25. Post-primary review has also neglected the linkage between education and the labour market, evidenced in the gender profile of unemployment as well as age-based discrimination against working youth and children. Because grammar schools are vastly oversubscribed, the consequence is that parents may express their preference but, in practice, it is the schools that choose children rather than the reverse, reinforcing inter-generational transmission of privilege. Moreover, the introduction of tuition fees in universities has reinforced the effects of income inequalities on access to post-compulsory education. The goal of parity of esteem for academic and vocational education thus requires rethinking the entire model of education.

26. Knowledge about alternatives is necessary for questioning the status quo. A key obstacle was summed up thus: "When you have known nothing else you get used to it." ³⁸ This applies particularly to working children. There is little knowledge of the rights that working children have, despite their existence in international labour law for the past eight decades. These are particularly necessary since the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has found domestic law to be discriminatory on the basis of age, bestowing a smaller proportion of the minimum wage upon young people and guaranteeing none to those below 18. ³⁹ More than knowledge is required to change the status quo. Since age has been included in the list of grounds for which equality impact assessments (addressed in para. 34 below) are required, the Special Rapporteur recommends that age-related discrimination affecting children and young people, both girls and boys, be accorded priority.

27. The cranes and scaffolding in the centre of Belfast, fondly called "the peace and reconciliation industry" disappeared as international and external funding for the first years of peacemaking came to an end. This may have temporarily increased employment, but education constitutes the long-term solution. This is reinforced through the recent emphasis on education for employability, ⁴⁰ and the obligation in the Amsterdam Treaty to promote "a skilled, trained and adaptable workforce." The interlocked development of education and training rights within the European Union has buttressed the trend within the OECD towards prioritizing upper secondary education. ⁴¹ Preventing schools from "reproducing the existing patterns of privilege rather than delivering equal opportunities" ⁴² seems to the Special Rapporteur a particularly important guidepost for ongoing education reforms.

IV. DEFINING HUMAN RIGHTS PARAMETERS FOR EDUCATION    [ Go to Contents ]

A.Exclusion versus inclusion     [ Go to Contents ]

28. Social exclusion had entered the European and United Kingdom's vocabulary recently. ⁴³ Northern Ireland has made a further step through the terminological shift from exclusion by inclusion. The first items on the agenda were "Travellers, teenage parenthood, and ethnic minority people." ⁴⁴ This has broadened the term "inclusive" education from its frequent use for children with disabilities, enabling the application of the same rationale. The Disability Rights Task Force has found that 61 per cent of people under 35 had no contact with any person with any disability, to emphasize that "inclusion is one of the most powerful levers in banishing stereotypes and negative attitudes," and educating children together facilitates inclusive society. ⁴⁵ The definition of discrimination extended from exclusion to segregation much earlier, in the process of eliminating racial discrimination. The often-quoted finding of the US Supreme Court that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal" ⁴⁶ was made in 1954. Recently, inclusive education has been prioritized to also enhance social cohesion, defined as the glue that bonds society together, and found crucial in remedying and preventing violent conflict. ⁴⁷

29. In Northern Ireland, admission criteria, the composition of governing boards, family ties to the school, or nuances in the multitude of complex funding formulas profile the intake of particular schools. Although girls' and boys' schools are widespread, segregation by sex is seldom discussed. Male political culture, inevitable in a post-conflict situation where militarization still prevails, marginalizes gender. Direct discrimination on the basis of religion is prohibited but this prohibition coexists with religiously segregated education. The formal legal prohibition of discrimination does not address the practice of segregation. Religious affiliation is further used as a metaphor for political and cultural allegiance and compounded by the "coincidence of poverty and political violence." ⁴⁸ Instead of poverty, the official vocabulary uses the term "social need" although there is ample statistical evidence on the high percentage of children living in poverty. Average incomes in Northern Ireland are 22 per cent lower than the average for the United Kingdom as a whole. Save the Children has reported that 32 per cent of children live in households whose only income derives from benefits while for half of poor children one employed parent has not been sufficient to lift them from poverty. ⁴⁹ The law requires children with disabilities to be educated together with all others, provided that their special needs can be met by the criterion of the efficient use of resources. Because children with disabilities require additional resources, that yardstick results in their neglect in mainstream schools or continued segregation unless human rights correctives are in place. The planned draft law on special educational needs and disability, for which the consultation ends in January 2003, provides an opportunity for addressing the challenge of all-inclusive education.

