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Privatisation in education in Haiti and the role of international donors

Wed, March 28, 5:00 to 6:30pm, Hilton Reforma, Floor: 2nd Floor, Don Diego 1 Section D

Proposal

Inter-state organisations can play an important role in shaping specific sectors of aid recipient countries, and therefore the realisation of human rights in these countries. As members of such organisations, States have an obligation to take all reasonable steps to ensure that the relevant organisation acts consistently with the international human rights obligations of that State. Yet, this obligation to act diligently within international organisations is often overlooked, with the risk of these organisations becoming human rights free entities, promoting and enforcing policies and programs violating human rights.

This phenomenon has become particularly problematic when reflecting on the role of private actors in education. While under human rights law, private actors can and should generally be allowed in education, the involvement of private schools should not undermine other aspects of the right to education and fundamental human rights principles, such as non-discrimination and non-segregation, or the humanistic aims of education. Yet, increasingly, some multilateral agencies have in the last years supported controversial privatisation in education projects and promoted change in education systems in a way that could seriously affect the realisation of the right to education and other human rights of millions of people for several generations.

Against this background, the report looks specifically at the role of France as a member of two inter-State organisations, the World Bank and the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), taking the example of the funding to private education in Haiti of these organisations. The report demonstrates that the World Bank and the GPE have contributed to violations of the right to education in Haiti, by further promoting privatisation in education in a non-human rights compliant way, and that France did not take the necessary steps to prevent this, thereby violating its obligations under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

This report builds on research led by the Sciences Po Human Rights Clinic, the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and Haitian and other organisations, concerning the impact of the privatised education system on the right to education in Haiti, which showed how this privatised education system as it has been encouraged by the authorities in the last years is a violation of the right to education.

References:

Regroupement Education pour Tous et Toutes, Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and others. (2016). Haïti: enseignement privatisé, droit à l’éducation bafoué.
http://bit.ly/1UcHrBt.

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