UN Conventions – East Timor

The major UN conventions (listed below) each have provisions relevant for education, non-discrimination or access to justice, and they can all be signed up to by states, thereby obliging these to respect, protect and fulfil human rights. It matters if a country has ratified or acceded (almost the same), signed, or merely indicated an intention to do so, as this binds them legally to various degrees. Furthermore, it is very important to note if states have lodged any reservations or declarations, barring the convention in question to have full effect at the national level. Lastly, some conventions, either in their core text or in optional protocols, specify routes of individual complaints to the different committees of independent experts, and it must be noted if these exist before contemplating legal action at this level.

The United Nations system, begun in 1945 with the UN Charter, depends on the participation by states, as signatories to treaties, as authors of reports on the progress and rate of implementation of rights, and as parties to face-to-face meetings and recommendations. The UN works both as a peer system (via the Universal Periodic Review), where states judge and place pressure on each other - or avoids doing so for political reasons – as well as a system of independent experts (via the committees of the various conventions), who examine, interpret and recommend or criticise the efforts of countries on the background of the normative texts and the internationally binding law.

The international legal system has the state at its centre: the state ratifies treaties and thereby obliged itself to respect, protect and fulfil the right to education. And it is the state that must report on its own implementation and who can be “named and shamed” in public for not doing so. Treaties specify mechanism for how the international community can hold the state to account, exerting pressure from above, and therefore such mechanism can be very powerful - or they can become overtly politicised at the UN or regional fora. It is the challenge of campaigners and the courts to place this power in the hands of those whose rights have been violated by the state.

For the text of these conventions as well as their optional protocols (Op.), please use the following links, paying esp. attention to the suggested education and non-discrimination related articles:

ICESCR Art. 13, 14  ICESCR Op.  ICCPR Art. 18, 24, 27 ICCPR Op.  CERD Art. 5, 7  CEDAW Art. 10, 14  CEDAW Op.  CRC Art. 28, 29, 30  CRC Op 1  CRC Op. 2  CMV Art. 30, 45  CRPD Art. 24  CRPD Op.