Affirmative actions should be understood as targeted temporary actions aiming to facilitate access, participation, and completion of marginalised groups that are underrepresented in different levels of education.
Article 26, Universal Declaration of Human Rights; Articles 2.2 and 13 (2)(c), International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; Article 4(a), Convention against Discrimination in Education; Article 28(c), Convention on the Rights of the Child; Article 5(e)(v), International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; Article 10(a), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; Article 24(5), Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; Article 13(3)(c), Protocol of San Salvador ; Article 11(c), African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child; Article 13(4)(f), African Youth Charter; Articles 22 and 29, Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees; Articles 30 and 43, 1 (a), (b), (c), Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families; Article 12(1)(a), Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa; Article 49(c), Charter of the Organisation of American States; Article 3(d), World Declaration on Higher Education for the Twenty-first Century; Paragraph 32, General Comment 13, Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR)
Education is a means to fight against structural inequalities, to ensure social justice and to guarantee both personal and societal sustainable development. The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) has recognized that affirmative action is means to bring about de facto equality for men and women as well as for disadvantaged groups such as indigenous peoples, cultural and linguistic minorities, persons with disabilities, etc. Affirmative actions should be discontinued once the intended equality outcomes are achieved. Examples of affirmative actions are tuition grants and scholarships targeting students from low-income families, racialized quota policies targeting students that have been subject to systemic racial discrimination, inclusion and non discrimination campaigns aiming persons with disabilities, etc.
This indicator can be broken down into specific categories, for e.g.:
Are there any affirmative action policies aiming to reduce inequalities based on sex, gender identity or sexual orientation? (Such as tuition subsidies, grants, quotas, etc.)?
Are there any affirmative action policies aiming to reduce inequalities based on racial, ethnic, caste, religious identity and indigenous or autochthonous status? (Such as tuition subsidies, grants, quotas, etc.)?
Are there any affirmative action policies aiming to reduce inequalities based on nationality and/or migration status (such as tuition subsidies, grants, quotas, etc.)?
Are there any affirmative action policies aiming to reduce inequalities for persons with disabilities? (Such as tuition subsidies, grants, quotas, etc.)?
Are there any affirmative action policies aiming to reduce inequalities for students from low-income families (such as tuition subsidies, grants, quotas, etc.)?
Are there any affirmative action policies aiming to reduce inequalities for first generation students (such as tuition subsidies, grants, quotas, etc.)?
Are there any affirmative action policies aiming to reduce inequalities as a consequence of prior secondary education?
Are there any affirmative action policies aiming to reduce territorial inequalities or inequalities based on place of residence (such as tuition subsidies, grants, quotas, etc.)?