The state discriminates in education when it introduces or fails to repeal discriminatory laws or policies, and when it fails to take measures "which address de facto educational discrimination".
The Right to Education
Everyone has the right to education.
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 26
The right to education is set forth in article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the ICESCR, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Each of these documents specifies that primary education must be "compulsory and available free to all." Secondary education, including vocational education, must be "available and accessible to every child," with the progressive introduction of free secondary education.[1] The Convention on the Rights of the Child further specifies that states must "make educational and vocational information and guidance available and accessible to all children" and "take measures to encourage regular attendance and the reduction of drop-out rates." [2]
The U.N. Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights has interpreted what is required to fulfill the right to education in a General Comment on article 13 of the ICESCR. [3] According to the committee, educational institutions must be both available in sufficient quantity and physically accessible, that is, "within safe physical reach, either by attendance at some reasonably convenient geographic location (e.g. a neighbourhood school) or via modern technology (e.g. access to a `distance learning' programme)." [4]
The state must provide education "on the basis of equal opportunity," "without discrimination of any kind irrespective of the child's race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status." [5]
The state discriminates in education when it introduces or fails to repeal discriminatory laws or policies, and when it fails to take measures "which address de facto educational discrimination." [6] The State must ensure that their legal systems provide "appropriate means of redress, or remedies, . . . to any aggrieved individual or groups," including judicial remedies. [7]
[1] Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 28(1); ICESCR, art. 13(2); see UDHR, art. 26(1).
[2] Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 28(1)(d), (e).
[3] General Comment 13, The Right to Education, Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, para. 6.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Convention on the Rights of the Child, arts. 28(1), 2(1).
[6] General Comment 13, The Right to Education, Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, para. 59.
[7] General Comment 9, The Domestic Application of the Covenant, Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 19th sess., U.N. Doc. E/C.12/1998/24 (December 3, 1998), paras. 2, 9. See also, General Comment 3, The Nature of States Parties Obligations, Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, para. 5.
