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THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION
A FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHT
Where the right to education is
guaranteed,
people’s access to and enjoyment of
other rights is enhanced.
 The
Right to Education is a fundamental human right, set forth
in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the
International Human Rights Covenants, which have the force
of international law. It occupies a central place and is
essential and indispensable for the exercise of all other
human rights and for development.
Education is the key to empowerment. It
is the primary vehicle by which economically and socially
marginalized adults and children can lift themselves out of
poverty, and obtain the means to participate fully in their
communities. None of the civil, political, economic and
social rights can be exercised by individuals unless they
have received a certain minimum education.
Among the
United Nations instruments, there exists many
standard-setting instruments relating to the right to
education, ranging from the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights itself to various conventions, declarations,
recommendations, frameworks and programmes of action, aimed
at ensuring the implementation of this right or particular
aspects of it.
The specific dimensions of the
right to education are especially covered by the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights (1966), the Convention on the Rights of the Child
(1989), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination against Women (1979).
Another treaty, the Convention on
the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination
(1965), requires States Parties to eliminate ‘racial
discrimination in all its forms…’ in regard to ‘the right to
education and training’, among several other rights.
Articles 13 of the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has been
interpreted as being the most comprehensive article on the
right to education. Paragraph 13 (1) is the most relevant to
us in the present context:
The States Parties to the present
Covenant recognize the right of everyone to education. They
agree that education shall be directed to the full
development of the human personality and the sense of its
dignity, and shall strengthen the respect for human rights
and fundamental freedoms. They further agree that education
shall enable all persons to participate effectively in a
free society, promote understanding, tolerance and
friendship among all nations and all racial, ethnic or
religious groups, and further the activities of the United
Nations for the maintenance of peace.
Since the General Assembly adopted the
Covenant in 1966, other international instruments have
further elaborated the objectives to which education should
be directed. States parties are required to ensure that
education conforms to the aims and objectives identified in
article 13 (1), as interpreted in the light of the World
Declaration on Education for All (Jomtien, Thailand, 1990)
(art. 1), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (art. 29
(1)), the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action (Part
I, para. 33 and Part II, para. 80), and the Plan of Action
for the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education
(para. 2). While all these texts closely correspond to
article 13 (1) of the Covenant, they also include elements
which are not expressly provided for in the article, such as
specific references to gender equality and respect for the
environment. These new elements are implicit in, and reflect
a contemporary interpretation of article 13 (1). They have
received widespread endorsement from all regions of the
world.
To pursue the aim of education for all is
an obligation accepted by all States. It is more than an
ambitious objective: it is an ambitious ethic – predicated
on human dignity. Today the notion of literacy is no longer
restricted to reading, writing and numeracy: education must
also offer access to skills and know-how that enable the
individual to take his or her place in society. It must also
be a school of democracy, for the surest defence of the City
is an educated and responsible citizenry.
Education must be accessible at all
stages of life, so as to give a “second chance” to the
excluded and enable every individual to adapt to a changing
world and work environment. It must give access in the first
instance to necessary knowledge, and then make available
throughout life - not only in school but also through
non-formal and informal education - what Robert Carneiro, in
Keys to the 21st Century, calls “antidotes to
unlearning”.
This objective will only be achieved if
education for all is integrated in national development and
poverty-reduction programmes. For today the essential link
between education, development and poverty-reduction is
universally recognized. This is why the poor and the
excluded – particularly women and girls, too often deprived
of education, and marginalized groups – should be the main
targets of Education for all.
Societies must recognise that
educating girls is not an option, but a necessity. It is a
long-term investment ... and a tool for preventing conflict.
It is the most cost-effective form of defence spending.
In November 2003 representatives from 18
countries and eight global aid and United Nations
organisations meeting in New Delhi agreed to speed a plan to
educate tens of millions of girls. But officials said that
they had pledges for only half of the $3.5 billion needed
annually for the project. The plan urged all countries where
girl’s education lags to give budgetary priority to policies
that promote gender equality.
The right to education is
established in texts of varying legal nature such as
conventions, recommendations, declarations, frameworks for
action and charters which do not, legally speaking, involve
the same obligations but which all serve the same end: the
promotion and development of the right of every person,
without discrimination, to enjoy access to education.
Almost every country has ratified the
relevant Conventions, listed above. As soon as a Convention
has been ratified, accepted or acceded to in sufficient
numbers to enable it to enter into force, it ultimately
becomes binding on the State that has adhered to it. Once
incorporation procedures have been completed, it can be
brought into force within that State’s internal order.
Declarations, Recommendations,
Charters and Frameworks for Action are not binding and have
only declamatory character. They are not subject to
ratification. However, States and Governments adopting these
declarations and recommendations also subscribe to moral
commitments. These instruments clearly state their intention
to implement them, even though there are no legal penalties
for non-compliance. Furthermore, they may by custom become
recognized as laying down rules binding upon States.
The
responsibility devolves upon Governments to ensure that
political commitments undertaken at the World Education
Forum (Dakar, April 2000) are translated into national laws
and policies. As a result, the constitutional and
legislative foundation of the right to education assumes
added significance, taking fully into account the legal
implications of the Dakar Framework for Action. The
Discussion on the Right to Education and Follow-up to the
World Education Forum organized by the United Nations
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (UNCESCR),
in co-operation with UNESCO, on 14 May 2002, clearly showed
how crucial it was to introduce constitutional provisions on
the right to education as well as appropriate enabling
legislation so that the State obligations under the relevant
international conventions are incorporated into the domestic
legal order.
