This online library provides resources from the Right to Education Initiative as well as from other partner organisations. You can filter relevant resources by topic, region, country, content type and language. Note that resources in other languages will be available soon.
See also our list of useful databases for information on the implementation of the right to education at national level.
Higher education is too often dissociated from the right to education. In many countries tuition fees are on the rise, and only the privileged have access to, or succeed in completing, higher education, making it difficult to argue that there is an actual right to higher education to be enforced. However, international human rights law is clear: the right to education includes the obligation of states to ensure that higher education is made accessible to all based on capacity.
In addition, states have an obligation to progressively introduce free higher education, an obligation which is yet to be implemented globally. Confronted with drastic changes worldwide in terms of rising inequalities, human movement, growing digitalization and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is high time to clarify existing obligations as well as what aspects of the right to higher education might require further explanation considering new contexts and challenges.
This publication aims to help guide policy-makers, civil society and the international education community, to fully enforce the right to higher education and ensure that the human-rights based approach is placed at the heart of the higher education debate.
À la lumière des normes relatives aux droits de l'Homme concernant le droit à l'éducation et de l'objectif de développement durable (ODD) 4, les organisations de la société civile signataires cidessous expriment de sérieuses inquiétudes quant aux implications potentielles de l’étude récemment publiée "Can Education be Standardized ? Evidence from Kenya" (L'Éducation peutelle être standardisée ? Données du Kenya). Nous exhortons les gouvernements et les autres parties prenantes à reconnaître les limites de cette étude, que certains chercheront à utiliser pour justifier l'expansion de l'offre éducative privée à but lucratif et des méthodes d'enseignement scénarisées1 . Il existe des approches bien établies pour relever les défis auxquels sont confrontés certains systèmes éducatifs et nous exhortons toutes les parties prenantes à se concentrer sur les stratégies et les politiques éducatives qui ont fait leurs preuves en matière d'éducation inclusive, équitable et de bonne qualité, et qui contribuent à renforcer l'éducation publique pour toutes et tous.
In the light of human rights standards on the right to education and the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4, the signatory civil society organisations below raise serious concerns about the potential implications of the recently released working paper “Can Education be Standardized? Evidence from Kenya". We urge governments and other actors to recognise the limitations of this study, which some will seek to use to justify the expansion of for-profit private provision of education and scripted teaching methods. There are well established approaches to address the challenges faced by some education systems and we urge all actors to focus on education strategies and policies that have been proven to deliver inclusive, equitable and good quality education, and that contribute to strengthening public education for all.
The Right to Education Initiative's 2020 Annual Report includes information about our strategy, our team and our supporters, and details activities and key achievements throughout the year.
Our work would not be possible without the generous support of our donors, whose contribution is noted in this report.
A global study of attacks on schools, universities, their students and staff, in 2020 and 2021.
Education is under attack around the world. From Afghanistan to Colombia, Mali to Thailand, students and teachers are killed, raped, and abducted, while schools and universities are bombed, burned down, and used for military purposes.
In 2020 and 2021, there were more than 5,000 reported attacks on education and incidents of military use of schools and universities, harming more than 9,000 students and educators in at least 85 countries. On average, six attacks on education or incidents of military use occurred each day.
In the 28 countries profiled in this report, at least 10 attacks on education occurred over the past 2 years.
In 1995, the parents of an Indian pupil brought a case against University of Natal because her application to medical school was rejected despite the satisfactory results she obtained in her qualifying examinations. They claimed that the admission process was discriminatory because it did not consider all the applications equally, but set higher admission standards for Indian students and lower ones for African students. The parents argued that this is as a violation of ‘equal access to educational institution’ provision of the constitution as well as sections 8(1) and 8 (2) in regard to ‘setting a discriminatory practice’. The Court agreed that while Indian community had been decidedly disadvantaged by the apartheid system, African pupils were even more so. Accordingly, the Court held that a selection system which compensated for this discrepancy does not violate the provisions of sections 8(1) and 8(2) of the Constitution.
Our 2021 Annual Report includes information about our strategy, our team and our supporters, and details activities and key achievements throughout the year.
Our work would not be possible without the generous support of our donors, to whom we are immensely grateful.
L’éducation est un droit humain fondamental en vertu du droit international. Alors que tout le monde devrait pouvoir s’en prévaloir, les migrants font face à de multiples obstacles dans l’exercice de leur droit à l’éducation. Dans le présent rapport, la Rapporteuse spéciale s’attache à comprendre ces obstacles et examine la situation, de facto et de jure, du droit à l’éducation des migrantes et des migrants dans le monde.
À l’issue de l’analyse des cadres juridiques internationaux et régionaux et de plus de 500 documents établis sur la question par des organisations non gouvernementales (ONG) et des organismes des Nations Unies, la Rapporteuse spéciale présente ses principales conclusions au regard du cadre des 4 A relatif au droit à l’éducation (adéquation des ressources, accessibilité, acceptabilité et adaptabilité), ainsi qu’au regard de questions transversales touchant l’identité. La Rapporteuse spéciale met en évidence les enjeux clés s’agissant de garantir le droit à l’éducation des migrantes et des migrants, notamment les capacités des établissements publics d’enseignement, et les difficultés rencontrées par les migrants pour accéder à des structures d’enseignement et à une éducation de qualité qui tiennent compte des besoins spécifiques des groupes de migrants.
Elle présente des grandes recommandations tendant à améliorer la protection du droit des migrants à l’éducation et à garantir la pleine jouissance par les migrants de ce droit par la mise en œuvre du cadre des 4 A en faveur du droit à l’éducation.
The present report is submitted to the General Assembly pursuant to Human Rights Council resolutions 8/4 and 44/3. In the report, the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Koumbou Boly Barry, considers early childhood care and education (ECCE) from a human rights-based perspective, reflecting the multisectoral needs of children and their caregivers.
ECCE combines the education and care requirements of children from birth to 8 years of age. The concept demonstrates that the right to education is indivisible from the rights to health, housing, food, water and sanitation, as well as cultural rights, among others. While the importance of ECCE has been widely recognized in humanitarian and developmental fields, it has been insufficiently codified in human rights law. The Special Rapporteur considers the human rights-based aspects of ECCE and recommends the creation of a human rights instrument on ECCE.