A/HRC/23/56
13.
The Special Rapporteur also recalls that the Declaration on the Rights of Persons
Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities provides for the right
of persons belonging to minorities to have adequate opportunities to learn their mother
tongue or to have instruction in their mother tongue. The Declaration also calls on States to
take measures to encourage knowledge of the history, traditions, language and culture of
the minorities existing within their territory (art. 4, paras. 3 and 4).
14.
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples emphasizes the
rights of indigenous peoples to establish and control their educational systems and
institutions providing education in their own languages, in a manner appropriate to their
cultural methods of teaching and learning (art. 14, para. 1). Additionally, the Declaration
recognizes that indigenous children, in particular, have the right to all levels and forms of
education of the State without discrimination (art. 14, para. 2).
IV. Equal access to quality education and challenges faced by
disadvantaged and discriminated groups
A.
Ensuring equality in education
1.
Non-discrimination, physical and economic accessibility
15.
As highlighted by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, access
to education has three overlapping dimensions: non-discrimination, physical accessibility,
and economic accessibility.2 These aspects should be considered by States when
undertaking measures for the realization of the right to education and in designing
programmes in the field of education.
16.
The Special Rapporteur emphasizes that prohibiting racial discrimination in
education, as required by article 5 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Racial Discrimination, does not exclude the resort to temporary special measures
which aim to bring about equality in the access to education. In this regard, he encourages
States to implement general recommendation No. 32 (2009) of the Committee on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination on the meaning and scope of special measures in the
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. He also
shares the view expressed in the recommendations of the Forum on Minority Issues that,
when the relevant conditions for the application of temporary special measures are satisfied,
their introduction should be used as a means to recognize the existence of discrimination
and to eliminate it (A/HRC/10/11/Add.1, para. 12).
17.
Physical accessibility implies that educational establishments, services and facilities
be designed in a way that ensures that they are accessible to all without discrimination
throughout the national territory. This entails, when necessary, the provision of distancelearning methods to certain groups, and support by the State for the use of media, such as
radio broadcasts and other technical solutions, including promoting access to new
technologies, as well as the establishment of mobile schools for those vulnerable groups
with nomadic traditions.3 Physical accessibility also entails a school cycle which takes into
account and is sensitive to the cultural practices that exist within certain groups, including
2
3
See Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 13 (1999) on the right
to education, para. 6 (b).
See Committee on the Rights of the Child, general comment No. 11 (2009) on indigenous children
and their rights under the Convention, para. 61.
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