Between 28-30 June 2022, UNESCO held the Transforming Education Pre-Summit in Paris. The focus of the Pre-Sumit was to engage discussions and develop a shared vision and suggestion actions ahead of the Transforming Education Summit, which will be held in New York in September 2022.
On 29 June, the side event ‘Transforming education: the need to expand the international legal framework’ brought together a range of international experts to discuss how the transformation of education can and must be grounded in human rights.
Our Executive Director Delphine Dorsi took part in the panel discussion alongside the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, Koumbou Boly Barry; Mercedes Mayol Lassalle, World Organization for Early Childhood Education (OMEP); Bede Sheppard, Human Rights Watch; Ana Raquel Fuentes, Latin American Campaign for the Right to Education (CLADE); Maria Ron Balsera, TaxEd Alliance Coordinator, ActionAid; and Vernor Muñoz, Global Campaign for Education (GCE). The event was chaired by Borhene Chakroun of UNESCO, whose opening comments framed the discussion in terms of a lifelong, system-wide perspective which highlighted the importance of giving concrete substance to ensuring the interdependence of human rights.
The discussions contemplated the need to strengthen state obligations at every stage of education, from early childhood education and care to secondary and adult education, including higher education and youth and adult education. Equally, education financing and progressive taxation reforms, in addition to the regulation of non-state actors in education and the role, challenges and normative requirements regarding digital competencies were discussed. Governance, the centrality of human rights to any meaningful transformation of education and the evolving dimensions of the right to education were also key themes. Our Director Delphine Dorsi engaged in discussion on these topics, and highlighted in particular the importance of strengthening the aims of education to promote the application of human rights daily.
Watch the full event recording here: