UN Human Rights Treaties

UNITED NATIONS
E
Economic and Social
Council
Distr.
GENERAL
E/CN.4/2005/50
17 December 2004
Original: ENGLISH/SPANISH
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Sixty-first session
Item 10 of the provisional agenda
ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS
The right to education
Report submitted by the Special Rapporteur on the right
to education, Mr. Vernor Muñoz Villalobos
GE.04-17140 (E) 240205 250205
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Summary
The present report is submitted in accordance with Commission on Human Rights
resolution 2004/25 which extended for a further period of three years the mandate of the
Special Rapporteur on the right to education. In August 2004, Mr. Vernor Muñoz Villalobos
(Costa Rica) was appointed as the new Special Rapporteur. The present report is an overview of
the activities and issues he plans to carry out and consider during his mandate. Following up on
the work initiated by his predecessor, the Special Rapporteur intends to continue strengthening
the human rights dimension of education by encouraging the shift from education policies that
address education as an economic good to the right to education, which States have an obligation
to implement and which is justiciable. In that regard, he plans to focus his efforts on the
financial resources allocated to education and on emphasizing the need for free compulsory
primary education. In that regard, the Special Rapporteur intends to engage in a dialogue with
various key partners. Besides financial and structural constraints on the full enjoyment of the
right to education, the Special Rapporteur identifies discrimination as a key impediment.
Though the Special Rapporteur decided to pay specific attention to the access of girls and
adolescents, especially pregnant adolescents and young mothers, to education, he will also
examine the exercise of the right to education by migrants, indigenous populations, minorities
and persons with different capacities. The Special Rapporteur aims at playing the role of
catalyst for action-oriented projects for the full realization of the right to education. He
also considers that a human rights-sensitive environment in education coupled with
human rights-sensitive curricula are sine qua non conditions for a quality education.
Furthermore, the Special Rapporteur also plans to review security in schools and the exercise
of the right to education in emergency situations. These situations may range from
displacement, armed conflicts and military occupation to intra-school violence.
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CONTENTS
Paragraphs Page
Introduction ........................................................................................... 1 - 10 4
I. ACHIEVING HUMAN RIGHTS THROUGH EDUCATION .... 11 - 69 5
A. Human rights as a framework for education .................... 11 - 16 5
B. The exercise and enjoyment of the right to education ...... 17 - 38 6
C. Education and development .............................................. 39 - 46 8
D. Financing of education ..................................................... 47 - 50 10
E. Justiciability of the right to education .............................. 51 - 59 10
F. Development of human rights-based indicators ............... 60 - 69 12
II. FIGHTING DISCRIMINATION IN THE RIGHT
TO EDUCATION ........................................................................ 70 - 101 14
A. Diversity as a right and a learning context ....................... 70 - 72 14
B. Girls’ right to education .................................................... 73 - 84 14
C. Migrants’ right to education ............................................. 85 - 91 18
D. The right to education of persons with
different capacities ............................................................ 92 - 94 19
E. Indigenous populations’ right to education ...................... 95 - 97 19
F. The right to education of persons belonging
to minorities ...................................................................... 98 - 101 19
III. QUALITY OF EDUCATION ...................................................... 102 - 118 20
A. Human rights education as a prerequisite for quality ....... 105 - 114 20
B. Education policies and classroom reality ......................... 115 - 118 21
IV. SECURITY AND THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION
IN EMERGENCY SITUATIONS ............................................... 119 - 124 22
V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ....................... 125 - 141 23
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Introduction
1. In its resolution 1998/33, the Commission on Human Rights established the mandate of
the Special Rapporteur on the right to education for an initial period of three years. The Special
Rapporteur was requested, inter alia, to report on the status of the progressive realization of the
right to education, including access to primary education, and the difficulties encountered in the
implementation of this right. The Commission renewed the mandate for a further period of three
years in resolution 2004/25, in which it requested the Special Rapporteur, inter alia, to intensify
efforts aimed at identifying ways and means to overcome obstacles and difficulties in the
realization of the right to education. Mr. Vernor Muñoz (Costa Rica) was appointed as the new
Special Rapporteur. The present preliminary report is submitted in accordance with Commission
resolution 2004/25 and presents the framework for the work of the new Special Rapporteur.
Recapitulation of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur’s predecessor
2. Before presenting the framework for his work on his mandate, the Special Rapporteur
considers it useful to make a brief, non-exhaustive recapitulation of the main themes examined
by his predecessor. The former Special Rapporteur considered a broad range of issues. From a
conceptual point of view, she tried to identify a common language on the right to education
while proposing an analytical framework to evaluate the respect, protection and realization of the
right to education, as well as identifying the obstacles to the full enjoyment of this human right.
She proposed a 4-A scheme (availability, accessibility, acceptability and adaptability) to measure
the advancement of the right to education. With regard to the obstacles, she addressed the
impact of macroeconomic policies, poverty, gender and other forms of discrimination. In that
sense, she identified a 3-D framework on obstacles regarding disability, difficulty and
disadvantage.
3. His predecessor advocated the mainstreaming of human rights in all international
strategies, while she also worked towards a better understanding of the normative content of the
right to education and interrelated rights. The Special Rapporteur notes with great interest the
discussion and dialogue his predecessor engaged in with the World Bank to encourage the
mainstreaming of human rights in the World Bank’s policies. In that regard, the former
Special Rapporteur focused her work, in particular, on the promotion and guarantee of free and
compulsory primary education. She examined the impact of international trade policies and laws
on the right to education and the risks for access and the quality of education of the increasing
privatization of schools. In her work on combating discrimination, she considered the access of
girls to education, education for working children, poverty, and enjoyment of the right to
education in a humanitarian context.
4. In her final report to the Commission, the former Special Rapporteur emphasized the
importance, and thus the need for continuous assessment, of the work done on the justiciability
of economic, social and cultural rights with a focus on the right to education. The Special
Rapporteur entirely agrees with her statement that “[n]o right can exist without remedies.
Hence, the recognition of individual rights entails the corresponding standing to claim rights and
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demand remedies for their denial or violation” (E/CN.4/2004/45, para. 45). He also shares her
belief in the continuing need for further clarification of conceptual and semantic elements related
to the human right to education.
Framework
5. The underlying theme of the Special Rapporteur’s work is the need “to move education
closer to human rights”, regarding education as a human right that the State must promote and
protect. In other words, the concept of education as a business or a patriarchal levelling
mechanism must be overcome in order to restore its essential meaning, which is to build
knowledge within a context where all human rights come together to be studied.
6. Education has a characteristic quality that enables it to be present in and to nourish all
areas of life. The interconnectedness of human rights is nowhere more obvious than in
educational processes, so the right to education is, moreover, an individual guarantee and a social
right which is fully expressed by the individual in the exercise of his or her citizenship.
