E/C.12/1/Add.14 page 3 (b) Gross inequality in the distribution of wealth among the population; (c) The failure to implement agrarian reforms; (d) The lack of proper health services and the drastic reduction of public expenditures in the field of health; (e) The impoverishment of State schools over the past decade, coupled with a decline in teachers’ salaries and the consequent deterioration in educational standards, accompanied by the increasing poverty of families; and (f) The acute forms of discrimination that particularly afflict women, indigenous people and other minority groups, and the great inequalities permeating Peruvian society. D. Principal subjects of concern 13. The Committee notes with concern that the 1993 Constitution has not incorporated the provisions of the Covenant, which consequently do not constitute a part of domestic law and therefore cannot be invoked before Peruvian courts. This situation is contrary to what had been the case under the 1979 Constitution, which incorporated the provisions of the Covenant. The Committee notes the information contained in the State party’s report (paras. 126 and 127 among) that, before being definitively incorporated in the 1993 Constitution, any human rights treaty signed by Peru must first be approved by Congress by a two-thirds majority and then ratified by the President. The Peruvian delegation failed to give the Committee a straightforward answer indicating that those steps had been taken by the State party vis-à-vis the Covenant. Among the rights contained in the Covenant which were recognized and incorporated in the 1979 Constitution, but which have so far been left out of the 1993 Constitution, are: (a) The right to a decent standard of living (art. 2 of the 1979 Constitution); (b) The rights to food and adequate housing (art. 18), (c) The equality of opportunities and responsibilities between men and women (art. 2); (d) Labour rights in general. 14. The Committee further notes that, under the 1993 Constitution, international human rights instruments are on the same level as domestic laws and that a recent decision of the Supreme Court of Justice stated that the provisions of those instruments do not have constitutional status. 15. The Committee is particularly concerned at the insufficiency of the fulfilment of the rights of the indigenous and black populations to education. It notes, for example, that about 22 per cent of Quechua-speaking inhabitants of Peru, and among them 31 per cent of females over six years old, receive no