B.Segregation versus integration    [ Go to Contents ]

30. A noticeable feature of education in Northern Ireland is its fragmented infrastructure. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has highlighted "the existing four fully funded school systems." ⁵⁰ Different types of educational institutions entail separate administration and governance structures, which inevitably diverts funding from teaching and learning. The OECD has found that "inclusive systems are generally less costly to operate than segregated systems." ⁵¹ The Special Rapporteur recommends a study of the financial cost of the fragmented educational infrastructure with a view to exploring options for diminishing the funding allocated to the administration of four separate systems and devoting more funding to teaching and learning.

31.The Department of Education is obliged by law to encourage and facilitate integrated education. This had been introduced by the 1989 Education (NI) Order and reinforced by the 1998 Agreement. That carefully worded political compromise has subsumed under reconciliation "initiatives to facilitate and encourage integrated education and mixed housing", adding "a statutory duty on the Department of Education to encourage and facilitate Irish medium education in line with current provision for integrated education." Thus, integrated and Irish-language education suffered the intertwined fate of mutually dependent political promises.

32. The attempt at integrated education in 1923 is cited as evidence that such a model would, 80 years later, still face fierce resistance. At the time, schools were "parochially organized, denominationally segregated and clerically managed." Resistance to change had been led by institutionalized religions and continued after the Second World War:

The Protestants argued that they wanted a non-denominational State system; but they also wanted it to be Protestant with regard to staffing and religious instruction, and to have a curriculum that reflected the British connection in its ethos (a word not much in use then). ... The Catholics had the virtue of unwavering consistency; they wanted a completely separate Catholic school system, permeated by the Catholic ethos, staffed completely with Catholics chosen by the Church, and under the Church's managerial control. They also wanted the State to pay this in full. ⁵²

33. Although by law all public schools are open to all pupils, in practice 94 per cent of school children (some 350,000) attend either a school that is de facto Catholic or Protestant, 5 per cent (some 15,100) integrated schools with "a Christian rather than secular approach", ⁵³ and 1 per cent private schools. The pledge of the 1998 Agreement to facilitate integrated education has not led to a statistically visible dent in segregation. Out of some 1,300 schools, only 47 are integrated. The parental demand for integrated schools exceeds their availability. Demand for secular education is unknown because this option does not exist, despite the priority for parental choice.

C. Inequality versus equality    [ Go to Contents ]

34. Public authorities are required by section 75 of the 1998 Northern Ireland Act to promote equality of opportunity. As required, the Equality Scheme for the Department of Education has listed nine grounds: religious belief, political opinion, racial group, sex, marital status, age, disability, personal responsibility for dependants, and sexual orientation. Some of these are also legally prohibited grounds of discrimination, others are not. Statistics are available for some but not for others. Property is absent from the list, although it is included in the European Convention on Human Rights ⁵⁴ and the 1998 Agreement has affirmed "the right to equal opportunity in all social and economic activity, regardless of class."

