On 8 March 2018, to coincide with International Women’s Day, the Unesco GEM Report team held the worldwide launch of their 2018 Gender Review.
The main finding of the report is that only 44% of states have made a full, legal commitment, via international treaties, to achieving gender equality in education. The report also analyses the slow progress towards gender parity in education and how this can be addressed.
‘In the field of public education, the doctrine of "separate but equal" has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.'
In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court made the above declaration in the case of Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, and found that segregated schooling on the basis of race was unconstitutional. Nearly six decades later, the view remains equally significant in light of a different basis of segregation: that of children with disabilities.
In an open letter published today, 88 civil society organisations have urged investors to cease their support for the multi-national, for-profit chain of private schools Bridge International Academies (BIA), which runs over 500 schools in Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Uganda, and India.
The Right to Education Initiative will participate at the 62nd Annual Conference of the Comparative and International Education (CIES) that will take place in Mexico City from March 25-29.
On 6 October, 2017 Myanmar became the 165th State Party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Africa (Protocol) an instrument of the African Union, was adopted at the 30th Ordinary Session of the African Union Assembly, held in Addis Ababa on 30 January 2018.
On 5 February 2018, at the Graduate Institute, Geneva, academics and representatives from states, civil society organisations, UN offices, human rights treaty bodies, and the private sector gathered for the final in-person consultation on the draft Human rights guiding principles on state obligations with regards to private involvement in education (the Guiding Principles).
Joint statement - 7 February 2018
(Kampala, Nairobi, Dakar) Following the decision by the Government of Uganda to close Bridge International Academies in the country, after 18 months of investigation and court battles, civil society organisations are calling on the US-based company to comply with the government's decision and stop undermining the right to education.
Together with the Missions of Finland, France, and Portugal, NORRAG, the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, Amnesty International, the Equal Education Law Centre, the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Initiative for Economic and Social Rights, and the Right to Education Initiative, we invite you to join a consultation on Human rights guiding principles on state obligations with regards to private involvement in education, which will take place on Monday 5th February, 2018.
According to UNESCO, 264 million children and youth are still out of school around the world, and this is only accounting for the primary (61 million) and secondary school (203 million) age populat