The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has again raised significant concerns regarding the United Kingdom's approach to international development assistance, particularly highlighting its support for private, for-profit education initiatives. In its recent concluding observations released in March 2025, the Committee underscored the urgent need for robust mechanisms to assess and mitigate the human rights impacts of the UK's overseas aid projects. Together with our partners, the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights submitted evidence to CESCR, highlighting how UK aid continues to support commercial private schools despite clear warnings and serious concerns raised by reports from the UK Parliament and international investigations.

Camila Barretto Maia, our Acting Executive Director, welcomed the Committee’s concluding observations, stating: 'We welcome CESCR’s Concluding Observations which reaffirm a crucial principle: public funds must be directed towards strengthening free, quality public services, including education, which is essential to upholding human rights for all. We equally welcome the Committee’s groundbreaking recommendation on the importance of establishing public registries of assets to combat illicit flows and tax evasion, which enormously impact the ability of other States to mobilize resources for economic, social and cultural rights.’

Here's the press release:

9 Years After, UN Human Rights Committee Reiterates Its Concerns about the UK’s Financial Support to Private For-Profit, Low-Cost Private Education Project

This March 2025, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights released its concluding observations regarding the UK’s implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. They include specific recommendations regarding both the UK’s official development assistance (ODA) in the field of education and  tax policies which hinder the ability of States to mobilize the maximum available resources for the implementation of Covenant rights, including the right to education. 

The Committee expresses concerns about ‘the lack of effective mechanisms to assess the impact of operations funded by development assistance institutions on the enjoyment of Covenant rights. In this regard, the Committee is particularly concerned about funding provided by British International Investments for private, for-profit (...) low-cost private education projects, which have attracted strong criticism for their negative impact on Covenant rights in recipient countries.’ 

The Committee urges the UK to:

• Strengthen the measures designed to analyse the impact that operations funded by development assistance institutions have on the enjoyment of Covenant rights in recipient countries, in particular the rights (...)[such as] education prior to their decisions;
• Establish a regular monitoring mechanism to assess the human rights impact of policies and projects in recipient countries and take preventive or corrective actions where necessary;
• Ensure that its official development assistance programmes prioritise supporting recipient countries in meeting their obligations under the Covenant, especially in guaranteeing everyone access to free, quality, primary and secondary education and high quality (...).

The Committee also recommends the UK to:

• Strengthen efforts to combat illicit financial flows, tax evasion, and fraud, particularly by wealthy individuals and businesses, by establishing public registries of companies and trusts with mandatory due diligence, thereby supporting international initiatives to that effect and helping other States mobilize resources for realizing economic, social, and cultural rights;
• Prevent and punish the use of shell companies for profit-shifting, tax evasion and fraud by strengthening its legal framework and reinforcing whistle-blowers protection measures;
• Conduct an independent, participatory impact assessment of the extra-territorial effects of its financial secrecy and corporate tax policies on the economies of developing countries. 

The publication of these concluding observations closes a review process started in May 2022 with the submission of a report by the UK describing how they have been implementing economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to education. In January 2023, our organisations* at global and national level submitted an alternative report to the UN Committee sharing our concerns and evidence about the UK’s financial support to for-profit / commercial private schools through its official development aid and about its corporate tax policies and its impacts on the right to education. The UN Committee took it into consideration and, in March 2023, when issuing a list of questions to the UK government asking for more information, included one specifically related to the UK international development cooperation in the area of education**. The UK did not respond to this question in its second report submitted to the Committee in October 2024. We therefore submitted a second report in  November 2024, providing updated information, including:

• The major concerns raised by the International Development Committee of the UK Parliament about the UK’s investments as part of Overseas Development Aid
• The UK’s non-response following findings from investigations by the International Finance Corporation (IFC)’s Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO)
• Detailed update on the UK’s investments in fee-charging private education

In 2016, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights had already concluded that the UK’s financial support to low-cost private education in developing countries was in contravention of human rights.

Delphine Dorsi, Director at the Right to Education Initiative stated: ‘This is a major victory for all actors mobilising across the world to protect the right to education for all. It shows the consistency of UN experts regarding the serious threat of the privatisation of education and the need to address this issue from a human rights perspective. It is also a great example of the usefulness of UN human rights mechanisms to advance the realisation of the right to education.’

Kitty Arie, CEO at Results UK stressed: ‘The Committee's excellent report underlines the need for the UK Government to increase funding for effective education programmes that support human rights, and that means publishing a route back to spending 0.7% of our Gross National Income on Official Development Assistance as soon as possible. It also shows clearly why the UK must move towards more equitable funding for education and all the Sustainable Development Goals, including closing the tax loopholes that deprive Global South countries of fiscal space to do so - an area where the UK has an outsized global role’.

Anderson Miamen, National Coordinator at Coalition for Transparency and Accountability in Education, reacted from Liberia: ‘These recommendations are highly welcomed. Evidence has shown the detrimental impact on the right to education in Liberia by for-profit companies receiving UK aid. It shows the gaps in due diligence and oversight in development financing, which UK and other governments must urgently address to ensure that their support positively impacts the rights holders. We call for greater transparency and due diligence for the UK Government in its development assistance.’

Joanne O’Neill, Head of Advocacy, ActionAid UK, emphasised ‘We welcome the Committee's recommendation for the UK government to support initiatives against illicit financial flows and tax abuse. However, as one of the biggest facilitators of the nearly $492 billion lost to global tax abuse each year, the UK must do more than acknowledge the problem—it must take action. Instead of blocking progress on a UN Tax Convention, the UK should support this vital process, which could unlock crucial resources for education, healthcare, and other public services that are vital in fulfilling the rights of women, men and children worldwide. This could not be more urgent, particularly in light of the recent cuts to the UK’s ODA budget."

Camila Barretto Maia, Acting Executive Director at the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR), stated: ‘We welcome CESCR’s Concluding Observations which reaffirm a crucial principle: public funds must be directed towards strengthening free, quality public services, including  education, which is essential to upholding human rights for all. We equally welcome the Committee’s groundbreaking recommendation on the importance of establishing public registries of assets to combat illicit flows and tax evasion, which enormously impact the ability of other States to mobilize resources for economic, social and cultural rights.’

We will now monitor the impact and implementation of these concluding observations at national level and will engage with the UK’s government as part of this process. 

CONTACTS

●    Delphine Dorsi, Right to Education Initiative: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 
●    Joanne O’Neill, Head of Advocacy, ActionAid UK: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

*ActionAid, Coalition for Transparency and Accountability in Education (Liberia), East African Centre for Human Rights (EACHRights, Kenya), Eurodad, Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Global Justice Now, Initiative for Economic and Social Rights (ISER, Uganda), Oxfam GB, RESULTS UK, Right to Education Initiative, World Organization for Early Childhood Education-OMEP.

**Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, E/C.12/GBR/Q/7, paragraph 4: ‘(...). In the light of the information on international development cooperation in the report of the State party, please provide information on the findings of the social and human rights assessments conducted in the implementation of programmes and projects in the field of education services abroad and how those findings have contributed to ensuring transparency and accountability for non-State providers of education services, including low-cost private schools. Please provide information on the measures taken to establish an effective monitoring mechanism to regularly assess the impact of low-cost and private education projects on the quality of free public education in receiving countries and to take remedial action, when required.’