35. Among the nine grounds that have been singled out, religion is prioritized. Statistical monitoring of religious affiliation is mandatory in education. A child has commented: "It would be better if the schools were religiously mixed - we should be taught together in schools and this might help to break down some of the barriers that exist in Northern Ireland - we're brought up to hate each other." ⁵⁵ Moreover, all employers "must collect information on the religious composition of their workforce, on applicants for employment and appointees and make an annual monitoring return." ⁵⁶ Changes in the proportions of Catholics and Protestants are monitored with particular attention. The 2001 census revealed the biggest increase in the proportion of those with no religion, from 11 per cent in 1991 to 14 per cent in 2001, and 17 per cent in Belfast. ⁵⁷

36. The Equality Commission has found, in the case of the 1,398 children for whom English is an additional language, that "the extra support which black and minority ethnic children require is not just language support." ⁵⁸ As in the rest of the United Kingdom, there is no prohibition of discrimination on the basis of language. The commitment to Irish-medium education in the 1998 Agreement elevated the political visibility of Irish and, typically, Ulster Scots was added as a counterweight aimed at a political balance. Two parallel but contradictory developments have ensued. On the one hand, there has been a dent in unilingualism and "a by-product of the peace process has been more leaflets in Chinese and Urdu". ⁵⁹ On the other hand, support for Irish-medium education "received more opposition than other proposals." ⁶⁰ On-going debates about changing the post-primary curriculum seem slanted towards unilingualism, depriving the future generations of benefits inherent in educational and employment mobility within the European Union and the world at large; the Special Rapporteur recommends that this be revisited.

D.Equal treatment, opportunities, or outcomes ?    [ Go to Contents ]

37. The text of the 1998 Agreement alternates between referring to the all-inclusive "community" and "the two main communities," highlighting "the recent history of communal conflict." The "two communities" are denoted by the nationalist or unionist designation for the purposes of democratic governance, by the importance attached to "the identity and ethos of both communities" in defining rights supplementary to those in the European Convention on Human Rights, and the elimination of different unemployment rates between the two communities regarding employment equality. There is no statutory or judicial definition of "communities," however. In jurisprudence, this term has been left to be "construed as meaning a group of people in society," leaving the nature and scope of that group to be determined by the context. ⁶¹

38. Much as elsewhere, a considerable investment would be necessary to equalize educational opportunities for all children. Such investment requires a clearly articulated definition of equality, the corresponding determination of means necessary for achieving it, and specification of accountability. The political agenda of negotiating power-sharing has influenced the human rights discourse, prioritizing equality between "the two communities" over equality of all individuals. The Equality Scheme for the Department of Education has defined its objective as enhancing "equality of opportunity between groups in terms of outcomes." Equality of outcomes has been critiqued by the European Court of Justice, ⁶² and the Special Rapporteur recommends a review of the definition of equality by the criteria of international human rights law and European Community law.

39. UNICEF's Innocenti Report Card on Educational Disadvantage in Rich Nations has found that "a family's social, cultural and economic status tends to act as a rifle-barrel setting an educational trajectory from which it is difficult for a child to escape." ⁶³ Nevertheless, the frequent resort to the term "underachievement" in measuring learning outcomes implies that "underachievers" could and should have performed better. And yet, obstacles they face may not have been even acknowledged. Obstacles such as disability or poverty ought to be overcome before learners are assessed by a yardstick developed for those who do not face them. The Committee on the Rights of the Child has noted "the sharp differences in [education] outcomes for children according to their socio-economic background." ⁶⁴ Nevertheless, elimination of poverty as an obstacle to children's enjoyment of their right to education is not part of the human rights agenda but is addressed through New Targeting Social Need (NTSN). Therein, equality is also defined in inter-group terms, as removing "socio-economic differentials between groups in Northern Ireland." ⁶⁵ A policy aimed at redressing poverty should be, by definition, generously funded, but this is not the case. Poverty is widespread. The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) calculated in 2001 a deprivation measure showing that children living in poverty constituted more than 70 per cent in 6 per cent of electoral districts, and more than 30 per cent in 60 per cent of electoral districts. ⁶⁶ The Special Rapporteur recommends a rights-based analysis of the pattern and dynamics of poverty to inform ongoing education reforms.

