A/HRC/6/17 page 16 49. Many Al Barakaat brokers, working in many different countries, ended up listed on the terrorist list of the 1267 Committee or on different national lists. For instance, Luxembourg listed Al Barakaat, but a national court nevertheless released its assets because it could not get further information from United States intelligence and therefore had no evidence that the money was used to support terrorism.31 50. The case of Ahmed Ali Yusuf and Al Barakaat International Foundation v. Council of the European Union and Commission of the European Communities was dismissed by the judgement of the European Union Court of First Instance of 21 September 2005 insofar as the affected individuals challenged Council regulation (EC) No. 881/2002 that regulates the restriction of certain measures directed against persons and entities associated with Osama Bin Laden, Al-Qaida and the Taliban. According to the Court of First Instance, the regulation did not violate fundamental rights of the applicants of a jus cogens nature, as it primarily had an impact on the right to property and the right to a fair trial. Because the regulation was required by resolutions of the Security Council, pursuant to Article 103 of the Charter of the United Nations, it takes precedence over other human rights norms other than those of a jus cogens character. The judgement has been widely criticized for its formalistic approach to the relationship between human rights and Charter obligations, ignoring the Charter’s own references to human rights and the obligation of Member States (and the European Union Council composed of representatives of Member States) of ensuring compliance with human rights when implementing Security Council resolutions on countering terrorism. The judgement is being reviewed by the European Court of Justice (case C-415/05 P). C. Right to education and its broader context 51. In the case of Turkey, where the Special Rapporteur conducted a mission in February 2006, the “Kurdish question” is at the centre of the Government’s counter-terrorism strategies. In the east and south-east of Turkey, the rate of violence is much higher than in other parts of the country. This appears to correlate with the complicated socio-economic situation in those regions, which in turn is related to shortfalls in the economic, social and cultural rights enjoyed by the people living there. On the basis of his mission to Turkey, the Special Rapporteur concluded that, in the long run, full respect for economic, social and cultural rights helped to eliminate the risk of individuals making the morally inexcusable decision to resort to acts of terrorism, and recommended that persons belonging to different cultural and linguistic groups, including the Kurdish population, should enjoy protection of their cultural, linguistic and religious rights, including the possibility to freely use their language in public and private. 52. The Special Rapporteur is of the opinion that the right to education is a key right for the integration and non-discrimination of all groups of people living in a country. In the case of Turkey, he was troubled by the pronounced differences in school attendance between boys and girls, in particular in the east and south-east. Even though the Government has launched campaigns aiming at improving attendance, especially of girls, in primary education, significant 31 Thachuk Kimberley L., “Counter terrorism across the Atlantic?” in Defense Horizons, No. 53, July 2006.

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