Submission to the UN Human Rights Committee: Review of Germany

This submission to the 106th session of the UN Human Rights Committee argues that several primary and secondary schools in Berlin are segregating migrant children in separate classes that provide vastly inferior education.

It notes that this segregation from native-born German students is carried out on the putative grounds that the students' German language skills are inadequate for regular classes, but argues that this is a proxy for discrimination on the basis of ethnicity or other suspect criteria.

The submission asserts that these discriminatory practices stigmatize migrant students, undermine their potential to integrate and participate fully in German society, and violate Germany’s obligations to prohibit discrimination under the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights.

The 106th HRC session in Geneva runs from October 15 to November 2, 2012.