V. A PEACE-BUILDING ROLE FOR EDUCATION    [ Go to Contents ]

40. The European Court of Human Rights has defined the right to education as fundamental, "and it is onto this fundamental right that is grafted the right of parents to respect for their religious and philosophical convictions." ⁶⁷ In Northern Ireland, parental choice has been prioritized. ⁶⁸ Research has shown the need for a change so as to support reconciliation. Children as young as 6 (after the first two years of compulsory education) recognize the political significance of symbols such as parades or flags associated with the Catholic and Protestant communities, 34 per cent identify with their community and 15 per cent make sectarian comments. ⁶⁹ Such findings reinforce the thrust of integrated education, in particular the creation of "a common anti-bias language", especially for children aged 3 to 5, when they learn how to meet adults' expectations by behaving to attract approval. ⁷⁰

41. The extent to which education is designed to reflect or obliterate societal fault-lines is a political choice made by adults and imposed upon children. The rights of the child represent an indispensable corrective for such adult choices. The contents and methods of teaching have been profoundly altered with the advent of the rights of the child. The introduction of sex education or the prohibition of corporal punishment generated precedent-setting international human rights jurisprudence under the European Convention on Human Rights, which neither did nor could include the rights of the child when it was adopted 40 years ago. These changes would not have been possible through electoral or parental choice, and they highlight the importance of government human rights obligations owed to children.

42. Government human rights obligations encompass guaranteeing the right to education, safeguarding human rights in education, and enhancing human rights through education. ⁷¹ "The right of the State to regulate education" ⁷² gains heightened importance in the current emphasis on the values underpinning education in measuring its quality. ⁷³ Education policy is operationalization of values since public education creates a public. The principal aim for the forthcoming Commissioner for Children and Young People is "to safeguard and promote the rights and best interests of children and young persons" and this includes reviewing the adequacy of the existing laws and practices by that yardstick. ⁷⁴ In a draft Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland, education rights form a separate section and are also included amongst the rights of children. ⁷⁵ This has heightened the urgency of clarifying the nature and scope of the right to education and the corresponding government obligations.

43. The objectives of education are commonly sought in the changing needs of society and economy. Standardized tests leading to higher education and to higher incomes emphasize the economic utility of education. There are no corresponding assessments of the contribution that education makes - or fails to make - to the attainment of societal objectives. In the past two decades, Eurobarometer surveys have demonstrated increased intolerance of minorities and migrants and a growing proportion of Europeans assessing themselves as "quite racist". ⁷⁶ In Northern Ireland, public opinion surveys show a trend opposite to the spirit of the 1998 Agreement. An initial increase in self-declared commitment to inter-religious mixing in 1989-1996 has been reversed in recent surveys. ⁷⁷ This highlights the urgency of defining and assessing the role of education in achieving key societal goals, especially peace-building.

44. Leading bookshops in Belfast devote much space to the history of Northern Ireland as if to confirm a claim by Leon Uris that "there is no future, only the past happening over and over." ⁷⁸ .Voluminous literature is constantly generated about every event and personality. Usually, two different versions are side by side on the bookshelf, with divergent facts and explanations. The call of the Healing through Remembering Project for "parameters within which we in Northern Ireland might establish a mechanism to identify our own truth" ⁷⁹ has, as yet, remained unheeded. It would have, ideally, re-created authoritative historical records that challenge every society to revisit its self-image. There is a common curriculum for history but few schoolchildren learn contradictory versions of history, reasons for divergent facts and conflicting interpretations. Three school girls asked by the Special Rapporteur whether they learned about peacemaking or the current model of governance in Northern Ireland simultaneously shook their heads, adding with a touch of bitterness that the young were steering away from politics. The reason may be "the aggression of politics, adversarial debating and point-scoring." ⁸⁰ Role models for children and young people form part of both explicit and hidden curricula. For many, too much of the curriculum may be hidden and the past continues, unfinished, cloaked behind an official silence and unofficial, divergent and contested accounts. As long as the past continues unfinished, it cannot be rejected so as to clear the way for a different future.

