This article attempts a contrast to the contribution by Hugh Starkey. Rather than his account of the inexorable rise of human rights discourse, and of the implementation of human rights standards, human rights are here presented as always and necessarily scandalous and highly contested. First, I explain why the UK has lagged so far behind its…

Young people from the suburbs of the major cities of France rioted for several days in November 2005, damaging vehicles, companies and local infrastructure. This violence is a manifestation of the exasperation of young people from these suburbs against the discrimination they experience in terms of access to employment, to housing, due to the…

In June 2003, the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) organized its annual Policy Forum to discuss the impact of increasingly multi-ethnic and multicultural societies on education in general and the implications for educational planning in particular. The proceedings of this Policy Forum are presented in this volume. Part I,…