Putting the Convention into Practice: Ensuring Education for All

1. Jill Van den Brule-Balescut, UNESCO Paris Olof Sandkull, UNESCO Bangkok 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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

7. Defining the Right to Education* INSTRUMENTS YEAR REF • Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 Art. 26 • UNESCO Convention Against Discrimination in Education 1960 • International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of 1965 Art. 5 • Racial Discrimination • International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 1966 Art. 13 • ILO Convention on the Minimum Age for Employment 1973 Art. 7 • Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women 1979 Art. 10 • Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 Art. 28, 29 • Draft Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ? Art. 17 *The above are all legal-binding instruments

8. 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)

9. Some Key Articles • Article 26 of the UDHR • Article 13 of the ICESCR • Article 28, 29 of the CRC • Everyone has a right to education, based on the • principles of inclusion and non-discrimination • Primary education should be free and compulsory • Secondary education, including technical and vocational, should be available to all and made progressively free • parents have a right to decide on the education of their children

10. 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 personality ii) 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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 education • Identifying out-of-school children • ensuring inclusion of PWDs in society Through: • Partnerships & Interagency Cooperation (DPO’s ILO, WHO, OECD, World Bank, UNICEF, etc)

14. 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 WHO • Support to Regional Conferences (Bangkok, Oslo, Stavanger, Nairobi -- over 1000 professionals trained) • Dissemination of UNESCO publications • Cooperation with EENET on publication, networking • Cooperation with INEE on resource “Rebuilding for Inclusiveness” • …All aimed at promoting a rights based approach to education…

15. 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

16. Analytical Framework for the Right to, in and through Education

17. 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

18. A S I A – P A C I F I C What is a Rights-Based Approach to Education Programming? • Insists that a rights-based approach to education programming involves four key actors: • the government and its institutions, as duty-bearers • the child, as rights-holder • parents, as representatives of the child and as duty-bearers • 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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

25. 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?

26. Outline of a Rights-based Approach to Education Programming (cont.) • Analysis of capacity gaps – whose capacity, in what, needs to be developed to ensure this right? • Action – who has to do what to ensure this right? 5. Programme of cooperation – how can partnerships assist in this process?

27. 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

28. 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

29. 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

30. 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

31. … a constant process of system transformation to ensure that Education for All really is for ALL Assuring the right to education is…

32. 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