RES/17/3 The right to education: follow-up to Human Rights Council resolution 8/4

GE.11-14506

Human Rights Council Seventeenth 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∗

17/3 The right to education: follow-up to Human Rights Council resolution 8/4

The Human Rights Council,

Reaffirming Human Rights Council resolutions on the right to education, particularly resolutions 8/4 of 18 June 2008, 11/6 of 17 June 2009 and 15/4 of 29 September 2010, 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,

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

Bearing in mind also the adoption by the Human Rights Council of the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Education and Training through its resolution 16/1 of 23 March 2011,

Deeply concerned that, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, although there has been progress in many areas, the world is not on track to achieve the Education for All targets set for 2015 and most of the goals will be missed by a wide margin,

∗ The resolutions and decisions adopted by the Human Rights Council will be contained in the report of the Council on its seventeenth session (A/HRC/17/2), chap. I.

Mindful of the role that the full realization of the right to education plays in helping to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, and noting in this regard the commitments relating to education contained in the outcome document of the High-level Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly on the Millennium Development Goals,1

Recalling Human Rights Council resolutions 5/1, on institution-building of the Council, and 5/2, on the code of conduct for special procedures mandate holders of the Council, of 18 June 2007, and stressing that the mandate holder shall discharge his duties in accordance with those resolutions and the annexes thereto,

1. Calls upon all States to take all measures to implement Human Rights Council resolutions 8/4, 11/6 and 15/4 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 promotion of equality of opportunity in education;A/HRC/17/29 and Corr.1.

(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, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and other relevant bodies 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 agenda;

3. Urges all relevant stakeholders to increase their efforts so that the goals of the Education for All agenda 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. Urges all States to give full effect to the right to education by, inter alia, promoting equality of opportunity in education in accordance with their human rights obligations, including by:

(a) Ensuring adequate legal protection of the right to education and its equal enjoyment;

(b) Addressing multiple forms of inequality and discrimination in education through comprehensive policies;

(c) Ensuring adequate resource allocation, including through the identification and implementation of innovative financing mechanisms;

(d) Supporting national mechanisms that promote the realization of the right to education, such as national human rights institutions;

(e) Increasing efforts to achieve the goals of the Education for All agenda and the commitments relating to education contained in the Millennium Development Goals and their review process, with a human rights-based approach;

(f) Promoting a coordinated approach when considering follow-up to the concluding observations adopted by the United Nations human rights treaty bodies, the recommendations formulated by the special procedures and recommendations accepted within the universal periodic review process;

(g) Integrating a gender perspective in all policies and programmes relating to education with a view to eliminate gender disparities at all levels of education;

5. Reaffirms the need for adequate financial resources so that everyone can realize their right to education and the importance in this regard of national resource mobilization and international cooperation;

6. Decides to extend the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the right to education for a period of three years;

7. Requests the Special Rapporteur to take fully into account, in the discharge of his mandate, all provisions of Human Rights Council resolutions on the right to education;

8. Requests all States to continue to cooperate with the Special Rapporteur with a view to facilitating his tasks in the discharge of his mandate, and to respond favourably to his requests for information and visits;

9. Requests the Secretary-General and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to provide all the human and financial resources necessary for the effective fulfilment of the mandate by the Special Rapporteur;

10. Encourages the Office of the High Commissioner, the treaty bodies, the special procedures of the Human Rights 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 to facilitate, including through engagement with relevant stakeholders, the provision of technical assistance in the area of the right to education;

11. Stresses the importance of the contribution of non-governmental and civil society organizations to the realization of the right to education, including by cooperating with the Special Rapporteur;

12. Decides to remain seized of the matter.

33rd meeting 16 June 2011

[Adopted without a vote.]