Introduction

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (‘UNESCO’) is well known for its activities that promote the right to education, the freedom of expression and the cultural rights of individuals and groups. Member states of UNESCO have also adopted Conventions and recommendations that aim at the promotion and protection of the human rights that fall within the organisation's mandate. One of these Conventions deals with the right to education. The Convention Against Discrimination in Education (‘CADE’) was adopted in 1960. It is rather obscure, owing to its relatively small number of states parties, its weak supervisory system and the difficulty of getting access to Convention documents. According to its preamble, the main purpose of the Convention is to proscribe any form of discrimination in education and to promote equality of opportunity and treatment for all in education. In addition to provisions that lay down in detail general obligations of states parties to realise the purposes of the treaty, the Convention recognises the right of members of national minorities to carry on their own educational activities. After discussing the features of the Convention and its monitoring procedure, this chapter will analyse the meaning of the minority rights provision and ask whether that provision has been given substance by the Committee on Conventions and Recommendations. This is the body that monitors implementation of the Convention's provisions by UNESCO member states.