A/HRC/25/49/Add.1 only the recognized national minorities but also those not desiring to identify themselves with any single constituent people or national minority, such as children of mixed descent or those self-identifying as Bosnians. The latter, who try consciously to prevent imposed ethnic affiliations from superseding all other aspects of their identity, remain discriminated against, invisible in law and ignored in practice. The “others” simply do not enjoy genuine equality with other citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina. 22. This framework, which overemphasizes national/ethnic and religious affiliations, has been used by some actors to pursue ethno-nationalistic agendas, to promote the false notion of hermetically sealed communities and to conduct segregation policies. Arguments based on the need to preserve and promote culture and to respect cultural rights are advanced to justify these divisions, and are especially worrying. 23. This is even more worrisome in the case of language. Each population speaks a separate although closely related language: Bosnian, Croatian or Serbian. These languages are mutually intelligible in most respects; indeed, before the war, they were collectively categorized as Serbo-Croatian. Serbian uses Cyrillic, one of two official alphabets. The insistence today by many actors on emphasizing and reinforcing the differences between these three languages, coupled with rhetoric on the right of each person to learn his or her mother tongue, is used to justify a segregated school system. 24. According to many interlocutors, the ethno-nationalist narratives of political leaders dominate the media. Frustration was expressed across the board that positive efforts are being blocked by senior decision-makers and politicians. A general assessment widely shared by interlocutors was that the political situation has been deteriorating since 20052006, and that every issue, in particular in the field of culture and education, has become politicized. One positive trend, however, is that people have asked the judicial system to step in, for example regarding the “two-schools-one-roof” system. Unfortunately, these court decisions remain unimplemented. 25. The Special Rapporteur underlines that the assistance of the international community has also had an impact on perceived identities, bringing with it the use of such terms as “ethnic groups” or “multiculturalism”, which are seen by many as imported language satisfying the human rights “industry”. The notion of “ethnicity” carries with it the idea that a group of people share specific physical features, which is not the case in Bosnia and Herzegovina: constituent people mainly guess the affiliations of others by asking their names. III. Normative and institutional framework A. International framework 26. Bosnia and Herzegovina is a party to United Nations instruments protecting cultural rights, including the two international covenants on human rights. It is also a party to important conventions of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), such as the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. The country has two sites on the World Heritage List. 27. Bosnia and Herzegovina is also a party to a number of cultural rights-related European treaties, in particular the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the Protocols thereto, the Framework Convention 7