7. Today more than ever, it is evident that government policies and development processes
must be reformulated to harness them to the true aims of education, in such a way that they are
geared ever more closely to the creation of universal opportunities and rights and full enjoyment
of the achievements of humanity.
8. The dissociation of the right to education from the right to specific educational content
has caused serious problems, for example: (a) the treatment of education as a negotiable service
rather than a right; (b) the fact that this service remains peripheral to the organization of just and
equitable societies because it lacks content explicitly connected with the rights set forth in
human rights instruments; (c) services may be deferred, abandoned, postponed, superseded and
even refused, especially (although not exclusively) to cultures and persons who are discriminated
against.
9. Consequently, in his work the Special Rapporteur will seek a holistic approach to
examining, monitoring and promoting the right to education, one that includes guarantees of the
financing, establishment and operation of free compulsory education, the fight against all forms
of exclusion and discrimination, and efforts to boost the quality of rights-based education.
10. In an effort to lend consistency to his work, the Special Rapporteur proposes the
promotion of action-oriented investigations enabling him to take meaningful steps to overcome
the obstacles that impede this human right.
I. ACHIEVING HUMAN RIGHTS THROUGH EDUCATION
A. Human rights as a framework for education
11. The Committee on the Rights of the Child has insightfully interpreted the aims of
education contained in the Convention on the Rights of the Child,1 which state that education
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transcends access to formal schooling and embraces the right to a specific quality of education
and a broad range of life experiences and learning processes that enable children, individually
and collectively, to develop their personalities, talents and abilities and to live a full and
satisfying life within society.
12. In like manner, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights had already defined the full
development of the human personality and the strengthening of human rights as the object of
education.
13. It is clear to the Special Rapporteur, then, that the gap between aims and actions in the
field of education is the product of long-standing historical distortions that encapsulate the
contradictions and tensions of economic systems and patriarchal cultures.
14. These considerations compel the Special Rapporteur to strengthen his view that education
is a human right and that its content dignifies all aspects of life. They lead him to conclude that
we need to start thinking once again about societies rather than the economy, and to understand
that sound education begets sound knowledge and appropriate abilities.
15. Clearly, all of us hope to gain economic benefits from education and literacy, but it is a
different matter entirely to think that these benefits are education’s sole aim.
16. Respect for human rights is a precondition for development of the personality, and
implies the formation of knowledge, abilities, skills and values enabling individuals to advance
peacefully towards the realization of universal human rights.
B. The exercise and enjoyment of the right to education
17. The Commission on Human Rights has invited the Special Rapporteur to intensify his
efforts aimed at identifying ways and means to overcome obstacles and difficulties in the
realization of the right to education. Accordingly, the Special Rapporteur thinks it necessary to
continue his predecessor’s attempts to identify the obstacles to the introduction of free primary
education in countries where this is a problem (E/CN.4/2004/45).
18. The Special Rapporteur’s view is that the gradual introduction of free, compulsory
primary education is inhibited not only by the existence of fees and other financial constraints,
but also by persistent discrimination, particularly against women, girls and teenage girls.
19. The means by which school fees are abolished or maintained cannot be considered in
isolation from the trammels of the patriarchal system and the structures of social deprivation that
are the main reasons why children cannot attend school.
20. In spite of everything, the existence of fees continues to be a significant impediment to
the effective exercise of the right to education, considering that fees are still payable in 6 of
the 35 countries that will most likely be unable to achieve the target of gender parity by the
year 2005.
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21. The World Bank has carried out a study2 of school fees in 77 countries, which presents
depressing evidence of the cost of books, uniforms and enrolment.
22. The study recommends the implementation of a clear-cut policy that signals to States the
World Bank’s opposition to fees, and commits the Bank “to work actively with governments to
find alternatives to existing user fee programs”. The situation has not changed significantly,
however.
23. That said, the Special Rapporteur notes the increases in school attendance reported by
Kenya, Malawi, the United Republic of Tanzania and Uganda following the abolition of tuition
fees, the principal result of which has been the realization of the right to education of millions of
children, especially girls.
24. The long shadow cast by economic quantification and the frenzy to ensure that all
processes are governed by cost and revenue considerations mean that State institutions are
inevitably affected by financial determinants.
25. Among these determinants, education is regarded more as a cost than an investment, and
when budget priorities in many low- and medium-income countries are set, education is
therefore always relegated to second or third place.
26. The combination of these determining factors, added to the growing demand for
university education, makes it increasingly urgent to find ways to ease access to continuing
education.
27. The question of university education will be dealt with subsequently, in connection with
the problems of quality, marginalization, cost, privatization and the relationship with national
development policies.
28. During his mandate, the Special Rapporteur plans to advocate and endeavour to establish
centres to monitor experiments and alternatives in public, free, compulsory education,
principally at the primary and secondary level, so as to broaden options for educational quality
and coverage.
29. The realization of the right to education also requires action of other kinds to address the
shortage of qualified teachers. To give two obvious examples: the number of primary schools in
Kenya rose by 27.2 per cent between 1990 and 2002, and the number of girls enrolling in schools
is reckoned to have increased by 49.3 per cent over the same period. In Uganda, the number of
children in formal education has increased from 3 to 5.3 million since the introduction of
universal primary education, which shows that approximately 2 million children were outside the
school system before this programme was implemented.3
30. Clearly, the inclusion of these students has put enormous pressure on school
infrastructure and education systems generally, which must seek prompt responses to these
challenges while upholding quality, especially as regards teaching staff.
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31. According to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), “with 26 million
primary schoolteachers in developing countries in 2000, the estimated number of additional
teachers required by 2015 ranges from 15-35 million - including more than 3 million in
sub-Saharan Africa, with more than 1 million in Nigeria alone”.4
32. Extrapolating from the growth achieved in the 1990s, the global rate of completion of
primary education will not exceed 83 per cent by 2015.5 And while, according to these
projections, 9 out of every 10 children will realize their human right to education, the question
then arises: Who will be left out?
33. Progress, coverage and achievements in reaching the millennium development goals are
clearly not uniform either among or within States. Exclusion will not be spread fairly among
countries as though it were a shared burden; rather, it will be concentrated in those States which
are currently having great difficulty reaching the target.
34. According to the same source, 27 countries should be considered as having serious
difficulties in meeting the target of 100-per-cent school enrolment by 2015; on current trends,
enrolment there will not even exceed 50 per cent by that date.6
35. This suggests to the Special Rapporteur that absolute figures are useful for easing
consciences but not for solving problems. Exclusion is concentrated in poor countries, and they
cannot be expected to make substantial improvements given the scale of their past and current
difficulties. In a way, the millennium development goals assume global ideals but not global
efforts. Although they inadequately reflect the human rights dimension, the millennium
development goals can nevertheless be helpful in mobilizing resources and efforts to achieve
progress which will also contribute to the gradual realization of the right to education.
36. Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest proportion of students completing primary education,
followed by South Asia, with 70 per cent. The rates in the Middle East and North Africa have
remained steady since the 1990s, with an average of 74 per cent of students in these regions
completing their studies. The comparable rates in Europe and Central Asia are 92 per cent, as
against 85 per cent in Latin America and the Caribbean and 84 per cent in East Asia and the
Pacific.7
37. As often happens, the overall figures do not reflect the actual situation facing women,
girls especially, who continue to experience disadvantage and inequality in most of the world,
although Bangladesh, Brazil, Cambodia, the Gambia, Sri Lanka and Tunisia have made
impressive progress on girls’ right to education.
38. According to the forecasts in these studies, the total cost of meeting the millennium
development goals by the year 2015 in low-income countries alone, including all the essential
items, will be in the region of US$ 9,700 million a year until 2015.8
C. Education and development
39. In the space available it is not possible to paint an exhaustive picture of the factors
impeding the right to education, although international economic policies that ignore social costs
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and the imposition of a uniform political and socio-economic model based rigidly on economic
liberalism certainly play a major part and are prompting a growing awareness of the need for
more flexible, human-rights-sensitive development models.
40. Indeed, there is a risk that excessive emphasis on market mechanisms will give rise to a
form of economic organization that withholds the financial resources required for the full
realization of the right to education.
41. But the problem does not stop there: we also have to take account of the existence of a
model of global development that seeks to reduce diverse social and cultural phenomena such as
education to questions of mercantile efficiency and economic growth.
42. “The expression education for development and its variant education in development
reflect an ideology that perceives education and development as quantifiable economic factors
that can be manipulated by planners. This presupposes the idea that education is one thing and
development is another and that an external professional body or agency has both the power and
the right to organize the former in a functional relationship with the latter.”9
43. The Special Rapporteur opposes the tendency to treat education as nothing more than a
tool. This utilitarian vision, unless balanced by that of education as a right having intrinsic
value, can make education easy prey for those who wish to divest it of its higher content.
44. Neutral education or education in the service of other needs cannot build the sort of
character that respects human rights, because neutrality potentially and in fact helps to
consolidate inequalities. Instead the Special Rapporteur, like Freire, inclines to the view that
education should be a free space for the exercise and study of all human rights, responsibilities
and capacities.
45. The utilitarian approach portrays education as a mechanism for market discipline. This
view conceives of education as an “investment” to avoid considering it solely as a “cost”, thus
revealing the “value” that education also has from a strictly budgetary and financial point of
view. Quantitatively speaking this is a convergence, since the concept of “economic growth” is
gradually being replaced by that of “human development”. Financially, the view of education as
an investment and not a cost can avoid a situation in which education is always loss-making and
its resources are limited or late in arising. However, this utilitarian approach, dissociated from a
human rights content, cannot bring about the structural changes needed to ensure fair
commercial dealings, just distribution of wealth and the autonomous creation of better living
conditions.
46. The ideal solution is to invest in education not only to facilitate economic development
but also, and above all, to build values and knowledge aimed at developing human dignity and
proactive citizenship committed to the rights of the individual.
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D. Financing of education
47. The Special Rapporteur also sees his mandate as a stimulus to promote, through dialogue
and persuasion, the effectiveness of strategies to increase the share of the national budget
allocated to free, compulsory public education.
48. It is clear that the right to education must be secured financially, which does not mean
that it should lose its intrinsic character or be subject to negotiation with international
organizations.
49. Because financing is essential to the maintenance of education, World Bank strategy
must also reflect the fact that efforts to stimulate education that are dissociated from human
capacity-building are not viable. Mindful, however, of the concerns of the President of the
World Bank regarding the content and quality of education,10 the Special Rapporteur would like
to find an opportunity to incorporate the human rights dimension of education more forcefully
into World Bank policies.
50. If educational factors are seen as determinants for economic growth and poverty
reduction, it makes sense for the World Bank to continue to argue for the conversion of part of
the highly indebted countries’ public debts into a financing facility for education and other social
investment.
E. Justiciability of the right to education
51. The Special Rapporteur is particularly aware of the need for continuous efforts and work
on the justiciability of the right to education. He thus intends to follow up on the work initiated
on the matter and on the identification of specific cases and new jurisprudence in the framework
of his thematic reports, as well as in the context of his country visits.
52. The Special Rapporteur notes that while States have repeatedly affirmed the indivisibility
of all human rights, economic, social and cultural rights have not always enjoyed the same level
of legal protection as civil and political rights. In that regard, he also notes two major
developments within the international human rights system which are particularly relevant to the
question of the justiciability of economic, social and cultural rights. First, the Committee on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and other treaty monitoring bodies have played a role in
elaborating the content of rights and obligations under the Covenant. Importantly, general
comment No. 3 (1990), “The nature of States parties obligations”, has set out the Committee’s
views on key issues in the Covenant relative to the legal enforceability of economic, social and
cultural rights, including: the obligation on States to “take steps”; the obligation to realize
economic, social and cultural rights progressively using the maximum of available resources; the
existence of minimum core obligations attaching to economic, social and cultural rights; and the
provision of judicial remedies.
53. The second development at the international level has been the establishment of an
open-ended working group of the Commission on Human Rights to consider options regarding
the elaboration of an optional protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
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Cultural Rights - in other words, some form of procedure allowing the Committee to consider
communications in relation to the rights recognized in the Covenant. In the context of the debate
in the working group and on this issue in general, the Special Rapporteur sees as an encouraging
sign the growing jurisprudence from national courts, as well as from regional human rights
mechanisms, which demonstrates that economic, social and cultural rights do lend themselves to
judicial remedies in cases of clear violation. This is also the case for the right to education.
54. The Special Rapporteur believes that the right to education as recognized by international
human rights instruments is justiciable. Importantly, by reviewing national and regional cases,
perceived problems relating to the legal enforceability of the right to education can be better
understood. For example:
55. In the Campaign for Fiscal Equity et al. v. the State of New York et al. [719 NYS 2d 475]
(2001), the Supreme Court of New York was asked to rule on an alleged case of discrimination
in the funding afforded by the State of New York to different schools. The plaintiffs challenged
the State’s funding of New York City’s public schools in relation to the effect of funding on
children from minorities. Adequate funding was claimed to be measured by the securing of a
“sound basic education”. The Supreme Court of New York had to clarify the meaning of
“education” as a right and understand the content of the right - by considering the meaning of a
“sound basic education”. In this case, the Supreme Court of New York decided that in order to
provide sound basic education, the State had a duty to take steps to ensure that the following
resources are available to the City’s public school students: (i) sufficient number of qualified
teachers and other personnel; (ii) appropriate class sizes; (iii) adequate and accessible school
buildings; (iv) sufficient up-to-date books and technology; (v) suitable curricula; (vi) adequate
resources for students with extraordinary needs; and (vii) a safe, orderly environment.
