Putting the Convention into Practice: Ensuring Education for All

Rights-based Approach to Education Programming

6th Ad Hoc Committee Session, UN HQ, New York, 5 August 2005

Jill Van den Brule-Balescut, UNESCO ParisOlof Sandkull, UNESCO Bangkok

Our Collective Role

The purpose of this Convention is to:

“…provide a building block for the development of truly inclusive societies, in which the voices of all are heard, including persons with disabilities.”

Secretary-General Kofi Annan

Defining Inclusive Education

APPROACH: Inclusive education is defined by UNESCO as a process of addressing and responding to the diverse needs of all learners by increasing participation in learning and reducing exclusion within and from education.

At the core of inclusive education is the right to education

OBJECTIVE: To support education for all, with special emphasis on removing barriers to participation and learning for girls and women, disadvantaged groups, children with disabilities and out-of-school children

GOAL: A school where all children are participating and treated equally

Defining Inclusive Education (cont’d)

Concerned with providing appropriate responses to the broad spectrum of learning needs

Is not a marginal theme on how some learners can be integrated into the mainstream education system, but an approach that looks into how to transform the system so it will respond to the diversity of all learners

Involves changes and modifications in content, structures, processes, policies and strategies

The principle of inclusive education was adopted at the Salamanca World Conference on Special Needs Education in Spain, 1994.

The Right to Education

Education is a human right and a means of achieving other rights

A minimum education is necessary to exercise civil, political and economic rights

Education is an empowerment right and the primary vehicle for human, economic and social development, benefiting both the individual and society at large.

Education as Empowerment

• Education has proven to have a positive impact on economic development at both the individual and societal levels

• Education also has a demonstrated capacity to impact social development, through, for instance, increased health

• Finally, more and more education is seen as a central process to the building of social capital and social cohesion

Defining the Right to Education*

INSTRUMENTS YEAR REF

Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 Art. 26UNESCO Convention Against Discrimination in Education 1960 International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of 1965 Art. 5 Racial DiscriminationInternational Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 1966 Art. 13ILO Convention on the Minimum Age for Employment 1973 Art. 7Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women 1979 Art. 10Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 Art. 28, 29Draft Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ? Art. 17

*The above are all legal-binding instruments

Framing the International Community’s Commitment to

the Right to Education -codified in the international human rights instruments (above) and in action-oriented statements and frameworks which comprise the EFA movement:

The World Declaration for Education for All (1990)The Standard Rules on the Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons with Disability (1993)The Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action (1994)The Dakar Framework for Action (2000)

Some Key Articles

Article 26 of the UDHRArticle 13 of the ICESCRArticle 28, 29 of the CRC

Everyone has a right to education, based on the principles of inclusion and non-discriminationPrimary education should be free and compulsorySecondary education, including technical and vocational, should be available to all and made progressively freeparents have a right to decide on the education of their children

The Aims of Education

The combined provisions of Article 26.2 of the UDHR, article 13 of the ICESCR and Article 29 of the CRC underline that:

Education shall aim to:i) Develop each individual’s personalityii) Develop the respect for human rights and fundamental

freedoms […]iii) Prepare all persons to participate effectively in a free

society, in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance and equality of sexes

iv) Develop respect for the natural environment

The Right to Quality Education

The EFA Movement and Dakar Framework for Action (2000) reaffirm education as a fundamental human right and highlight the issue of quality by stating the need to improve “all aspects of the quality of education”

Improve quality in terms of:

-learning environment-teaching and learning processes-teaching and learning materials-learning outputs

The International Community’s Pledge

The present situation:an estimated 140 million children out of school

a large majority are children with disabilities and girls

The international community is committed to free and compulsory primary education for all children by 2015

Over 70 countries are completely off target for achieving the EFA goals

What Strategies to Adopt?

If the EFA goals are to be reached, there is a need to find effective means of providing education to all children by forging a common voice and understanding on:

achieving the right to educationIdentifying out-of-school childrenensuring inclusion of PWDs in society

Through:

Partnerships & Interagency Cooperation (DPO’s ILO, WHO, OECD, World Bank, UNICEF, etc)

UNESCO Global Activities

Development of Policy Guidelines on Inclusion “Ensuring Access to Education for All”Elaboration of flexible teaching curricula “Changing Teaching Practices”“Flagship on the Right to Education: Towards Inclusion”Joint Position Paper on CBR with ILO and WHOSupport to Regional Conferences (Bangkok, Oslo, Stavanger, Nairobi -- over 1000 professionals trained)Dissemination of UNESCO publicationsCooperation with EENET on publication, networkingCooperation with INEE on resource “Rebuilding for Inclusiveness”…All aimed at promoting a rights based approach to education…

The UN Secretary-General’s Reform

Programme “ As the Secretary-General of the

United Nations I have made human rights a priority in every programme the United Nations launches and in every mission we embark on. I have done so because the promotion and defence of human rights is at the heart of every aspect of our work and every article of our Charter” -Kofi Annan

Analytical Framework for the Right to, in and through

Education

What is a Rights-based Approach to Education

Programming? Ensures that all

development activities further the realisation of the right to education

Is built on human right principles: participation,

accountability, empowerment, inclusion and non-discrimination

Encompasses the importance of quality and relevance of education, as defined in the Dakar Framework for Action

What is a Rights-Based Approach to Education

Programming?

