E/CN.4/1995/91/Add.1 page 29 Moreover, the Constitution itself requires the public authorities to guarantee ’the right of everyone to education, through general planning of education, with the effective participation of all parties concerned and the setting up of teaching establishments’. Article 39 of the Constitution stipulates that children shall enjoy the protection provided for by international conventions designed to protect their rights. It should be noted in this connection that Spain has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Article 14 of the Convention establishes the right of children to freedom of thought, conscience and religion and the right of parents and legal representatives to guide children in the exercise of that right, and further provides for a number of restrictions to the exercise of that right. In accordance with constitutional requirements and for the protection in particular of the rights of the child, article 172 of the Civil Code, establishes the possibility for the competent public authority for the protection of minors to assume custodial responsibility for a minor who is in need of care because the parents are not properly performing their duties in respect of protection. The competent authority is consequently required to intercede when it finds a child to be in a situation where he or she is in need of care through being exposed to possible violations of his or her rights. Such a situation may arise for a wide variety of reasons, including cases where the minor or his or her parents belong to a particular religious movement, if within that movement violations are committed of such rights as the right to health, the right to physical integrity, the right to education and the many other rights enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Concern about the ill effects of certain sects on children is shared by all countries and by international organizations like the Council of Europe, which, following the European Parliament, has adopted a recommendation (Recommendation 1178 (1992)) on sects and new religious movements. In the case of the ’Children of God’ or ’The Family’, the Catalan authorities considered that the fundamental rights of the children confined therein were not being respected, for which reason, acting in accordance with the law and in compliance with a court order, they authorized a search of the home belonging to the aforesaid movement. The children were placed in welfare centres for minors, along with other children placed in the care of the Catalan authorities and no discrimination was exercised against them on the grounds that their parents belonged to a religious movement or for any other reason.