45. The explicit part of the curriculum addressing peace-building, education for mutual understanding (EMU), is currently being revisited. The uncertain definition of community relations and the low strategic importance of EMU undermined its effects. ⁸¹ Moreover, pupils have "commented that the attitudes being promoted by the school clash with those at home" ⁸² and ask pertinent questions: why are they taught that mutual understanding is easy while adults show that it is exactly the opposite? EMU was designed for mutual understanding but contact with those to be understood were optional and practised by less than half of schools. ⁸³ It is common to hear a Protestant saying that he knowingly talked to a Catholic for the first time at the university, or a Catholic to recall that she never met a Protestant until her early adulthood. Education is about "showing rather than telling," ⁸⁴ children learn by example rather than exhortation. The Special Rapporteur suggests that the option of mainstreaming education for understanding and tolerance be explored rather than continuing an add-on curricular component.

46. Experiences in other countries have shown that the past can become history once there is a shared, agreed version of the history that was, in fact, shared. Proposals for a truth commission have been made and have remained unheeded. And yet, it would be easy to collate different versions of that shared history, it is abundantly written up and documented. This would necessitate affirming that history is subjective, that different perceptions of the same event or personality are equally true in the eyes of their beholders. "True" does not necessarily mean justified or even tolerable. Determining the boundaries of the intolerable is the first step towards defining, and then teaching and learning tolerance.

2. Commission on Human Rights - Report submitted by Katarina Tomasevski, Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Mission to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (England), 18 - 22 October 1999, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/2000/6/Add.2. «-- back

3. Whyte, J. - Interpreting Northern Ireland, Oxford University Press, Clarendon Paperbacks, 1990, p. viii. «-- back

4. Rolston, B. - Politics and Painting: Murals and Conflict in Northern Ireland, Associated University Press, 1996. «-- back

5. Fay, M.T. et al. - Report on the Northern Ireland Survey: The Experience and Impact of the Troubles, INCORE/UNU, Derry Londonderry, 1999; Smyth, M. and Fay, M.T. - Personal Accounts from Northern Ireland's Troubles: Public Conflict, Private Loss, Pluto, London, 2000. «-- back

6. Apparently, there is a difference: "A group of masked men demanded that students produce identification or repeat the alphabet. Many Catholics pronounce the letter "h" differently from Protestants, with an aspiration influenced by the Irish language. Students were evacuated before it became clear what was planned for people with the wrong accent." (Northern Ireland: How do you pronounce hate?, The Economist, 15 June 2002) «-- back

7. McGlynn, C. - A case study of the impact of post primary integrated education on past pupils in Northern Ireland, Paper presented to the 2000 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, 24 April 2000, p. 10. «-- back

8. The Agreement Reached in the Multi-Party Negotiations (Cm. 3883, 1998), referred to hereinafter as "the 1998 Agreement," consists of the British-Irish Agreement and the Multi-Party Agreement. «-- back

9. An Act to make provision for the government of Northern Ireland for the purpose of implementing the agreement reached at multi-party talks on Northern Ireland set out in Command Paper 3883. «-- back

10. Mallie, E. & McKittrick, D. - Endgame in Ireland, Coronet Books, London, 2001, p. 306. «-- back

11. Lundy, L. - Education Law, Policy and Practice in Northern Ireland, SLS Legal Publications (NI), Belfast, 2000, p. 12. «-- back

12. Report on the mission to the United Kingdom (England), op cit. in note 1, para. 28. «-- back

13. The Equality Commission merged four separate bodies: the Fair Employment Commission, the Equal Opportunities Commission, the Commission for Racial Equality, and the Northern Ireland Disability Council. «-- back

14. General Assembly - Children and armed conflict: Report of the Secretary-General, U.N. Doc. A/55/163-S/2000/712, para. 49. «-- back

15. Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency - Northern Ireland Census 2001: Key Statistics, NISRA, December 2002. «-- back