56. The Dilicia Yean and Violeta Bosica case (case No. 12.189) brought before the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights was an opportunity to bring out the value of
using judicial or quasi-judicial mechanisms in protecting against discrimination in the context of
education. Indeed, the plaintiffs claimed violations of the right to nationality and the right to
education while the Government of the Dominican Republic counterclaimed that the plaintiffs
had not exhausted domestic remedies. The Commission mentioned that, as effective domestic
remedies did not exist in the present case, the case was admissible before the Commission.
57. The Autism Europe v. France case (complaint No. 13/2002 - European Committee of
Social Rights) was an opportunity to bring out the positive obligations on States and the right to
education. The plaintiffs claimed that the failure of France to take necessary steps to ensure the
right to education of children and adults with autism resulted in the violation of the right to
education of persons with disabilities and in their being discriminated against. The Committee
found for the plaintiffs. It recalled that the Revised European Social Charter not only prohibits
direct discrimination but also all forms of indirect discrimination.
58. As appears from the above cases, the major challenge comes from the need to understand
more clearly developments at the national and regional levels and how these developments affect
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the nature and scope of the right to education under international law. In order to do so, the
Special Rapporteur intends to consider the right to education not only in accordance with the
provisions of the Covenant but also though consideration of the relevant provisions of other
human rights instruments.
59. Consequently, as a starting point, the Special Rapporteur aims at using and developing
the parameters identified by the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in its
general comment No. 13 (1999) on the right to education, namely, availability, accessibility,
acceptability and adaptability. However, the Special Rapporteur does not intend to limit himself
either to the Covenant’s provisions as such or to this general comment. He would like to use
elements put forward by other general comments in which the Committee acknowledged the fact
that, in some instances, other international instruments have gone beyond the provisions of the
Covenant.
F. Development of human-rights-based indicators
60. The Special Rapporteur wishes to deepen his understanding of the right to education,
focusing in particular on operational frameworks for the realization of the right. A critical area
which he has identified in this regard relates to the development of indicators based on human
rights to facilitate formulation of policy measures for the realization of the right, their
implementation and monitoring achievements in that regard.
61. The elaboration of an operational framework for the realization of the right to education
is also linked to the issue of developing indicators and methods for monitoring and measuring
the development process from a rights perspective. The need for such indicators and monitoring
tools has become more apparent in light of the global consensus on the importance of attaining
the Millennium Development Goals. Though the Goals do not address the human rights
concerns explicitly, developing rights-based indicators and monitoring tools could contribute
both to their effective implementation as well as in the realization of the relevant human rights.
62. The UNDP Human Development Report 2000: Human Rights and Human Development
devoted a section to the use and usefulness of human rights indicators. It stated that “statistical
indicators are a powerful tool in the struggle for human rights. They make it possible for people
and organizations - from grass-roots activists and civil society to Governments and the
United Nations - to identify important actors and hold them accountable for their actions”.
Human rights indicators can help members of the international community determine when
national and international policy adjustments are necessary.
63. It may be recalled that the second and third of the Millennium Development Goals are
directly linked to education. The second goal calls for the achievement of universal primary
education by ensuring that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to
complete a full course of primary schooling, while the third goal calls for the promotion of
gender equality and empowerment of women, by eliminating gender disparity in primary and
secondary education preferably by 2005 and in all levels of education no later than 2015.
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64. The Goals are important benchmarks for the realization of the corresponding rights. As
such, there is a case for the Goals and principles contained in the Goals to be interpreted in a
broader sense that would capture the normative content of the rights and contribute to the overall
realization of all human rights. Indicators should also reflect the human rights principles and
concepts that underlie the development process, such as accountability, non-discrimination, the
rule of law and progressive realization of economic, social and cultural rights, in particular the
right to education. Applying human rights principles requires establishing a link between
duty-holders and their actions, on the one hand, and the corresponding goal of realizing the
human right, on the other. In addition, it requires that the chosen indicators be objective and
quantifiable and included in databases that would facilitate their monitoring.
65. The Special Rapporteur is aware that educators and policy-makers use various indicators
to monitor educational attainments at national and subnational levels. Bearing this in mind, he
would like to explore and analyse the possible differences between the conventionally used
education indicators and indicators for monitoring the realization of the right to education.
Common education indicators include literacy rate, enrolment rate, drop-out rate, and
pupil/teacher ratio.
66. He believes that right-to-education indicators should derive from and reflect human rights
principles and norms. In that regard, general comment No. 13 offers a human rights framework
for the development of right-to-education indicators. In emphasizing the right to receive
education, the Committee used the work done by the former Special Rapporteur and identified
four “interrelated and essential features” for the measurement and implementation of the right to
education. The other element that would differentiate between education indicators and
right-to-education indicators is the link between duty-holders and their actions and the
realization of the right. In that regard, the Special Rapporteur considers it important that the
educational norm that could be used to identify an indicator should be reasonably precise.
Moreover, the right to education cannot be seen in isolation; it is closely related to the enjoyment
of other human rights and fundamental freedoms. The right to education is the key to the
enjoyment of all rights. The fulfilment of the right to education would allow the enjoyment of,
inter alia, the right to freedom of opinion and expression and the right to participation. The right
to education should be implemented without discrimination. However, if the indicator should
have a close link to the related norm and standard, it should also be seen in a broad normative
context.
67. The Special Rapporteur considers that any attempt to identify right-to-education
indicators must encompass the responsibilities of States at both national and international levels.
He intends to do so in his coming reports.
68. The Special Rapporteur welcomes the approach of the Special Rapporteur on the right to
the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, Mr. Paul Hunt, who has analysed
the usefulness and validity of existing health indicators in a human rights context. Could
education indicators be used in a human rights framework, or do right-to-education indicators
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have special features? The Special Rapporteur would like to develop further elements of
response to that question which, he believes, would allow the discussion about right-to-education
indicators to move forward. He intends to do so in his coming reports.
69. Notwithstanding the usefulness of human rights indicators in general and
right-to-education indicators in particular, the Special Rapporteur would like to emphasize
that often indicators have to be supplemented by additional information in order to present a
fuller picture of the real enjoyment of the right to education. But if they are used carefully,
right-to-education indicators could help States and other concerned actors monitor and measure
the progressive realization of the right to education.
II. FIGHTING DISCRIMINATION IN THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION
A. Diversity as a right and a learning context
70. Diversity is a cornerstone of education. It manifests itself in intercultural community
life and respect for the differences between people. The Special Rapporteur thus conceives of
development as a collective learning process that people must undergo to realize that
democratization and anti-discrimination are essential to a dignified life.
71. Given that one of the aims of education is to instil respect for civilizations different from
that of the student,11 the Special Rapporteur believes that a discussion of intercultural relations
should be an automatic feature of all education systems.
72. Homogeneity in education is an impossible undertaking. Pressure to entrench the use of
one language for all peoples, for example, is a sign of intolerance. Such is the case in schools
where, human rights norms notwithstanding, indigenous children or children from other
minorities are forbidden from using their native languages.12
B. Girls’ right to education
73. As affirmed by Ms. Obong Rita Akpan, Nigeria’s Minister for the Status of Women, the
education of girls must be a priority if any reasonable progress is to be made.