A S I A – P A C I F I C

Insists that a rights-based approach to education programming involves four key actors:1. the government and its institutions, as duty-

bearers2. the child, as rights-holder3. parents, as representatives of the child and as

duty-bearers4. teachers, as both rights-holders and duty-

bearers

Insists that no right can exist without a corresponding governmental obligation to respect, protect, and fulfil the right to

education

Builds on the Manual on Rights-Based Education developed by UNESCO Bangkok and the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education

Manual on Rights-Based Education:

Global Human Rights Requirements made Simple

Objectives:

to translate globally accepted human rights standards into guidelines for national education strategies

to serve as a reference tool for policy-makers and practitioners

Main characteristics:

• is based on international human rights law

• lists and describes the conventions related to the education sector

• highlights how these conventions and treaties can be translated to education practice at the micro level such as:Minimum age for

employment and marriage

Main characteristics: (cont.)

• points out key human rights questions that need to be addressed at the macro level such as: how to mainstream human rights in education? all-inclusive education or separate schools?

• avoiding inequalities and discrimination• ensuring equal quality standards

• uses country examples from Asia and the Pacific to highlight links between human rights and education

• presents the government obligations in a 4-A scheme to make education:

Available, Accessible, Acceptable, Adaptable

Governmental Obligations Relevant to Education in a

4-A Scheme Availability

• the right to free and compulsory education to all school-age children up to minimum age of employment

• the right to the establishment of schools• respect parental freedom to choose education

for their children

Accessibility• progressively expanded access to post-

compulsory education as circumstances permit• elimination of exclusion from education based

on internationally prohibited grounds of discrimination

• eliminate gender and racial discrimination in education

Governmental Obligations Relevant to Education in a 4-

A Scheme (cont.)Acceptability

• to set minimum standards for the learning materials, methods of instruction, school discipline, health and safety, and professional requirements for teachers

• to improve the quality of education by ensuring that the entire education system conforms to all human rights standards

Governmental Obligations Relevant to Education in a 4-

A Scheme (cont.)Adaptability

• to design and implement education opportunities for children excluded from formal schooling

• adapt the education system to the best interests of each child, especially those from disadvantaged groups

• to apply the principle of indivisibility as guidance to advance human rights through education

Outline of a Rights-based Approach to Education

Programming

1. Causality analysis – what rights are violated and why? Who is not getting educated – where are they, and why are they excluded?

2. Assessment of roles/patterns – who should do what to protect and fulfil the right to education?

Outline of a Rights-based Approach to Education Programming (cont.)

3. Analysis of capacity gaps – whose capacity, in what, needs to be developed to ensure this right?

4. Action – who has to do what to ensure this right?

5. Programme of cooperation – how can partnerships assist in this process?

The Vision: a rights-based and inclusive

school…1. is a child-seeking school

• actively identifying excluded children to get them enrolled in school and included in learning

• promoting and helping to monitor the rights and well-being of ALL children in the community

2. is a child-centred school• acting in the best interests of the child• leading to the realisation of the child’s full

potential• concerned about the “whole” child: health,

nutritional status, and well-being• concerned about what happens to children before

they enter school and after they leave school

The Vision: a rights-based and inclusive

school…

3. has an environment of good quality• effective with

children• healthy and

protective for children

• gender-responsive• encouraging the

participation of children, families and communities

• inclusive of all children

Toolkit for Creating Inclusive, Learning-Friendly Environments The Toolkit offers a

holistic, practical perspective and means of how schools and classrooms can become more inclusive, learning-friendly and gender-sensitive.

The Toolkit is intended to be used primarily by teachers, school administrators and in teacher training

Conclusions:

Some questions, new and old, are put in focus and get higher priority:

• Gives an universal value-base• Broadens the situation

analysis • Extends our understanding

of education: content and processes of learning

• Provides a holistic view of management and planning of education

• Supports accountable systems of legislation and institutions

• Stresses the importance of participation of all actors

• Focuses on the groups excluded from learning opportunities

Assuring the right to education is…

… a constant process of system transformation to ensure that Education for All really is for ALL

Thank you for your attention!

Our contact details: Jill Van den Brule-Balescut UNESCO Paris E-mail: j.balescut@unesco.org Website: www.unesco/education/inclusive

Olof Sandkull UNESCO Bangkok E-mail: o.sandkull@unescobkk.org Website: www.unescobkk.org/IE