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Fascinating wide-ranging responses and thanks to RTE for facilitating this vital exchange. Some input from South Africa based on our ‘post-apartheid’ experience over the past 16 years in response to the two key questions posed. Not an exceptional situation in South Africa as evinced from many interventions thus far and really adding on to the very useful contributions made by Angela Taneja, Muhammad Asad, Vicent Adzahlie-Mensah, David Archer, Lori Lake and Anita Mathew. I do want to also introduce relevant issues not directly introduced yet that speak to the legacy Katerina Tomasevski left us.

Clearly discrimination and therefore human rights considerations in education straddle the entire gamut of educational processes: policy, access, retention, language of instruction and assessment, curriculum, management, budgeting, resource provisioning and all aspects of learning and teaching. In addition some egregious examples particularly poignant at the moment are issues related to the now widespread phenomena of child-headed households (some research suggests that 32% of all children in South Africa would lose one parent by 2015); discrimination against migrants (documented and undocumented) and refugees and finally the simple though tragic fact that significant numbers of children come to school hungry. The latter qualifies as an obstacle to quality education.

A legalistic approach alone or even a purely bio-medical intervention for that matter (when it comes to HIV/AIDS) might well result in temporary relief but is often not implemented because of a tardy bureaucracy and issues of profligacy. Also long term sustainability is in doubt as those in power seek to roll back gains made.

Despite the promise of South Africa’s constitution (replete with lyrical bells and whistles), a plethora of policies that speak to human rights and social justice and the establishment of formal statutory organizations to promote and protect human rights, violations take place every day in our society and schools. Essentially, this is a result of unequal power relations, socio-economic interests and the way our society is structured and not merely because people are ignorant of the law. In fact we have the dangerous situation where failure by the state to deliver on its obligations, codified in law, has resulted in many incorrectly blaming what they consider a ‘human rights culture’ for their woes. This has allowed socially conservative religious, traditional and communally based politicians to opportunistically proffer invariably, patriarchal, ethnic/racial and xenophobic ‘solutions’. Many are seduced in an insecure economic and social environment where poverty, unemployment and inequality are at an all time high.

Astute legal experts, knowledge of international conventions, international agencies and specialized agencies help but absolutely essential is an active and critical citizenry who understand the law and its limitations and are willing to insist on and mobilize for their rights (through social movements, trade unions, student/parent organizations, resistance organizations etc) when these are not forthcoming and extend those that exist in order to give meaning to the numerous declarations, protocols, conventions and human rights/humanitarian laws.

Another vital issue not given sufficient attention in this forum is how the marketisation and privatization of education fuels discrimination. Katarina Tomasevski was implacably opposed to the dictates of the World Bank/IMF and the WTO when their prescriptions eroded or denied education in practice from being a human right. If we genuinely want to prevent discrimination in education we have to oppose the commodification of education as the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) seeks to do.

On a larger scale which includes discrimination in schools, we have seen particularly in the Middle East for people under occupation and subjected to invasions and wars and in Africa in recent times and for indigenous people throughout the world that human rights can be easily trampled upon, discarded conveniently or manipulated by the very powers that present themselves as champions of human rights. Lindsey Collen from Mauritius taking part in this forum can attest to this in relation to the shameful role major powers and their legal systems play in relation to Deigo Garcia for example. So following Upendra Baxi, Prof Issa Shivji from Tanzania and others, the single most critical source for the fight against discrimination and forf human rights is the praxis of the victims and not only human rights instruments or indicators however helpful they might be.