Joint Public Statement on UN Human Rights Council second resolution reaffirming recognition of the Abidjan Principles and calling for joint action between UN and GPE

GI-ESCR and 23 other partners co-signed a public statement welcoming the Human Rights Council’s resolution adopted by consensus on Monday 12 July and sponsored by 54 States. Through this resolution, the Human Rights Council reaffirms its recognition of the Abidjan Principles on the right to education and urges States to act against commercialisation of education, requesting the UN to work with the Global Partnership for Education to implement it. For GI-ESCR and partners , this new resolution is a major step forward for the right to free quality public education, ahead of the Global Education Summit on 28-29 July 2021.

This resolution is the second one adopted by the Human Rights Council that recognises the Abidjan Principles, after a previous one in 2019, adding to the similar recognition by all major global and regional human rights institutions and mandate-holders working on the right to education.

Crucially, the 2021 resolution of the Human Rights Council also encourages “the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to collaborate with relevant United Nations agencies, including UNESCO, the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), and civil society organizations to provide technical support to States to realize the right to education in the COVID-19 and post-COVID context”.

This recommendation will be critical to help governments integrate the right to education in their plan to build better education systems after the COVID-19 period. 

The connection between GPE, which is the main multilateral funding organisation for education, and human rights, is particularly important, the signatories highlight.

Collaboration between GPE, as a harmonised funding body, and UNESCO and OHCHR, as human rights and policy organisations, could be essential to ensure that human rights are translated from commitments to effective education programming. In particular, UNESCO recently designed a series of tools to support States in addressing the right to education in educational planning and management, which could help bridge this gap.

The signing organisations will be engaging with these institutions and are committed to working with them to support the practical use of the right to education in education sector planning and implementation, in accordance with the resolution.

SIGNATORIES

1. ActionAid International

2. Alliance Globale pour l’Education et de Développement - Niger

3. Amnesty International

4. Brazilian Campaign for the Right to Education

5. Center for African Studies of the University of Porto

6. Centre de Recherche et d’Action pour le Developpement (CRAD), Haiti

7. Civil Association for Equality and Justice (ACIJ)

8. CONAMEPT coalition de Madagascar

9. East African Centre for Human Rights

10. Education For All Sierra Leone Coalition (EFA-SL)

11. Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

12. Initiative for Social and Economic Rights (ISER)

13. Mouvement Ivoirien des Droits humains (MIDH)

14. National Coalition for Education (NCE), India

15. OMEP - Organisation Mondiale pour l'Éducation Préscolaire /World Organization for Early Childhood Education

16. Organisation pour la Démocratie, le Développement Economique et Social

17. Oxfam India

18. Oxfam International

19. Peoples Alliances in Central East (PACE) - India

20. Regroupement Education Pour Toutes et pour Tous (REPT), Haiti

21. Right to Education Forum (RTE Forum) - India

22. Right to Education Initiative

23. Solidarité Laïque

24. Syndicat National des Agents de la Formation et de l’Education du Niger