availability, accessibility, acceptability, and adaptability “* The same Committee further specified that the obligation of States to ensure that the right to education is exercised without any discrimination is an immediate obligation and hence States need to take ‘deliberate, concrete, and targeted’ action to ensure the same. Particularly, in events where the right holders are not in a position to enjoy the right to education by their own means, States are expected to take positive measures to provide for and fulfill the right to education.*® Deprivation of access to education through exclusion is considered to be discrimination in education.*© This does not change even when the exclusion is caused by private non-state actors. The right to education, as all other human rights, levies an obligation to respect, protect, promote and fulfill.4” The duty of States’ to protect the right to education includes the obligation to prevent and redress the exclusion of children from education caused by third parties. 75. The facts in the current Communication clearly demonstrate that Said and Yarg were not enrolled in school during the 11 years of slavery. Neither the Government of the Respondent State nor the El Hassine family took any step to enroll the two children in school. The Respondent State failed to employ the required effort to take special measures with a view to assisting Said and Yard to attend school during their stay in the El Hassine family or even after they were freed. It took Said and Yarg 4 years after their freedom to be enrolled in school. The Committee further notes from the Complainants’ submission that both children are currently attending private school as they were not able to attend public schools due to lack of identity documents. The Respondent State has also failed to appropriately and sufficiently redress the violence that was inflicted by the El Hassine family. The Committee therefore reaches on a conclusion that the Respondent State failed to ensure compulsory education for Said and Yarg, failed to take special measures to assist their vulnerability, and failed to protect their right to education from being violated by private parties. Accordingly, the Committee finds Government of Mauritania in violation of its obligations under article 11 of the African Children’s Charter. Alleged violation activities of 76.The notes Committee article that 12 on leisure, the role of recreation leisure, recreation and and cultural cultural activities in the overall wellbeing of the child should not be underestimated. Considering its importance, article 12 of the African Children’s Charter recognizes the right of the child to rest and leisure, engage in play and recreational activities and participate in cultural activities. In this regard, 43 Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment to Education, 1999, para 6. 44 As above para 43. No. 13, Article 13: The Right * As above para 47. “8 UNESCO Convention Against Discrimination in Education article 1. 4” Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, General Comment No. 13, Article 13: The Right to Education, 1999, para 46. 22

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