The Latin American Campaign for the Right to Education (CLADE, by its Spanish acronym) is a pluralistic network of civil society organizations with a presence in 18 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, which promotes social mobilization and political advocacy to defend the human right to education. This collection of articles, essays and statements reflect on the vital role of public education in the region and the fault lines exposed by the pandemic, considering both the challenges public education in Latin America faces and possible solutions, alternatives and ways forward.

 

 

Key resource

International human rights law requires States to provide equal access to higher education without discrimination and to ensure the progressive realization of the right to free higher education. Although France outperforms many countries at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on many metrics regarding higher education, there remains significant problems, particularly ensuring equal access for students based on their place of origin. The opportunities students have, are not equal across all regions of France. Part of this inequality can be attributed to the socio-economic status of individual students. However, regional differences operate independently, and can exacerbate socio-economic inequalities, in determining participation in higher education. 

This policy brief shows that the unequal distribution of higher education institutions across the country results in students having to move across regions to access higher education, thus incurring costs (mainly housing and transportation), which are harder to meet for those who do decide to move, due to regional differences in standards of living. Coupled with the stagnation of budget allocation to higher education and the general rise in tuition fees, these indirect costs of education constitute a significant barrier to the enjoyment of the right to free higher education on a non-discriminatory basis.

FRANÇAIS

Les Droits de l’Homme exigent que les États assurent un accès égal à l'enseignement supérieur pour tous sans discrimination, et qu’ils garantissent la réalisation progressive du droit à l’enseignement supérieur gratuit. Malgré le fait que la France dépasse de nombreux pays de l'Organisation de Coopération et de Développement Économique (OCDE) quant à certains indicateurs relatifs à l'enseignement supérieur, des problèmes importants y subsistent. Surtout concernant  la garantie d’accès égal à tous et toutes à l'enseignement supérieur indifféremment de leur lieu d'origine. Les opportunités de formations ne sont pas égales pour les étudiant-es dans toutes les régions de France. Si une partie de cette inégalité peut être attribuée au statut socio-économique des étudiants, les différences entre régions doivent également être prises en compte. En effet, ces différences peuvent agir indépendamment du statut socio-économique et peuvent exacerber les inégalités créées par ce statut, en étant déterminantes dans la scolarisation de certains étudiants au sein de l'enseignement supérieur. 

A travers cette note de positionnement, nous souhaitons démontrer que la répartition inégale des  différentes formations de l’enseignement supérieur à travers le pays oblige les étudiant-es à se déplacer. La mobilité étudiante entraîne ainsi des frais (principalement ceux liés au logement et aux transports), qui sont plus difficiles à supporter pour les étudiant-es qui décident de déménager, notamment en raison de différences régionales de niveau de vie. Associés à la stagnation de l'allocation budgétaire consacré à l'enseignement supérieur et à l'augmentation générale des frais de scolarité, ces frais indirects de l'éducation constituent un obstacle important du droit à jouir d’un enseignement supérieur gratuit sur une base non discriminatoire.

ENGLISH

In working towards creating inclusive education systems, many countries have failed to address discrimination and exclusion on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and
variations of sex characteristics. This is despite the fact that, as new data from Europe show, 54% of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex youth surveyed had experienced bullying in school and 83% had witnessed some type of negative remarks addressed to someone else based on their sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression or variations of sex characteristics. In many other parts of the world, conditions do not even allow such data to be collected. While several countries have begun implementing changes in laws and policies, school-level interventions, curricula, and parental or community engagement, others not only avoid addressing the issues but are even taking measures that further exclude. Governments aspiring to respect their commitment to the goal of equitable and inclusive education by 2030 must protect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex learners, improve monitoring of school-based bullying and violence, and create a positive, supportive learning environment.

Key resource

Early childhood, defined as the period from birth to eight years old, is a crucial time for the physical, cognitive, social, and emotional growth of children. Access to quality early childhood care and education (ECCE), therefore, can be vital in laying the foundations for children’s long-term development, well-being, learning, and health. Despite this, universal and equitable access to free, quality, and compulsory pre-primary education is one of the major education challenges. One out of two children does not receive pre-primary education. While access to quality pre-primary education is inadequate globally, the opportunities for pre-primary education are drastically restricted for migrant children. Significant inequalities exist between migrant and local-born children in terms of quality access to pre-primary education.

This brief focuses on some of the important issues related to young migrant children’s access to ECCE and pre-primary education, and the key challenges in the existing legal framework.  It further proposes to strengthen the legal framework and policy development for the inclusion of ECCE in-migrant response strategies.

This report, presented to the 76th session of the General Assembly in October 2021, examines the channels through which poverty is perpetuated, in the areas of health, housing, education and employment. The growth of inequalities itself is an important contributing factor: the more unequal societies are, the less they allow for social mobility. The report argues that ending the vicious cycles of poverty is within reach. Investments in early childhood education and care, inclusive education, the provision of a universal basic income for young people combined with an increased taxation of inheritance, and the prohibition of discrimination on grounds of socioeconomic disadvantage are key to breaking the cycles that perpetuate poverty. People in poverty face systemic discrimination in societies that remain deeply segregated by wealth: this calls for systemic remedies to overcome inherited divisions.

It features sections on the right to education in relation to poverty, including the right to early childhood care and education, and higher education. 

 

ESPAÑOL   FRANÇAIS

 

In 1995, the parents of an Indian pupil brought a case against University of Natal because her application to medical school was rejected despite the satisfactory results she obtained in her qualifying examinations. They claimed that the admission process was discriminatory because it did not consider all the applications equally, but set higher admission standards for Indian students and lower ones for African students. The parents argued that this is as a violation of ‘equal access to educational institution’ provision of the constitution as well as sections 8(1) and 8 (2) in regard to ‘setting a discriminatory practice’. The Court agreed that while Indian community had been decidedly disadvantaged by the apartheid system, African pupils were even more so. Accordingly, the Court held that a selection system which compensated for this discrepancy does not violate the provisions of sections 8(1) and 8(2) of the Constitution.

تم تبني القرار الخاص بالحق في التعليم خلال الدورة العادية الثالثة والخمسين لمجلس حقوق الإنسان التابع للأمم المتحدة ، في الفترة ما بين 19 يونيو و 14 يوليو 2023.

 

ENGLISH   FRANÇAIS   ESPAÑOL

Resolution A/HRC/53/L.10 on the right to education was adopted during the 53rd ordinary session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, between 19 June and 14 July 2023. 

 

ESPAÑOL     FRANÇAIS      العربية

La Resolución A/HRC/53/L.10 sobre el derecho a la educación fue adoptada en la 53ª sesión ordinaria del Consejo de Derechos Humanos de las Naciones Unidas, entre el 19 de junio y el 14 de julio de 2023.

 

ENGLISH   FRANÇAIS   العربية

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