25 November 2020
In November 2019, the Abidjan Principles on the right to education were selected at the Paris Peace Forum as one of the ten ‘most promising governance projects’ that will be awarded support to scale-up. During one year, the Right to Education Initiative (RTE) and the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights received support from the Paris Peace Forum Scale-up Committee... Read more
29 October 2020
On 21 October, the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Koumbou Boly Barry, presented to the General Assembly (start at 1:44:20) her last report on the interrelations between the right to education and the rights to water and sanitation, including hygiene and menstrual health. The special rapporteur intended to build a holistic approach on human rights, and highlighted that rights to... Read more
19 October 2020
In the run-up to the National Referendum in Chile that will take place on 25 October 2020, offering a chance to all to express whether they wish to have a new Constitution, the Right to Education Initiative (RTE), GI-ESCR, and SUMMA join forces to highlight the importance of education in the country's constitutional debate. 'Constituyamos otra educación' ('Let's build another education') is a... Read more
7 October 2020
A geographically representative group of 527 Civil Society Organisations, including RTE, has this week called for the resumption of the state monitoring procedure of the international human rights treaty bodies, which have been postponed since March due to COVID-19 restrictions. In a letter to the Treaty Bodies and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, civil society raised... Read more
6 October 2020
More than 500 organisations and academics from from 87 countries, including RTE, have issued a statement today calling on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to stop promoting austerity and instead support policies that advance gender justice, reduce inequality, and put people and planet first.The IMF has already begun locking some countries into long term austerity-conditioned loans, while ... Read more
30 September 2020
At its last meeting, on 3 September 2020, RTE’s Executive Board appointed three new trustees who bring additional expertise on fundraising and human resources:Dina Hashem, Associate Director for Global Partnerships at Habitat for Humanity International Bharti Patel, Child Rights and Social Justice Advocate Nikki Skipper, Director of Fundraising at The Queen’s Commonwealth TrustThey will serve for... Read more
28 September 2020
On 18 September 2020, the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) found that Spain violated the right to inclusive education of a child with Down’s Syndrome by excluding him from the mainstream education system and sending him, against the will of his parents, to a special school for children with disabilities. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities... Read more
23 September 2020
A remarkable 190 organisations, including the Right to Education Initiative, have signed up to a bold Call to Action on domestic financing of education post-Covid. Faced with the threat of major cuts to education spending in developing countries, this call to action offers an alternative path.The Call to Action was organised by ActionAid following a high-level webinar at the end of July. It has... Read more
28 August 2020
RTE, together with the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and the Global Initiative on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR), held webinars on 24 and 31 July 2020.The discussions explored The Guiding Principles on the Human Rights Obligations of States to provide public education and to regulate private involvement in education (Abidjan Principles) and their application in the... Read more
10 August 2020
Before covid-19, the educational finance gaps and inequalities in learning opportunities were already visible, and the pandemic has only exacerbated these issues. Since the covid-19 pandemic has led to a global and unprecedented disruption of education at all levels, the United Nations has published a policy brief on education under covid-19 and beyond, highlighting the importance of education in... Read more