The fundamental question is how
the obligations relating to the right to education
undertaken by Member States under international and regional
instruments are incorporated into national legal systems.
This is all the more important for achieving the Dakar
goals, especially the goal of free and compulsory quality
basic education.
The
adoption of a human-rights based approach will greatly
facilitate implementation of the right to education.
As the Informal Expert Consultation on
Monitoring the Right to Education organized by UNESCO in
March 2001 suggested, the follow-up to the World Education
Forum should be linked to the implementation of
international and regional instruments. It underlined the
need for (i) examining the bases of the Dakar Framework
for Action in both modern comparative constitutional law
and conventional international law, and (ii) establishing
the relationship between the Dakar Framework for Action
and existing normative instruments as a continuity of
existing law.
Following the general education law,
national legislation in specific areas such as higher
education, free and compulsory education, vocational and
technical education, and financing of education would also
require to be elaborated.
As provided for under existing
instruments, the right to education can only be availed by
its beneficiaries when the State obligations under these
instruments are incorporated into the national legal system
and their implementation is ensured effectively.
Therefore, it is crucial that the
right to education in its various dimensions is incorporated
into the constitutions and legislation of all Member States,
so that it is really enjoyed by individual right-holders and
by society.
Once a Convention is brought into
force within a State’s order, the beneficiary of the right
established by the Convention can use every available legal
means to secure compliance: recourse to law courts, for
instance, where the judge or magistrate ultimately has the
power to examine whether there is a breach of the State’s
legal obligations, and to come to a decision.
Clearly it was expected that as a
follow-up to the World Education Forum, countries should
modernize their legislation. UNESCO has been analysing
constitutional provisions and national legislation relating
to the right to education in different countries, on the one
hand, and providing technical assistance to Member States in
developing/modernizing national legislation, on the other.
Mobilising governments to develop and
modernize national legislation is a critical element of
implementing the Dakar Framework for Action. This is
a mammoth task, especially in developing countries.
Technical assistance provided by UNESCO would need to be
available on a much broader scale. I have suggested to my
colleagues that the International Association could usefully
collaborate with UNESCO in drawing up education legislation
in line with the Human Rights Conventions so as to advance
the work in that direction.
The Dakar Framework for Action
assigned to the international community six goals, two of
which are particularly relevant. The first commits us to
“ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls,
children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to
ethnic minorities, have access to and complete free and
compulsory primary education of good quality”. The second
involves “achieving a 50 per cent improvement in levels of
adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable
access to basic and continuing education for all adults”.
And yet, almost five years after Dakar
the right to education remains a distant goal for millions
of people. The number of adult illiterates worldwide remains
obstinately at around 900 million. Over 100 million children
of primary school age still do not attend school and have no
possibility of doing so.
All States agree that children must have
access to basic education as of right, in particular to
primary education which must be free. Poverty must not be a
hindrance and the claim by the poor to such education must
be recognized and reinforced. And yet, despite the presence
of such an array of legal obligations and political
commitments, millions of children still remain deprived of
educational opportunities, many of them on account of
poverty.
In 1990 international leaders meeting in
Jomtien, Thailand, promised the world’s children an
education by 2000. But the nineties was a decade of broken
promises and brought no improvement in the overall
situation. The world’s leaders had a chance to redeem
themselves in Dakar but most, including the US President and
the British Prime Minister, failed to even turn up. At the
G7 meeting in Okinawa the following July (2000) The Dakar
Framework for Action was not discussed, although the
leaders did pledge to work towards closing the digital
divide between North and South: the gap in access to new
technology between rich and poor countries.
It is worth pointing out that the
problems of illiteracy are not confined to developing
nations. Even in the richest nations education systems
cannot ensure sustainable literacy among the population.
Studies show that over one-tenth, and more often than not
one-fifth, of the population of industrialized countries is
affected by illiteracy – defined as the inability to read
and write with understanding a short simple statement in
relation to everyday life.
Almost a quarter of young adults in the
US having difficulty reading all but the simplest of texts.
In the developed, as in the undeveloped, world low literacy
invariably means poverty and the spiralling problems of
drugs, violence and the insecurity which go with it.
A recent report on education in the UK
(November 2003) found that pupils from deprived backgrounds
were twice as likely as others to leave school without
qualifications. More than 100,000 pupils had simply dropped
out of the school system and disappeared. 41% of children
referred to Youth Offending Teams had disrupted schooling.
The Report pointed out that not having an education means
that a child’s opportunity to fulfil its potential as an
adult is hampered. This has costs for the child, the
community in which they live and wider society.
Achieving the right to basic education
for all is one of the biggest moral challenges of our times.
It is more than ever necessary for us to rouse ourselves and
take action. Education will only be effectively ‘for all’
when it becomes the active concern of everyone. Dakar must
not be “yet another conference”, and Education for All
must not forever remain an unfulfilled promise.
We must stop betraying hope, stop
postponing action. Investing in education is investing in
success, it is building our future. Governments,
international institutions, social agencies, NGOs,
associations, the private sector and citizens must join
forces in carrying through this undertaking.
In the aftermath of 11 September we
should also reflect on the fact that investing in education
means investing in national and international security. For
education is founded on four pillars: learning to know,
learning to do, learning to be, and learning to live
together. Education for all is the best cement of peace,
both between and within nations. But are we ready to pay the
price of peace? To those who complained about the cost of
education, Abraham Lincoln was in the habit of replying:
“Very well, gentlemen, then try ignorance!”
The war against terrorism does not appear
to be making the world a safer place. If we gave the same
commitment, and financial backing, to the Dakar Programme
for Action we might have more positive results. |