16. "Put education first - not the institutions" says the curriculum body, Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment, News release NR/18/02, Belfast, 31 May 2002. «-- back

17. Two studies are often cited for evidence on the link between deprivation and political violence, the 1994 Ethnic Space and the Challenge of Land Use Planning: A Study of Belfast's Peacelines by the Centre for Policy Research, and the 1998 Mapping Troubles-Related Deaths in Northern Ireland 1969-1998 (by M.T. Fay, et al., INCORE). «-- back

18. Muldoon, O.T., Trew, K. and Kilpatrick, R. - The legacy of the Troubles on the young people's psychological and social development and their school life, Youth & Society, vol. 32, No. 1, September 2000, p. 17. «-- back

19. General Assembly - Protection of children affected by armed conflict: Note by the Secretary-General, U.N. Doc. A/55/442 (2000), para. 69. «-- back

20. Hamilton, M. et al. - Parades, protests and policing: A human rights framework, Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, Belfast, March 2001. «-- back

21. Articles b(b) (ix) and 8 (e) (iv), U.N. Doc. A/CONF.183/9 (1998). «-- back

22. Connolly, P. and Keenan, M. - Racial Attitudes and Prejudice in Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, Belfast, 2000. «-- back

23. According to the 2001 census, the population of Northern Ireland is 1,685,267, with 99.15 per cent self-classified as white, 0.25 per cent as Chinese, 0.2 per cent mixed race, followed by 0.1 per cent Irish Travellers, op. cit in note 15. «-- back

24. Report on the mission to the United Kingdom (England), op. cit in note 1, paras. 60-62. «-- back

25. Equality Commission - Good Practice Guide to Promote Racial Equality in Planning for Travellers. Consultation Document, Belfast, March 2002, p. 37. «-- back

26. Molloy, S. - Accommodating Nomadism, Traveller Movement N.I., Belfast, 1998, p. 37. «-- back

27. The signposts in this process were a political commitment to examine the selectiveness of post-primary education in 1997, with the report on its scope and impact following in 2000 (available at www.deni.gov.uk/pprb/research_docs/index.htm). The subsequently appointed review body issued its report (Education for the 21st century: Report by the Post-Primary Review Body, October 2001, known as "the Burns Report") one year later, triggering a broad-ranging public debate (information and documents are available at www.deni.gov.uk/pprb/index.htm). «-- back

28. Eleven year olds in Northern Ireland have the same test that the rest of pupils in the United Kingdom have to go through (Key Stage 2), and, in addition, the transfer test. E/CN.4/2000/6/Add.2, para. 14. «-- back

29. Leonard, M. and Davey, C. - Thoughts on the 11plus. A Research Report Examining Children's Experiences of the Transfer Test, Save the Children, Belfast, 2001, p. 69. «-- back

30. Sinn Féin - Response to the Consultation on Education in the 21st century (The Burns Report), p. 3. «-- back

31. Ulster Unionist Party - Our Children, Our Future. Response to the Report by the Post-Primary Review Body (The Burns report), June 2002, p. 4. «-- back

32. By invitation of the Minister of Education, Martin McGuinness, the Special Rapporteur joined the debate in June 2002 by highlighting its human rights dimensions. Amongst other issues, her contribution pointed out that the 328-page Burns Report did not mention gender. To her regret, the subsequent report on the consultation also did not mention gender (Department of Education - Review of Post-Primary Education: Report on Responses to Consultation, October 2002). «-- back

33. Report on the mission to the United Kingdom (England), op. cit. in note 1, para. 75. «-- back

34. UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre - A League Table of Teenage Births in Rich Nations, Innocenti Report Card No. 3, July 2001. «-- back

35. OECD - Education at a Glance. OECD Indicators 2001, p. 134. «-- back

36. Making a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, Belfast, September 2001, p. 89. «-- back

37. 2001 Census, op. cit in note 15. «-- back

38. Holliday, L. - Children of "The Troubles." Our Lives in the Crossfire of Northern Ireland, Washington Square Press, New York, 1997, p. 345. «-- back

