RES/15/4 The right to education: follow-up to Human Rights Council resolution 8/4

GE.A/HRC/14/25 and Corr.1 and Add.1-4. 0-16591

Human Rights Council Fifteenth session Agenda item 3 Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development

Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council*

15/4 The right to education: follow-up to Human Rights Council resolution 8/4

The Human Rights Council,

Reaffirming its resolutions on the right to education, particularly resolution 8/4 of 18 June 2008 and resolution 11/6 of 17 June 2009, and recalling the resolutions adopted by the Commission on Human Rights on the subject,

Reaffirming also the human right of everyone to education, which is enshrined in, inter alia, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and other relevant international instruments,

Mindful of recent significant developments and remaining challenges in the promotion and protection of economic, social and cultural rights, in particular the right to education, at the national, regional and international levels,

Deeply concerned that, on current trends, some key goals of the Education for All initiative agreed upon at the World Education Forum, held in Dakar in April 2000, will not be achieved by 2015, including the goal of universal primary education, despite progress made in recent years towards achieving such goals, and aware of the need to increase efforts in this regard at all levels,

* The resolutions and decisions adopted by the Human Rights Council will be contained in the report of

the Council on its fifteenth session (A/HRC/15/60), chap. I.

Deeply concerned also that, according to the 2010 Education For All Global Monitoring Report of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the global financial crisis could create a lost generation of children whose chances in life will have been irreparably damaged by a failure to protect their right to education,

Mindful of the role that the full realization of the right to education plays in helping to achieve the Millennium Development Goals,

Welcoming the “1Goal: Education for All”, a joint initiative of the Global Campaign For Education and Fédération internationale de football association, including the holding of the World Cup Education Summit in Pretoria in July 2010,

Bearing in mind the adoption by the General Assembly of resolution 64/290 of 9 July 2010, on the right to education in emergency situations,

Stressing the need for adequate financial resources so that everyone can realize his or her right to education, and the importance in this regard of national resource mobilization, as well as international cooperation,

1. Calls upon all States to take all measures to implement Council resolutions 8/4 and 11/6 with a view to ensuring the full realization of the right to education for all;

2. Takes note with appreciation of:

(a) The report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to education on the right to education of migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers1 and his interim report to the General Assembly;A/64/273.

(b) The work of the United Nations treaty bodies in the promotion of the right to education;

(c) The work undertaken by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in the promotion of the right to education at the country, regional and headquarters levels;

(d) The contribution of the United Nations Children’s Fund and of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization towards attaining the Millennium Development Goals of achieving universal primary education and eliminating gender disparity in education and the goals of the Education for All initiative, agreed upon at the World Education Forum;

(e) The work undertaken by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in ensuring access to education for refugees and asylum- seekers in accordance with its mandate and relevant provisions of international refugee law;

3. Urges all relevant stakeholders to increase their efforts so that the goals of the Education for All initiative can be achieved by 2015, by, inter alia, tackling persistent economic and social inequalities, including on the basis of such factors as income, gender, location, ethnicity, language and disability, and notes the role that good governance can play in this regard;

4. Encourages all States to ensure the right to education, an imperative in its own right, of migrants, refugees and asylum-seekers, as well as of internally displaced persons, including, in accordance with their international obligations, by making every effort:

(a) To eliminate discrimination against such persons in their access to all types and levels of education;

(b) To foster the successful integration of such persons into the regular school system;

(c) To develop educational strategies that address the specific educational needs of such persons, including women, children and persons with disabilities;

(d) To promote and facilitate the access of such persons to education of good quality;

(e) To remove barriers to the education of such persons, including language barriers, by, inter alia, ensuring that education systems promote tolerance and respect diversity, in particular religious and cultural diversity, respect and promote human rights and provide for the necessary flexibility concerning documentation requirements for the purpose of participation or registration in the education system;

(f) To promote research on the educational experience and needs of such persons, and to develop or improve mechanisms to monitor their learning outcomes;

(g) To promote the development of regional and international qualification systems;

(h) To promote the recruitment of teachers from relevant backgrounds;

(i) To support teachers and other personnel working with such persons, by, inter alia, promoting the integration of intercultural education into teacher training;

(j) To include in the training of teachers and other education staff training related to dealing with traumatized learners, particularly in refugee and internal displacement contexts, as well as psychosocial support and expert counselling to teachers, refugees, asylum-seekers and internally displaced persons;

(k) To promote the participation of migrants, refugees, asylum-seekers and internally displaced persons in the planning, design, implementation and evaluation of relevant policies and programmes;

(l) To share best practices concerning the education of migrants, refugees, asylum-seekers and internally displaced persons;

5. Urges States to comply with their obligations under international human rights, refugee and humanitarian law relating to refugees, asylum-seekers and displaced persons, and urges the international community to provide them with protection and assistance in an equitable manner and with due regard to their needs in different parts of the world, in keeping with principles of international solidarity, burden-sharing and international cooperation, to share responsibilities;

6. Urges all States to take all measures necessary to promote lifelong education and learning in both formal and informal settings, including human rights education and training;

7. Encourages the Office of the High Commissioner, the treaty bodies, the special procedures of the Council and other relevant United Nations bodies and mechanisms, specialized agencies or programmes, within their respective mandates, to continue their efforts to promote the realization of the right to education worldwide and to enhance their cooperation in this regard, and, in this connection, encourages the Special Rapporteur on the right to education to facilitate, including through the engagement with relevant stakeholders, the provision of technical assistance in the area of the right to education;

8. Decides to remain seized of the matter.

30th meeting 29 September 2010

[Adopted without a vote.]