74. The Special Rapporteur believes that the imbalance in educational opportunities for boys
and girls is inconsistent with the priorities set by many Governments in their pursuit of the
universal right to education.
75. The following table shows the worldwide gender gap in current primary school
enrolment rates:
E/CN.4/2005/50
page 15
Countdown to the year 2005 - Closing the gender gap in primary school enrolments
Reverse gender gap: Lower enrolment of boys No gender gap, or less than 2% difference
Less than 10% difference in enrolments
favouring boys
More than 10% difference in enrolments
favouring boys
1998 2000 1998 2000 1998 2000 1998 2000
Countries Girls
(%)
Boys
(%)
Girls
(%)
Boys
(%)
Countries Girls
(%)
Boys
(%)
Girls
(%)
Boys
(%)
Countries Girls
(%)
Boys
(%)
Girls
(%)
Boys
(%)
Countries Girls
(%)
Boys
(%)
Girls
(%)
Boys
(%)
Bahrain 98.0 96.0 96.6 95.2 Argentina 100.0 100.0 99.4 100.0 Algeria 92.0 96.0 96.8 99.7 Burkina
Faso
28.0 40.0 29.4 41.6
Botswana 82.0 79.0 86.0 82.5 Bolivia 100.0 100.0 97.1 96.8 Angola 53.0 61.0 35.1 38.6 Central
African
Republic
43.0 64.0 45 64.3
Cuba 97.0 96.0 96.6 97.9 Chile 87.0 88.0 88.3 89.4 Brazil 96.0 100.0 93.3 100.0 Chad 42.0 68.0 46.7 69.6
Dominican
Republic
88.0 87.0 93.3 91.7 China 100.0 100.0 93.0 92.5 Burundi 34.0 41.0 48.7 58.8 Côte
d’Ivoire
51.0 67.0 53.6 70.9
Jordan 83.0 82.0 93.9 93.2 Costa Rica 92.0 92.0 91.1 91.1 Comoros 46.0 54.0 52.3 60.0 Djibouti 27.0 37.0 28.4 36.8
Lesotho 64.0 56.0 81.8 75.0 Fiji 100.0 100.0 82.5 86.5 Democratic
Republic of
the Congo
31.0 33.0 … … Ethiopia 30.0 41.0 40.7 52.8
Madagascar
63.0 62.0 68.0 67.3 Kuwait 67.0 68.0 82.4 83.9 Egypt 89.0 95.0 90.3 94.9 Guinea 37.0 54.0 41.5 52.4
Namibia 90.0 83.0 84.5 78.8 Malaysia 98.0 98.0 83.0 83.5 El Salvador 80.0 82.0 … … Guinea-
Bissau
44.0 62.0 44.5 62.6
Paraguay 92.0 91.0 92.5 91.8 Maldives 100.0 100.0 99.3 98.6 Eritrea 31.0 36.0 37.9 44.0 Iraq 74.0 85.0 85.5 100
Rwanda 92.0 90.0 … … Mauritius 93.0 93.0 94.5 94.8 Gambia 57.0 65.0 66.3 71.1 Liberia 35.0 46.0 … …
Samoa 98.0 95.0 95.4 98.3 Mexico 100.0 100.0 100.0 98.8 Guatemala 80.0 85.0 82.1 86.4 Mali 34.0 49.0 … …
Swaziland 78.0 76.0 93.6 92.1 Nicaragua 80.0 80.0 81.2 80.3 Indonesia 82.0 86.0 91.5 92.7 Morocco 73.0 85.0 74.4 81.5
United Rep.
of Tanzania
49.0 47.0 47.6 45.8 Peru 100.0 100.0 99.7 100.0 Iran (Islamic
Rep. of)
78.0 81.0 73.0 74.1 Niger 20.0 32.0 24.4 36.3
E/CN.4/2005/50
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Reverse gender gap: Lower enrolment of boys No gender gap, or less than 2% difference
Less than 10% difference in enrolments
favouring boys
More than 10% difference in enrolments
favouring boys
1998 2000 1998 2000 1998 2000 1998 2000
Countries Girls
(%)
Boys
(%)
Girls
(%)
Boys
(%)
Countries Girls
(%)
Boys
(%)
Girls
(%)
Boys
(%)
Countries Girls
(%)
Boys
(%)
Girls
(%)
Boys
(%)
Countries Girls
(%)
Boys
(%)
Girls
(%)
Boys
(%)
Uruguay 92.0 92.0 90.8 90.0 Qatar 85.0 86.0 … … Lao People’s
Dem. Rep.
73.0 79.0 78.1 84.7 Papua
New
Guinea
78.0 91.0 79.7 87.5
Zimbabwe 91.0 90.0 79.6 79.6 Sri Lanka 100.0 100.0 … … Lebanon 77.0 79.0 86.1 86.9 Senegal 54.0 64.0 59.9 66.3
United
Arab
Emirates
82.0 83.0 87.3 86.0 Mauritania 58.0 62.0 61.8 66.2 Togo 78.0 99.0 82.3 100
\ Vanuatu 100.0 100.0 89.2 89.6 Mozambique 37.0 45.0 50.1 58.7 Yemen 44.0 77.0 49.2 84.2
Venezuela 88.0 88.0 88.9 87.1 Oman 65.0 67.0 64.5 64.8
Philippines 97.0 99.0 93.4 92.1
Saudi Arabia 57.0 61.0 55.5 62.8
Sierra Leone 55.0 60.0 … …
Sudan 42.0 50.0 44.7 54.0
Syrian Arab
Rep.
89.0 96.0 93.7 98.9
Thailand 76.0 78.0 84.1 86.7
Tunisia 96.0 99.0 98.6 99.7
Zambia 72.0 74.0 65.2 65.8
Note: The data have been collected by the UNESCO Institute for Education as part of the monitoring process of Education for All (2001 and 2003/04 and 2003/04 Monitoring Report on Education for All,
UNESCO/EFA, Paris, www.unesco.org/education/efa). Figures refer to 1998 and 2000 estimates.
Countries in bold underlined could be moved from category taking into consideration changes that occurred from 1998 to 2000.
E/CN.4/2005/50
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76. “25 by 2005 Girls’ Education Campaign”, an acceleration strategy initiated by the
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), aims specifically to complement existing strategies
to achieve gender parity by 2005, especially in the 25 countries (8 in West Africa) which are
experiencing the greatest difficulties in meeting the target, namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh,
Benin, Bhutan, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of
the Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, India, Malawi, Mali, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan,
Papua New Guinea, the Sudan, Turkey, United Republic of Tanzania, Yemen and Zambia.13
77. In some countries the challenge appears be the need to push ahead with the inclusion of
women, not just by making education available but also by adapting the education on offer to
suit the specific needs of women, girls and teenagers: curriculum, participation and family
support. The Special Rapporteur believes that these issues also tie in with the debate about
democratization, poverty and unemployment.
