Choike http://www.choike.org a portal on Southern civil societies Working with the media on gender and education http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/1247.html The paper: "Working with the media on gender and education: A guide for training and planning" is designed to help education and gender campaigners, and organisations and coalitions, work more effectively with the media to promote gender-equitable education. It explores issues relating to gender equality in education and contains practical advice on working with the media. Right to education of afro-descendant and indigenous communities in the Americas http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/1325.html In most Latin American and Caribbean countries, lack of access to education for Afro-descendants and indigenous people is a significant problem. Though their countries’ constitutions and membership in the Organisation of American States (OAS) guarantees the right to education, the majority of Afro-descendant and indigenous people have little to no adequate primary or secondary education. Facing centuries-worth of entrenched, government-condoned discrimination, very few, if any, in these communities enjoy access to higher education. Enough of this educational apartheid http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/1263.html "It is not right for any longer for independent private schools to cream off the best pupils, the best teachers, the best facilities, the best results and the best university places, thereby perpetuating the apartheid which has so dogged education and national life in Britain since the Second World War" warns a College headmaster in the midst of new landmark rulings on the role of public schools in Britain. The warning comes in times of global cutbacks on public education, as countries rich and poor look to the private sector to share the load. UNESCO Convention on Cultural Diversity comes into force http://www.choike.org/nuevo_eng/informes/2286.html A new international treaty to preserve the rich diversity of the world's means of cultural expression from the dangers of globalization topped the needed total of 30 ratifications and enters into force on 18 March 2007. The new Convention reaffirms the sovereign right of States to elaborate cultural policies with a view "to protect and promote the diversity of cultural expressions and reinforce international cooperation" while respecting human rights and fundamental freedoms.