39. E/C.12/1/Add. 79, para. 11. «-- back

40. Northern Ireland Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment - A New Approach to Curriculum and Assessment 11-16, Belfast, April 2002, p. 9. «-- back

41. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development - From Initial Education to Working Life. Making Transitions Work, OECD, Paris, 2000, p. 199. «-- back

42. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development - Knowledge and Skills for Life. First Results from PISA 2000, OECD, Paris, 2000, p. 210. «-- back

43. Report on the mission to England, op. cit in note 1, paras. 33-37. «-- back

44. New TSN (Targeting Social Needs) Annual Report 2002, December 2002, para. 7.3. «-- back

45. From Exclusion to Inclusion. Final Report of the Disability Rights Task Force, available at www.disability.gov.uk. «-- back

46. Commission on Human Rights - Report submitted by Katarina Tomasevski, Special Rapporteur on the rights to education: Mission to the United States of America, 24 September - 10 October 2001, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/2002/60/Add.1, para. 34. «-- back

47. Colletta, N.J. et al. - Social Cohesion and Conflict, The World Bank, Washongton, D.C., 2001, pp. 2-4. «-- back

48. Muldoon, O.T., Trew, K. and Kilpatrick, R. - The legacy of the Troubles on young people's psychological and social development and their school life, Youth & Society, vol. 32, No. 1, September 2000, p. 10. «-- back

49. Save the Children - Child Poverty: A Local Perspective, Belfast, July 2002. «-- back

50. Irish Congress of Trade Unions/Northern Ireland - Response to the Third Draft Programme for Government, November 2002, p. 3. «-- back

51. OECD - Inclusive Education at Work: Students with Disabilities in Mainstream Schools, Paris, 1999, p. 71. «-- back

52. Dunn, S. - A history of education in Northern Ireland since 1920, Fifteenth Report of the Standing Advisory Commission on Human Rights, 1989-90, London, HMSO, 1990. «-- back

53. NICIE (Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education) Statement of Principles, What's What in Integrated Education. A Guide for Teachers, NICIE, Belfast, September 2001, Appendix 1, p. 24. «-- back

54. The European Convention on Human Rights includes property among prohibited grounds of discrimination. Property is also a right protected by Protocol 1 but legitimately limited by taxation out of which public education is funded. «-- back

55. Green, R. and Ward, L. - A test of time? A consultation with young people (14-19 years) recording their experiences of the transfer test (11+) and their views concerning the review of post-primary education, Research report presented by the Northern Ireland Youth Forum on behalf of the Department of Education, Belfast, 2002, p. 32. «-- back

56. Department of Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment - Fair Employment: Religious and Political Discrimination, ER 115, Belfast, 27 March 2001, p. 3. «-- back

57. Census 2001, op. cit in note 15. «-- back

58. Report on the proposals for a common funding formula for grant-aided schools in Northern Ireland, Second report, Session 2000/2001, Written submission by the Equality Commission. «-- back

59. McCoy, G. - From cause to quango? The peace process and the transformation of the Irish language movement, in Kirk, J.M. and Baoill, D.P. Ó. (eds.) - Linguistic Politics: Language Policies for Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and Scotland, Belfast Studies in Language, Culture and Politics, vol. 3, Queen's University Belfast/Cló Ollscoil na Banríona, Belfast, 2001, p. 215. «-- back

60. Report on the proposals for a common funding formula for grant-aided schools in Northern Ireland, Second report, Session 2000/2001. «-- back

