27 April 2023
Higher education is part of the right to education, protected under international human rights law. This means that states have the obligation to protect respect and fulfil the right to higher education and that there are ways to hold them accountable for violations or deprivations of this right.However, despite a comprehensive international legal framework ensuring the right to higher education... Read more
26 April 2023
The 52nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, held in Geneva between 27 February - 4 April 2023, saw the presentation of a joint statement on academic freedom by France on behalf of 72 countries. The statement reaffirms the vital importance of academic freedom and calls on all states to protect and promote it as a cornerstone of democracy and human rights. The joint statement... Read more
10 April 2023
In March 2023, the Right to Education Initiative and nine partner organisations submitted a joint submission to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) in response to the body’s review of the United Kingdom’s compliance with its human rights obligations as regards economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to education. The submitting organisations, which... Read more
8 March 2023
International Women’s Day is rightly a day of celebration of the achievements of women. Across the globe, women are changing their environments, breaking boundaries and providing inspiration to future generations. Whilst we must take time to celebrate these leaps forward, it is equally essential not to lose focus of the origins of the day, which reside in multiple national battles for rights.It... Read more
2 March 2023
IIEP-UNESCO has published ‘Planning to Fulfil the Right to Education: methodological guidelines and a toolkit’, a document whose purpose is to support national administrations in weighing and costing policy options and cross-checking them against the most appropriate benchmarks. RTE collaborated in the development of the document, which utilises the Abidjan Principles on the Right to Education. ... Read more
2 March 2023
In February, ten civil society organisations including RTE presented a joint submission to the CESCR, in light of its upcoming review of the United Kingdom’s compliance with its human rights obligations as regards economic, social and cultural rights. The brief was submitted to the CESCR’s pre-sessional working group, and focused on international development cooperation in education. In... Read more
24 January 2023
Today marks the fifth International Day of Education, proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly, in celebration of the role of education for peace and development.UNESCO highlights that without inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong opportunities for all, countries will not succeed in achieving gender equality and breaking the cycle of poverty that is leaving millions of... Read more
9 January 2023
During the World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education (WCECCE), held between 14-16 November in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, delegates drafted and approved the Tashkent Declaration and Commitments to Action for Transforming Early Childhood Care and Education. This significant political commitment, made 12 years after the adoption of Moscow Framework for Action and Cooperation at the first... Read more
20 December 2022
To mark international human rights day on 10 December, the Right to Education Initiative (RTE) participated in an UNESCO webinar on ‘Transforming education through human rights’. Around 160 participants joined from more than 30 nations to participate in the event and its three parallel sessions, all of which focused on the perspectives of youth regarding the expansion or revision of the... Read more
16 December 2022
On 8 December, the seventh resource in the How-to Child Rights series was launched at an online webinar hosted by Save the Children and featuring a range of speakers including the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment, a atate representative, and child rights experts and practitioners from civil society and UN agencies, in a discussion on the importance of following- up to UN... Read more