States’ obligations under international human rights law and examples of implementation in Francophone states

• In Event: Privatisation of Education in Francophone Countries: A Separate Case?

Proposal

States have obligations under international law to guarantee and implement the right to education at national level, which contains both a ‘social-equality’ dimension and a ‘freedom’ dimension. On one hand, international law guarantees the right to education of everyone on the basis of the principles of equality and non-discrimination, requiring States to adopt measures to ensure its full realisation. On the other hand, it recognises the liberty of private actors to establish and direct educational institutions, in connection with the liberty of parents to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions - which includes the liberty to choose for their children schools other than public schools. The challenge is then to find the right balance between educational freedom and the necessity to guarantee the social-equality dimension of the right to education.

However, the growing involvement of private actors in education in the recent years have raised particular concerns, leading to violations of the right to education as highlighted by human rights experts, including UN treaty bodies and the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education. Together with the Human Rights Council they have called for better regulation and monitoring of the private actors in education and urged to stop the commercialisation of education

This paper will present the human rights principles applicable in the context of the privatisation of education with concrete examples of regulations and monitoring from Francophone countries that will allow to understand better the challenges governments can face to address the privatisation issue but also practical solutions they have implemented to ensure the respect of the right to education in its all dimensions.

References:

Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Right to Education and privatisation: http://globalinitiative-escr.org/advocacy/privatization-in-education-research-initiative/

Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. (2016).CRC, CESCR and CEDAW statements on private education, September 2014 – March 2016, 2016: http://bit.ly/1SP0Ckr

Right to Education Initiative. Privatisation of education: http://www.right-to-education.org/issue-page/privatisation-education

Right to Education Initiative. (2015). Digest of Observations and Recommendations of Treaty Bodies on the Role of Private Actors and the Right to Education (2000-2015): http://ow.ly/REF2z

Right to Education Initiative and others (2015).Landmark UN Resolution Urges States to Monitor and Regulate Private Education Providers. http://bit.ly/1UFmG3T

Right to Education Initiative and others (2016). Historic UN Resolution Urges States to Regulate Education Providers and Support Public Education. http://bit.ly/29COvem

Right to Education Initiative and others (2017). New UN resolution once again urges states to take action on the commercialisation of education: http://bit.ly/2rWYqpC

Sing, K. (2014). State responsibility in the face of the explosive growth of private education providers, from a right to education perspective: http://ow.ly/RE06u

Singh, K. (2015). Protecting the right to education against commercialization: http://bit.ly/1PTZFoE

Singh, K. (2015)., Public-Private Partnerships in Education and the Right to Education: A/70/342: http://bit.ly/23KgOfi

Author

• Koumbou Boly Barry, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education