61. In the Matter of An Application by Patricia Pelan for Judicial Review, 28 September 1998, p. 18. «-- back

62. The European Court of Justice has found the requirement of gender parity in public employment in Bremen (Germany) to constitute a breach of the European Community law. The Court has held that "national rules which guarantee women absolute and unconditional priority for appointment or promotion" have wrongly substituted the original aim - equality of opportunity - by parity. The Court has subsequently ruled that preferential treatment for individual women where opportunities have yet to be equalized can be exceptionally allowed, but has not altered its outlawing of the requirement of parity. (The Kalanke and Marschall judgments of the European Court of Justice, Cases C-450/93 and C-409/95 of 17 October 1995 and 11 November 1997.) «-- back

63. A League Table of Educational Disadvantage in Rich Nations, UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, Florence, November 2002, p. 21. «-- back

64. CRC/C/15/Add. 188, para. 45. «-- back

65. Report on the proposals for a common funding formula for grant-aided schools in Northern Ireland, Second report, Session 2000/2001, para 3.1. «-- back

66. The Northern Ireland Deprivation Measure 2001, NISRA, July 2001. «-- back

67. European Court of Human Rights - Kjeldsen, Busk, Madsen and Pedersen, judgment of 7 December 1976, Series A, No. 23, para. 50. «-- back

68. "Mr. McGuinness promises support for parents who opt for the new mixed schools, but he sticks to the principle that it is the parents' choice." (Children of Northern Ireland learn lessons in living apart, Financial Times, 5 April 2002) «-- back

69. Connolly, P. et al. - Too Young to Notice? The Cultural and Political Awareness of 3-6 Year Olds in Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Community Relations Council, Belfast, June 2002. «-- back

70. Hovey, A. - As easy as ABC: The Anti-Bias Curriculum, in Moffat, C. (ed.) - Educating Together for a Change: Integrated Education and Community Relations in Northern Ireland, Fortnight Education Trust, Belfast, 1993, p. 47. «-- back

71. Commission on Human Rights - Annual reports of the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Katarina Tomasevski, U.N. Docs. E/CN.4/2001/52 and E/CN.4/2002/60. «-- back

72. European Commission on Human Rights - Yanasik v. Turkey, Application No. 14524/89, Decision of 6 January 1993, Decisions & Reports, vol. 74, 1993, p. 14. «-- back

73. European Commission - European Report on the Quality of School Education: Sixteen Quality Indicators, Directorate-General for Education and Culture, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg, 2001, p. 32. «-- back

74. The Commissioner for Children and Young People Bill introduced before the Northern Ireland Assembly is expected to be adopted by Westminster in March 2003. The Special Rapporteur's references relate to its text of 19 November 2002 which is, she understands, to be adopted without any change. «-- back

75. Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission - Making a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland. A Consultation by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, Belfast, September 2001, pp. 70 and 72-76. «-- back

76. European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia - Attitudes Towards Minority Groups in the European Union. A Special Analysis of the Eurobarometer 2000 Survey, Vienna, March 2001. «-- back

77. Results of Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey for 2001 are available at www.ark.ac.uk/nitl. «-- back

78. Uris, L. - Trinity, London, 1976, p. 751. «-- back

79. The Report of the Healing through Remembering Project, Belfast, June 2002, p. 1 (available at www.healingthroughremembering.org). «-- back

80. Ward, M. - The Northern Ireland Assembly and Women: Assessing the Gender Deficit, Democratic Dialogues, December 2000, available at www.democraticdialogue.org. «-- back

81. O'Connon, U., Hartop, B. and McCully, A. - A Review of the Schools Community Relations Programme 2002, A Consultation Document, Department of Education. «-- back

82. Department of Education - Report of a Survey of Provision for Education for Mutual Understanding (EMU) in Post-Primary Schools, Inspected: 1999/2000, The Education and Training Inspectorate, para. 4.2. «-- back

83. Smith, A. and Robinson, A. - Education for Mutual Understanding: The Initial Statutory Years, Centre for the Study of Conflict, University of Ulster, Coleraine, 1996. «-- back

84. Human Rights in Education Conference, 26 September 2001, Stormont Hotel Belfast, Conference Report, Department of Education & Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, January 2002, p. 16. «-- back

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