78. Thanks to the valuable work of the Arab Institute of Human Rights, progress has been
made towards clarifying outstanding issues with a view to eliminating all forms of discrimination
against women in the family and society,14 although in many cases pronouncements by the State
authorities have not been reflected in laws to guarantee and promote human rights, nor in the
ratification of regional human rights conventions and treaties.15
79. The need to promote national policies and programmes to boost family income, thus
enabling girls to attend school, has also been stressed. Removing the costs of schooling is one
way of encouraging girls to attend school, but other methods are required too, for example
employing female teachers, building and improving health facilities, ensuring community
support, according parents visible and useful roles in the school environment, and establishing a
connection between auxiliary health services and educational programmes.16
80. Regarding the establishment of urgent intersectoral action plans to promote the right
of pregnant girls and teenage mothers to have access to and remain in education, the
Special Rapporteur wishes to highlight the experiences of the Department of Education in
South Africa, which recently launched a handbook for pregnant students17 designed to protect
their right to education.
81. In addition, as a result of outreach efforts by the Latin American Committee for the
Defence of Women’s Rights (CLADEM), the Special Rapporteur has learned of Law No. 19979
that was recently adopted in Chile, which stipulates that pregnancy and motherhood are no bar to
enrolling or remaining in educational establishments, and of Law No. 220 in Puerto Rico, which
establishes a charter of pregnant students’ rights.
82. The relationship between the human right to education and sexual and reproductive rights
is obvious in many areas and in very diverse ways, especially considering the impact that
educational activities have in instilling shared responsibilities in young men and women.
83. In this context, the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health, Mr. Paul Hunt, has listed
in one of his reports (E/CN.4/2004/49) some of the reasons why the right to health ought to
E/CN.4/2005/50
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include the right to education and the right to information: (a) Sexual and reproductive ill health
gives rise to nearly 20 per cent of diseases among women and 14 per cent among men, and
(b) 6,000 young people aged between 15 and 24 years become infected with HIV daily.
84. It is a matter of concern that in many countries that have made notable progress in school
enrolment, students still do not have a guaranteed right to receive an education in responsible
sexuality.
C. Migrants’ right to education
85. The Special Rapporteur is particularly interested in the status of migrants’ right to
education, given that refugee situations, displacement, asylum and migration occur in all parts of
the world and are becoming more and more common.
86. Additionally, the Special Rapporteur proposes to work with the relevant organizations to
determine the educational needs of such persons and identify national and international
responses since, as pointed out by Ms. Gabriela Rodríguez Pizarro, Special Rapporteur on the
human rights of migrants (E/CN.4/2004/76), the educational profiles of migrant workers are very
diverse: many have an advanced education, some have rudimentary schooling, and others are
illiterate.
87. Although in his initial mandate the Special Rapporteur has decided to give priority to
primary and secondary education, bearing in mind the need to work rationally, he nevertheless
considers that adults’ right to education needs to be clarified, since the International Convention
on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (ratified
by 34 States) says only that each child of a migrant worker shall have the basic right of access to
education on the basis of equality of treatment,18 whereas the World Declaration on Education
for All says that basic education should be provided to all children, youth and adults (without
discriminating against migrant workers).
88. In the near future the Special Rapporteur plans to initiate a detailed inquiry into certain
migrant children’s right to education in Europe, and to examine the failure of the educational
system to cater for migrants forced from their homes as a result of armed conflicts or extreme
poverty.
89. The right to education of second-generation migrant populations is a further challenge for
the community of nations, because it tests the capacity for integration proclaimed by certain
government policies.
90. In this connection, the study of the situation in the Netherlands conducted by
Maurice Crul19 highlights the fact that migrant communities tend to concentrate in a few (usually
deprived) urban areas owing to a lack of effective government policies. The study reveals that
Turkish and Moroccan children underachieve in primary school because their second language,
Dutch, is deficient, given that the teaching of Dutch as a second language and appropriate
training for teachers only really began in the 1990s.
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91. The Special Rapporteur wants to document direct references to the educational needs of
migrants and the obstacles they face and to prepare an up-to-date overview of the status of
migrants’ education.
D. The right to education of persons with different capacities
92. The Special Rapporteur will combine research with fieldwork in comparing the
effectiveness of laws and government policies designed to eliminate all forms of discrimination.
93. As a conceptual framework, the Special Rapporteur considers it appropriate to use the
term “persons with different capacities” so to avoid adding to the underestimation implicit in
other appellations that obscure the real abilities of individuals in this category.
94. Likewise, he takes the view that the concept of “disability as an obstacle to the right to
education” treats people as victims and fails to impose obligations on the education systems
which are the first to exclude them, but which also have the power to adapt the environment to
the needs of persons with different capacities and the best interests of children and young people.
E. Indigenous populations’ right to education
95. The right to education of indigenous communities and individuals not only implies the
opportunity to shape a proactive, sensitive body politic by drawing on their own experience, but
also a requirement that other groups respect their autonomy.
96. The Special Rapporteur supports indigenous peoples’ right to develop their own
educational proposals (especially now that the indigenous question is starting to become an
urban issue), taking account of human rights and their inherited sense of self-esteem, in a setting
of thoroughgoing equity and equality.
97. This special consideration obliges States, pursuant to article 29, paragraph 1 (d), and
article 30 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention (No. 169) concerning
Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries of the International Labour
Organization (ILO), to work harder to inculcate respect for cultural diversity, empowering
population groups that are discriminated against and extending public education efforts among
social groups that practise discrimination, in such a way that neither rights nor responsibilities
are watered down.
F. The right to education of persons belonging to minorities
98. The Special Rapporteur plans to give consideration to minority populations, particularly
the religious, racial and linguistic minorities whose right to education is restricted or denied.
Accordingly, he wishes to promote appropriate education that respects these groups’ beliefs and
origins within a human rights framework.
99. To ensure these populations’ right to education, efforts must be made to devise solutions
that will enhance inclusive education while respecting diversity and intercultural sensitivity.
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100. Discrimination on religious grounds has been extensively documented, and there are
many examples of hostility encountered by those who are out of step with the dominant culture.
They are treated as second-class citizens with fewer rights and privileges, or their patriotism is
questioned, or their contribution to society is ignored.20
101. Marginalization on ethnic grounds is also reflected in and sustained by education
systems. In some cases, the disparity is such that the proportion of students from some ethnic
groups who successfully complete secondary education exceeds 70 per cent, while the proportion
of students from disadvantaged ethnic groups in the same country barely exceeds 50 per cent.
