30 June 2017
At the 35th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) states reaffirmed their commitment to the right to education by adopting resolutions on the right to education and the right to education of girls. The resolution on the right to education, led by Portugal and sponsored by 37 states, welcomes the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education’s most recent report on non-formal... Read more
29 June 2017
Press release (June 27, 2017) In light of the deepening crisis in student rights and the prevention of the defence of the right to education, the undersigned regional and international civil society organisations and networks, urgently call upon the authorities of the National Autonomous University of Honduras (UNAH) to immediately re-establish dialogue with the University Student Movement (... Read more
23 June 2017
PRESS RELEASE(Geneva, 22 June 2017) In an important UN resolution adopted today, states have reaffirmed the urgent need to address the potential negative impacts of the commercialisation of education on human rights.The resolution, which was adopted by the UN Human Rights Council by consensus, urges all states, 'to put in place a regulatory framework for education providers, including those... Read more
31 May 2017
We are pleased to announce that on 19 May 2017, RTE was officially registered as a Charity Incorporated Organisation (CIO) under UK law with the Charity Number 1173115 and the name ‘Right to Education Initiative’. Although we are widely known as the ‘Right to Education Project’ we decided to change to the ‘Right to Education Initiative’ to better reflect who we are: a global human rights... Read more
24 May 2017
On 15 June 2016 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) adopted the American Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This followed a seventeen year-long period of discussion and negotiation between members of the Organization of American States. The full text of the Declaration has recently been published and can be accessed, here.Along with the United Nations Declaration... Read more
27 March 2017
PRESS RELEASEThe French Minister of State for Development and Francophonie, Jean-Marie le Guen, declared yesterday that ‘France will act against any attempts at commercialisation of education’ in international cooperation. He added that France considers that ‘education is a public service’ and ‘a common good that cannot be profited from’.Mr Le Guen made this declaration during the launch of the... Read more
7 March 2017
Update 3: On March 2 2017 the Supreme Court of the State of Kansas handed down its decision regarding the ‘adequacy’ of education financing in Kansas. The Court found that the state education financing system does not meet the adequacy requirements of the Kansas Constitution. In reaching this decision, the Court noted that the state was failing to provide approximately one-fourth of public school... Read more
24 February 2017
In a judgment (in French) handed down on 10 January 2017, the European Court of Human Rights unanimously ruled that Switzerland had not violated the right to freedom of religion under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights by refusing to grant an exemption to two Muslim girls from attending mixed-sex swimming lessons.The case concerned Muslim parents who refused to send their... Read more
17 February 2017
Nairobi, Kenya, 17 February 2017Barely a month after the High Court of Kampala, Uganda, allowed the Ugandan Government to close all schools run by Bridge International Academies (BIA) in the country, the High Court of Kenya in Busia County yesterday announced, in a similar case, that the Busia County Education Board could proceed in closing ten Bridge schools operating in Busia county, for... Read more
30 January 2017
More than seven years after being approved in the Haitian Chamber of Deputies and Senate, the law on school fees was approved by the country’s president, Jocelerme Privert on 3 January 2017 and published in Le Moniteur, the country’s Official Gazette,The law was put before parliament by Senator Kelly Bastien and regulates the payment of fees for school and extracurricular activities as well as... Read more