A/HRC/38/32/Add.1 I. Introduction 1. The Special Rapporteur on the right to education conducted an official visit to Côte d’Ivoire from 4 to 11 December 2017 at the invitation of the Ivorian Government. 2. During her visit, the Special Rapporteur met with a team from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She held work sessions with Kandia Kamissoko Camara, the Minister of National Education, Technical Education and Vocational Training; Ramata Ly-Bakayoko, the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research; Mariatou Koné, the Minister for Women, Child Protection and Solidarity; and Mamadou Touré, the Minister of State for Technical Education and Vocational Training. She was also received by members of the National Human Rights Commission and the presidents of Felix Houphouët-Boigny University and Alassane Ouattara University. She met with representatives of the school management committees’ coordinating body, the Fédération estudiantine et scolaire de Côte d’Ivoire, many civil society organizations, teachers’ unions, and financial and technical partners such as the Agence française de développement, the World Bank and organizations that run development programmes and projects. 3. The Special Rapporteur was able to visit some preschools, primary schools and secondary schools, including a local secondary school in Languibonou, as well as two universities and an institute: Felix Houphouët-Boigny University, Alassane Ouattara University and Felix Houphouët-Boigny National Polytechnic Institute in Yamoussoukro. She met with their senior management teams, teachers and students. The Special Rapporteur also met with members of the international community, including representatives of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). She visited education centres in Abidjan, Yamoussoukro and Bouaké. 4. The Special Rapporteur would like to thank the Ivorian Government for its invitation and its readiness to collaborate. She is also grateful to the whole UNDP team, especially its Resident Representative, Babacar Cissé, for providing effective administrative and logistical support, and to all those who took the time to share their experiences in the field of education with her. She would like to thank the media for helping to publicize the outcomes of her visit. II. Overview 5. Between the eleventh and seventeenth centuries, Côte d’Ivoire was a land of migration and asylum, welcoming various ethnic groups such as the Mandé (Dan, Gban and Kwéni), Ligbi, Numu, Sénoufo, Malinké or Mandé-Dioula (Kamagaté, Keita, Binaté and Diomandé), Efié, Essouma, Abouré, Alladian and Avikam groups. During the eighteenth century, there was large-scale migration of Akan groups (Agni, Baoulé, Atié, Abbey, Ébriés, M’Battos and Abidji) to the south-east and centre of the country and migration of other Malinké groups from the south of present-day Mali and Burkina Faso. 6. The Portuguese explorers João de Santarém and Pedro Escobar stayed on the Ivorian coast from 1470 to 1471. They were followed by Dutch explorers in the late sixteenth century, then by French and English explorers in the seventeenth century. In 1893, Côte d’Ivoire became a French colony and a member of French West Africa. The country became an autonomous republic following a referendum in 1958, before gaining independence in 1960. 7. Côte d’Ivoire is characterized by cultural wealth and diversity; it has 22.6 million inhabitants, of whom 48 per cent are women, 77 per cent are young people (up to 35 years old) and 5.5 million are foreign nationals, according to the 2014 census. 1 It is home to around sixty ethnic groups, in addition to the four major ones, namely the Akan, the 1 GE.18-06824 See http://www.ins.ci/n/documents/RGPH2014_expo_dg.pdf. 3