Rights of minorities in education in the US
Minority groups are not usually given this privilege, despite international duties to make education easily accessible. Even if they may attend school, it’s possible that the language of the lessons is foreign to them [4-6]. Additionally, curriculums may exclude material on their history, customs, and language, failing to safeguard their identity. Children who experience these issues may not be able to engage completely because of language issues, and they run the risk of being expelled either for a lack of involvement or for skipping courses in which they feel they cannot contribute. In addition, a lack of accessibility could result in physical limitations to schooling. Children from minority groups may have to travel long distances to school, which can be expensive and time-consuming. Additionally, the expense of textbooks and school uniforms may be exorbitant for certain families. Access to education is also hampered if these issues are not resolved. Education officials would be able to better comprehend these groups’ requirements and modify the curriculum as a result of include minority groups in the decision-making process [7-9].
Instruments protecting the right to education
International instruments:
· Article 26, International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
· Articles 2 and 13, International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights
· General Comment 13 on the Right to Education, Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
· Article 29, Convention on the Rights of the Child
· Article 29, General Comment 1 on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Committee on the Rights of the Child
· Article 5, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
· Article 10, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
· Articles 1, 2 and 4, Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities
· Articles 14, 15, 17 and 21, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples
· Articles 1, 2 and 5, UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in Education
· Articles 26 and 29, ILO Convention concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries, No. 169
Regional instruments:
· Articles 17, African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights
· Article XII, OAS Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man
· Article 13, Additional Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Protocol of San Salvador)
· Protocol 1 Article 1, European Convention on Human Rights
· Article 2, Protocol to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, as amended by Protocol No. 11
Relevant jurisprudence
International cases:
· Murat Er v Denmark, Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, 2007
· Skender v the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Human Rights Committee, 2001
Regional cases:
· Cyprus v. Turkey, European Court of Human Rights, 2014
· Indigenous Community Xákmok Kásek v. Paraguay (available in Spanish only), Inter-American Court of Human Rights, 2010
· Indigenous Community Yakye Axa v. Paraguay, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, 2005
· Autism-Europe v France, European Committee of Social Rights, 2003
· Coster v United Kingdom, European Court of Human Rights, 2001
· Valsamis v. Greece, European Court of Human Rights, 1996
· Free Legal Assistance Group and Others v Zaire December, African Commission on Human and People’s Rights,1995
· André Simpson v. the United Kingdom, European Commission of Human Rights,1989
· Bilka-Kaufhaus GmbH v Karin Weber von Hartz, European Court of Justice, 1984
· Campbell and Cosans v. United Kingdom, European Court of Human Rights, 1982
· Kjeldsen, Busk Madsen and Pedersen v. Denmark, European Court of Human Rights, 1976
Domestic cases:
· Madzodzo et al v. Minister of Basic Education et al, High Court of South Africa, 2014
· ADPF 186 (Arguição de Descumprimento de Preceito Fundamental n. 186), Brazilian Federal Supreme Court, 2012
· Constitutional Petition No.2 of 2011 (Garissa), Kenyan High Court, 2011
· Head of Department: Mpumalanga Department of Education and Another v. Hoerskool Ermelo and Another, Constitutional Court of South Africa, 2009
· R v Headteachers of Y School, United Kingdom High Court, 2006
· Ashoka Kumar Thakur v. Union of India and Others, Supreme Court of India, 2006
· American update the Supreme Court and affirmative action, Supreme Court of the USA, 2003
· Gratz v Bollinger, US Supreme Court of the USA, 2003
· Baqi & Ors v. Akram & Ors, Supreme Court of Pakistan, 2002
· R v Secretary of State for Home Department ex parte Mbandaka, Court of Appeal of England and Wales, 1998
· Wittmann v. Deutscher Schulverein, Pretoria and Others, High Court of South Africa, 1998
· Eaton v. Brant County Board of Education, Supreme Court of Canada, 1997
· Motala and Another v University of Natal, Supreme Court of South Africa, 1995
· R v Lancashire County Council Ex parte F, High Court of the United Kingdom,1995
· R. v. East Sussex County Council, ex parte T, House of Lords in the United Kingdom, 1994
· Mandla and another v Dowell Lee and another, High Court of the United Kingdom, 1983
· Seide v Gillette Industries Ltd, Employment Appeal Tribunal in the United Kingdom, 1980
· Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, Supreme Court of the United States of America, 1978
· Brown v. Board of Education, Supreme Court of the United States of America, May 1954
The right to education is described by the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights as’ both a human right in itself and an indispensable means of realizing other human rights’. It is a basic right guaranteed by a variety of international instruments, as set out further below. Children from minority groups are not usually given this privilege, despite international duties to make education easily accessible. The following is a list of articles and documents relating to the European Convention on Human Rights, as amended by Protocol No. 11 for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (Protocol of San Salvador) and Article 13 of the U.S.-U.N. Additional Protocol on Human Rights in the Area of Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.
References
[1] F. Veriava and K. Paterson, “The right to education,” in Research Handbook on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights as Human Rights: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020.
[2] Y. Rabin, “The right to education,” Tel Aviv: Nevo Publishing, 2002.
[3] B. G. Ramcharan, “The Right to Education,” in Judicial Protection of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Brill Nijhoff, 2005, pp. 193-230.
[4] C. L. Selfe and R. J. Selfe, “The politics of the interface: Power and its exercise in electronic contact zones,” College composition and communication, vol. 45, no. 4, pp. 480-504, 1994.
[5] A. Kirkpatrick, English as a lingua franca in ASEAN: A multilingual model. Hong Kong University Press, 2010.
[6] D. Lasagabaster, “Foreign language competence in content and language integrated courses,” The Open Applied Linguistics Journal, vol. 1, no. 1, 2008.
[7] B. A. Van der Kolk, “Developmental,” Psychiatric annals, vol. 35, no. 5, p. 401, 2005.
[8] L. Lundy, “‘Voice’is not enough: conceptualising Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child,” British educational research journal, vol. 33, no. 6, pp. 927-942, 2007.
[9] L. W. Fillmore, “When learning a second language means losing the first,” Early childhood research quarterly, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 323-346, 1991.