Education is a HUMAN RIGHT!

This International Human Rights Day (December 10), CGCE calls for the realization of the Right to Education

Education is a HUMAN RIGHT! And yet, more than 75 million primary school-aged children around the world still do not have access even to the most basic literacy, numeracy and other skills an education provides. Even worse, a quarter billion children will never make it on to secondary or high school. 1 in 5 adults will never be able to read this sentence, condemning them to a life of limited options and vulnerability, which their children will in turn inherit.

Education has been recognized as a fundamental human right since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 26) in 1948. The Declaration provides the foundational framework for the human rights goals and standards to which Canadian legislation, institutions, and society aspire.  The right to education is also enshrined in a range of international conventions to which Canada is a state signatory, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966, Article 13), the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979, Article 10), and more recently, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989, Articles 28, 29).

These rights ensure that children have access to free and compulsory primary education and a range of secondary, vocational and higher education opportunities. They also protect the equal rights of girls and women in education, and promote education as a vehicle for understanding of difference and respect for human rights and freedoms.

The human rights instruments also oblige states to support the realization of these rights through our international assistance, both economic and technical, “to the maximum of their available resources” (ICESCR, 1966, Article 2:1) with particular attention paid to “the needs of developing countries” (CRC, 1989, Article 24(4)).

So what’s the hold up? This International Human Rights Day, contact the Prime Minister, your Member of Parliament and the Minister for International Cooperation, and demand that Canada act to make the right to education a reality!

Read the CGCE Aid Monitoring Working Group policy brief on The ODA Accountability Act and the Right to Education: Implications for Canadian Aid to Education. Read the full paper.

For more information on education and human rights, visit the Right to Education Project.

 Imagine what a different world we would live in if all children could complete school; if the millions of children currently left waiting at the school gates, were taught and inspired by teachers that fed their dreams and nurtured their intelligence. We could give young people this chance.  The chance to take part in democracy, to protect their family from illness, to communicate in times of conflict, to be future citizens of the world and lead the world out of extreme poverty. 

Rasheda Choudhury, GCE Board member and Director, Campaign for Popular Education, Bangladesh



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