national minorities, about their literature, etc. 44. While the languages and cultures of other national minorities living in the Czech Republic have their roots at least in foreign countries, the Romany language and culture do not have such an advantage. If the Czech Republic wants to enable the Roma to retain and develop their culture, it has to ensure material support and staffing. 45. The Government will encourage a search for forms of coexistence between different ethnic groups for the settlement of conflicts through negotiation and research into attitudes. It will support research to discover why in some regions with a large concentration of Roma there are no problems with coexistence, while in others, despite their relatively small concentration, such problems do occur. 46. Up to the present time there is insufficient knowledge about the coexistence of the Roma community with other inhabitants. Research that has been carried out so far has been mostly descriptive: to describe specific facts in a specific locality and at a specific time. Sometimes, beyond the scope of a particular mission, results have been supplemented by recommendations for further action. No actual research describing the structure of the Roma community, the behavioural patterns of individual groups, or ways of achieving non-problematic coexistence, have been undertaken. At the same time, it is a known fact that in some places the coexistence of Roma and the majority population is good, for example in Cesky Krumlov. 5. Measures to improve Roma participation in decision-making processes 47. The Government will ensure the involvement of Roma in decision-making concerning affairs of the Roma community, particularly by creating conditions for the democratization process among Roma that will allow for actual democratic representation. Democratically elected Roma representatives can be the same as Roma representatives elected to cultural self-administration committees within the State. 48. The Roma have founded several political parties and movements and have grouped themselves into several dozen civic associations. Representatives of those parties, movements and associations want to speak on behalf of all Roma and seek participation in decision-making on all issues relating to the Roma community.