There can be equally striking gaps between the proportion of students from some ethnic groups
who are considered suitable for higher education (upwards of 30 per cent) and the comparable
proportion of students from other ethnic groups (less than 20 per cent).21
III. QUALITY OF EDUCATION
102. The Special Rapporteur believes that the problems encountered in enforcing the right to
education are due in part to a reluctance to consider this right as a space in which human rights
converge, especially in the case of cultures that are discriminated against and subject to social
and economic domination.
103. Unwillingness to let education function in accordance with its basic purposes results in
denial of the human right to education, because knowledge not built upon personal development
that is respectful of human rights is inferior knowledge.
104. In other words, education that proceeds from and is rooted in human rights is vital to
proper character development. In turn, character development strengthens self-esteem and
dignity and promotes the formation of knowledge, abilities, skills and values enabling
individuals to advance peacefully towards the realization of universal human rights.
A. Human rights education as a prerequisite for quality
105. For years there have been moves to integrate human rights more closely into education
systems, in the belief that this process helps to produce a type of education that can improve
living conditions and bring about universal enjoyment of human rights.
106. Mindful, however, of the true purposes of education, the Special Rapporteur is of the
view that the integration process must involve education as a whole, not just isolated parts of the
curriculum.
107. The Special Rapporteur therefore maintains that the right to a quality education implies a
need to direct learning processes and the entire school environment and infrastructure towards
the development of knowledge, abilities and skills within a body politic primed to respect dignity
and the higher values of humanity, diversity, peace, solidarity and mutual cooperation.
108. Quality cannot be reduced to a matter of quantifiable efficiency; rather, it encompasses
the depth of human commitment to the present and future generations.
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109. This is why the Special Rapporteur stresses the importance of moving education closer
to human rights. The just completed United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education
(1995-2004) provided an opportunity to devise a comprehensive framework for the application
of human-rights-based approaches. A similar opportunity was offered by the recommendations
in the report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on the mid-term
global evaluation of the progress made towards the achievement of the objectives of the
United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education (A/55/360).
110. The Decade got a lukewarm reception from States: by 31 July 2000, only 35
Governments had sent back completed questionnaires to the High Commissioner. In 2004, at
the request of the Commission on Human Rights, the High Commissioner submitted a report
on achievements and shortcomings of the Decade and on future United Nations activities in this
area (E/CN.4/2004/93). In the non-governmental sphere, however, a multitude of initiatives,
programmes and projects were devised and the principles of the Decade were enthusiastically
promoted, with excellent results.
111. Both the mid-term evaluation of the Decade and the principles governing national plans
of action for human rights education (A/52/469/Add.1, 20 November 1997) set out
organizational and operational principles and guidelines for education which, far from turning
human rights into a subject or discipline in the curriculum, aim to transform what schools do into
human-rights-based teaching.
112. The World Programme for Human Rights Education, the initial phase of which begins
this year, continues and complements the efforts already undertaken. The Special Rapporteur
thus proposes to follow the implementation of plans of action and ensure that their goals are as
fully achieved as possible.
113. The phased implementation of a plan of action must be accompanied by regional
and local assessments and the provision of technical and economic resources for those
countries that require them. The momentum given to this undertaking by the United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights has been noteworthy.
114. At the regional level, the Special Rapporteur wishes to highlight the work of the
Inter-American Institute of Human Rights in charting the progress of human rights education.
In December 2004 the Institute published the third Inter-American Report on Human Rights
Education, which deals with changes in the training or refresher training of serving teachers and
the vocational training of future teachers. Its work in developing indicators is ground-breaking
and is a potential starting point for the incorporation of indicators on the right to education into
the future activities of United Nations bodies.
B. Education policies and classroom reality
115. To stimulate and support initiatives to move education towards the aims stated in
international human rights instruments, it is necessary to study the impact of education policies
on classroom reality and to promote changes in school procedures (the educational environment,
administration, the curriculum and the student-parent community).
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116. From the standpoint of the values that motivate learning and underpin a quality education
(for example, the ability to live in a democracy and be an active citizen), the requirements of
students and teachers (both players in the learning process) must be identified, as must the
adjustments that are needed to remedy failings in the ability of the school system to meet those
requirements.
117. The exercise of democratic citizenship, for example, is not dictated by orders or
instructions from the education authorities, but grows out of the atmosphere in the classroom and
the school, the forum in which students are encouraged and permitted to express their views,
appreciate the freedom to think for themselves and respect the views of others. The right to
education includes this practice of liberty.
118. To identify the extent of student freedom and opportunity to participate in the life of the
classroom, Fernando Reimers has compiled a useful table indicating how often teachers give
their pupils the chance to express their views.
How often teachers give pupils the chance to express their views
Never In some
lessons
In most
lessons
In every
lesson
No
Country response
Percentage
Argentina 8 22 20 45 5
Brazil 5 22 27 44 2
Chile 6 22 23 48 1
Mexico 2 17 24 52 5
Peru 3 17 26 49 5
Germany 11 25 27 35 1
Canada 5 20 31 42 1
Republic of Korea 15 40 27 16 1
Spain 8 27 26 37 1
United States of
America
7 20 25 41 7
France 10 28 27 34 2
Japan 10 27 28 31 5
OECD average 7 24 29 38 2
Source: Fernando Reimers, La buena enseñanza, la formación de ciudadanía
democrática y las reformas educativas en América Latina, Harvard University, 2003.
IV. SECURITY AND THE RIGHT TO EDUCATION
IN EMERGENCY SITUATIONS
119. The Special Rapporteur also believes that security in schools forms part of the human
right to education. Security means not only physical, psychological and moral safety but also a
right to be educated without interruption in conditions conducive to the formation of knowledge
and character development.
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120. It is for this reason that emergencies are threats, embracing as they do a wide range of
possibilities such as natural disasters, armed conflicts and situations of occupation. Violence
within schools, extreme poverty and the violent exclusion of girls are other threats to security in
education. Unfortunately, there is no record or constant monitoring of the worldwide impact of
emergencies on schools, but the Special Rapporteur believes it must be very serious.
121. The Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies has made commendable efforts
to develop minimum standards for emergencies, but has not been able to do so in a human rights
framework.
122. The Special Rapporteur has viewed with concern situations in which schoolchildren have
suffered, such as the murder of three students by a fellow-student in Argentina, the deaths of
hundreds of pupils and teachers at Beslan school in North Ossetia, or the lack of precautions that
led to the deaths of 70 children at the Lord Krishna school in New Delhi when fire broke out in
the school kitchen on 16 July 2004.
123. Armed conflicts such as those in Iraq, Guinea and the Sudan are extreme situations in
which schools also pay the price of bloodlust and ordinary people lose their children.
124. Finally, military occupations are another appreciable curb on the human right to
education, the most egregious example being the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the view of the
International Court of Justice, the construction of the wall in occupied Palestinian territory is a
violation of international law and impedes the enjoyment of various human rights, including that
to education.22
V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
125. The work of the Special Rapporteur’s predecessor should be followed up, continued
and supplemented as a consistent way of continuing to monitor, disseminate, protect and
promote the human right to education.
