While South Africa has seen important advances in the provision of early childhood care and education (ECCE), about 3.2 million children still lack access to any programme. Problems of access and quality are most pronounced in the poorest communities. Even before Covid-19 forced many providers to close, these programmes were overcrowded, with poor infrastructure, and an under-paid and under-qualified workforce. ECCE is crucial for a child’s development, meaning that these inequalities are amplified in school and later life. This has knock-on effects for caregivers, particularly women, and their ability to access quality work. This article argues that the right to equality can be mobilised both in relation to the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 and international law to address these disparities. By using a framework of substantive equality, we conclude that poverty, gender and race are potential grounds for discrimination both directly and indirectly. We further propose that resource-based justifications for limiting this right are unacceptable when budgets permit unequal resource distribution and contravene a government’s positive duty to fulfil the right to equality.
A statement signed by 33 organisations who are gravely concerned about the recent media report of child sexual abuse at Bridge International Academies in Kenya, and allegations that the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) for years turned a blind eye to the abuse.
On 11 October 2023, the Africa Group at the United Nations tabled a proposal calling for a comprehensive UN tax convention. Now, over 200 organisations and trade unions, among them RTE, have sent a letter to governments calling for the adoption of the Africa Group’s resolution, and stressing that this issue should be treated as a matter of highest priority and urgency.
45 organisations de la société civile reçoivent avec inquiétude le rapport d'enquête de conformité du Bureau du conseiller-médiateur (Compliance Advisor Ombudsman, CAO) sur l'investissement de la Société financière internationale (SFI) de la Banque mondiale dans les Bridge International Academies (BIA, également connues sous le nom d'écoles NewGlobe), et reconnaissent ses graves conclusions concernant les allégations d'abus sexuels sur des enfants dans la chaîne d'écoles à but lucratif de l'entreprise au Kenya.
Ce rapport porte sur le droit à l’éducation dans les zones du Burkina Faso touchées par l’insécurité et le conflit armé. Il a été soumis au Comité des droits de l'enfant des Nations unies pour la pré-session concernant le Burkina Faso.
The report examines Senegal’s mixed record in addressing the problem in the year since a fire ripped through a Quranic boarding school in Dakar housed in a makeshift shack, killing eight boys. After the fire, President Macky Sall pledged to take immediate action to close schools where boys live in unsafe conditions or are exploited by teachers, who force them to beg and inflict severe punishment when the boys fail to return a set quota of money. While important legislation has advanced, authorities have taken little concrete action to end this abuse. The report informs about the regulation of Quranic school and makes recommendations.