126. The slogan “moving education closer to human rights” seeks to consolidate the
position of education within human rights, allowing education its natural role as a place
where all human rights converge and can be learned.
127. Among the obstacles to realizing the right to education, it is clear that school fees
cannot be considered in isolation from the trammels of the patriarchal system and
structures of social deprivation; it is thus necessary to work with Governments and
organizations to find alternatives and thereby promote a model of educational development
that aims to realize all human rights rather than preserving the utilitarian character of
education.
128. The matter of educational funding is still pressing, which is why States must press
on with the establishment of national priorities so that education is given more weight. In
addition, the concern shown by the President of the World Bank for the content and
quality of education is acknowledged and appreciated. This is an area where the human
rights dimension can inject clarity and consistency.
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129. The Special Rapporteur recommends that the World Bank conduct an investigation
to determine whether the failure to incorporate a human rights perspective, and
specifically the right to education, into its policies and guidelines is an inhibiting factor in
the social and economic impact that it seeks to achieve through its actions and loans.
130. By its very nature and the consequences of breaching or failing to respect it, the
right to education is justiciable, as evidenced by growing jurisprudence in national and
international courts. To ensure that this right is enforced across the board, improvements
in existing legal protection schemes are therefore needed.
131. The Special Rapporteur recommends the use of national and regional justice
systems to press for the right to education to be implemented and to make progress in
ensuring its justiciability.
132. The view that diversity is the cornerstone of education is a corollary of the right not
to be discriminated against and the right to appropriate education, one which transcends
any written instruction and makes an increasingly strong case for the inclusion of groups
and individuals who are discriminated against, especially girls and teenage girls.
133. Sporadic progress in combating discrimination against pregnant girls must continue
and be supplemented by the inclusion in education systems of teenage mothers who have
not completed their studies.
134. The Special Rapporteur invites the Committee on the Rights of the Child, in
cooperation with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), to consider the possibility of
developing or updating model guidelines for the protection of the right to education of
teenage mothers and pregnant girls.
135. Efforts to promote the right to education of migrants, persons with different
capacities, indigenous peoples and minorities feature specifically in the Special
Rapporteur’s plans. Persuaded of the benefits of an approach that combines research and
fieldwork, he considers the active participation of civil society in learning about its rights
and exercising its responsibilities to be crucially important, since exclusion is reflected and
magnified in the school environment.
136. The Special Rapporteur has interpreted his mandate as a chance to expedite
improvements in the quality of education, proceeding from the premise that knowledge not
built upon personal development that is respectful of human rights is inferior knowledge.
137. For this reason, emphasis must be placed on the possibility of developing
quantitative indicators to identify needs and guide the action that must be taken to
progress in realizing the human right to quality education.
138. The Special Rapporteur invites UNDP and UNICEF to assist him in developing
indicators on the right to education, and not solely on the status of education, with a view to
their subsequent use and incorporation in their reports.
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139. The Special Rapporteur intends to stimulate and support initiatives to move
education towards the aims stated in international human rights instruments, and will
accordingly seek to study the impact of education policies on classroom reality.
140. The Special Rapporteur recommends that UNESCO develop and validate an
analytical tool for determining to what extent the aims of education as stated in
international human rights instruments are attained in educational activities and the
classroom.
141. The Special Rapporteur recommends that UNICEF and UNESCO mount a global
watch on emergencies in education so as to quantify their impact and identify what steps
should be taken to mitigate and prevent them.
Notes
1
Véase su Observación general Nº 1 (2001): Propósitos de la educación (CRC/GC/2001/1).
2 Puede consultarse en: http://www1.worldbank.org/education/pdf/EFAcase_userfees.pdf.
3 Véase Ivy Benson, The Ghanaian Chronicle, 1º de octubre de 2004.
4 PNUD, Informe sobre Desarrollo Humano 2003, pág. 94.
5 Barbara Bruns, Alain Mingat y Ramahatra Rakotomalala, Achieving Universal Primary
Education by 2015: A Chance for Every Child, Banco Mundial, Washington D.C., 2003, pág. 5.
6 Ibíd, pág. 5.
7 Ibíd, pág. 4.
8 Ibíd, pág. 13.
9 Raff Carmen, Desarrollo Autónomo, Heredia (Costa Rica), Editorial Universidad Nacional
(EUNA), 2004, pág. 83.
10 Discurso del Sr. James D. Wolfensohn, Presidente del Banco Mundial, ante la Junta de
Gobernadores, Washington D.C., 3 de octubre de 2004.
11 Convención sobre los Derechos del Niño, art. 29 c.
12 Ibíd, art. 30.
13 UNICEF, Estado Mundial de la Infancia 2004, pág. 4.
14 Conferencia sobre derechos humanos, curricula y libros de texto en la educación secundaria,
Instituto Árabe de Derechos Humanos, Beirut, 27 y 28 de febrero a 1º de marzo de 2003.
E/CN.4/2005/50
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15 Taller regional sobre educación en derechos humanos en los sistemas educativos de Estados
del Golfo, Instituto Árabe de Derechos Humanos, Doha, 15 a 19 de febrero de 2004.
16 Algunas de estas sugerencias fueron registradas en "Equidad de género: las metas de
desarrollo del Milenio", Banco Mundial, 2003.
17 El informe de la Comisión de Derechos Humanos de Sudáfrica puede consultarse en:
http://www.sahrc.org.za/4th_esr_chap_7.pdf.
18 Véase también Antoine Pécoud y Paul de Guchteneire, "Migration, Human Rights and the
United Nations; an Investigation of the Obstacles to the UN Convention on Migrant Workers’
Rights", Global Migration Perspectives, Nº 3, Comisión Mundial sobre las Migraciones
Internacionales, UNESCO (agosto de 2004).
19 Maurice Crul, “The accessibility of education for migrants’ children of the Second Generation
in the Netherlands, paper for the international Metropolis Conference, 22-26 November 2001 in
Rotterdam”, Institute of Migration and Ethnic Studies (IMES), Universidad de Amsterdam.
El texto puede consultarse en:
http://www.international.metropolis.net/events/rotterdam/papers/19_cru12....
20 Véase, por ejemplo el informe del proyecto "A Civil Society Initiative in Curricula and
Textbooks Reform Project", Sustainable Development Policy Institute, Islamabad, 2003.
Puede consultarse en: http//sdpi.org.
21 Véase "Public high school graduation and college readiness rates in the United States",
Education Working Paper, Nº 3, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research (septiembre de 2003).
El texto puede consultarse en: http://www.manhattan_institute.org/html/ewp_03.htm.
22 Opinión Consultiva de la Corte Internacional de Justicia sobre las consecuencias jurídicasde
la construcción de un muro en el territorio palestino ocupado, de 9 de julio de 2004. El texto
puede consultarse en: www.icj-cij.org/icpwww/idocket/imwp/imwpframe.htp.
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