The Abidjan Principles, adopted on 13 February 2019 following a three-year long consultative process involving a diverse range of stakeholders and constituents, saw their fifth anniversary marked on 13 February 2024 in an online interactive dialogue.
Since their adoption, the Abidjan Principles have established themselves as an authoritative reference text on the right to education in the succeeding years. They have been recognised by multiple legal institutions and human rights bodies, including the United Nations Human Rights Council 2019, 2021 and 2023, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights’ General Comment 7, the United Nations Human Rights Council, and by Farida Shaheed, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education.
The Abidjan Principles have had an immense impact since their adoption, yet given the global context of the massive expansion of private and for-profit education, they will have a significant role in shaping understanding and implementation of the right to free, quality and inclusive public education, and the regulation of private actors.
A broad range of education stakeholders participated in this event, reflecting on advances and challenges with regards to the realisation of the right to education today.
SPEAKERS:
– Dr. Frank Adamson | California State University
– Solomon Derrso | African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights
– Sandy Fredman | Oxford University; Pembroke College
– Dr. David Giband | Université de Perpignan
– Dr. Priyadarshani Joshi | Global Education Monitoring Report
– Mudford Zachariah Mwandenga | African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights
– Javier Palummo | Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
– Karuna Parajuli | International Commission of Jurists Nepal
– Farida Shaheed | UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education
– Johnstone Shishanya | East African Centre for Human Rights
– Dr. Ann Skelton | University of Pretoria; UN Committee on the Rights of the Child; UNESCO
– Dr. Prachi Srivastava | University of Western Ontario
We’re developing a contact of growing privatization and commercialization of education. So they really came in in a very in the exact moment when they were needed. They aim to clarify the scope and content of the human rights obligations regarding the right to education. And they impact and give guidance to states.
In order for them to comply with their obligation under the right to education. They specify the obligations regarding, regarding, free, quality, inclusive public education. There obligations to effectively regulate private involvement in education. And fund free quality inclusive public education systems.
The, principles were developed by a group of global education and human rights experts like Yoshua and myself in those lists that we were very pleased.
And it follow a 3 year consultative process with decision makers, communities, and practitioners. They’re quite unique because they were the result of transparent and a very broad consultative process.
At the regional and the global level and this consultation take place in many countries around the world. They were a lot of background paper commissioner that developed the content of some parties and sections of the principles.
The drafting was led by a team of 9 drafting committee members and adopted by very prominent signatories. And that some of them were press and, at the moment of the adoption and some has endorsed the principal later. Joshua.
Thank you for that. Now colleagues, we have a super exciting program with a lot of different speakers. Here, but I feel it’s not just Anglophone apologies for that, but essentially we also have translation in French and Spanish.
And of course, as is typical with these events, it will be recorded for a number of people who perhaps can’t attend this particular time.
So we don’t want to be time zone centric on this so it will be recorded. Unfortunately because of the wealth of speakers that we have we won’t have time for direct question answers but you could write them in.
You could send them in and we would try and engage with that. As you will already have experience from the start of this webinar and thank you for the fantastic work.
Emily, you will see that the bios pop up in the chat as we speak. Because we want to minimize the protocols on this and hear from the experts.
So with that in, let me just turn straight away to ask the first question. Essentially the questions have been framed and and I’m going to call on you first if I may since of course we’ve been chair of the, the Aujan Principles Drafting Committee and such an inspiration throughout the process.
Let me maybe call on you and ask you really in your role as chair of the UN Committee on Rights the Child. What do you think? Have been the main principles and I’m going to apologize to you and others in advance that you will be given 3 min.
I’m afraid because we want to get the program through and hear from as many voices but a real pleasure to have you and over to you.
Hello Joshua and greetings to everyone. It’s absolute pleasure to be part of this celebration and another opportunity to mark the fact that the Abidjan principles were adopted in 2,019 and each year I think we have reflected back on how how are we doing how are those principles making in impact so something that I’ve noticed in the last year was that there are increasing calls.
To strengthen the legal frameworks for the right to public education. There are new discourses happening. There are new players in the field. UNESCO has been stepping up and there’s really a lot of talk about how do we balance the fact that yes the right to public education is already there.
In the international law frameworks. And that is what the Abidjan Principles says. It gathered all of that international law and says, Here it is, it’s there, it’s clear. And we need to regulate private education in order to ensure that we bolster and strengthen. The right to public education.
And so more and more voices are are being added. I find and I think that this may. Indicate that the Abidjan principals started conversations that has drawn in more players that has refocused the interest and energy around
The fact that it’s an important moment to transform education for all the reasons that we know. For the fact that we learned a lot during the COVID pandemic, the for the fact that we know we are on the verge of a an AI explosion which is going to also require us to make adjustments.
But Within all of that, let us not lose the sight of who bears the responsibility. For providing public education. And, and I think that that is what the Abidjan principles really helped to do because they spell out in very clear terms what the states obligations are.
And that the state should not allow itself to become distracted by all the offerings of private education and should ensure that the private sector. His involvement in education is regulated in a way that doesn’t Take the emphasis away. On the importance of the right to public education.
I think that’s probably about my 3 min with Joshua so I’ll hand back to you. Packed with richness as well and thank you very much for that and the leadership role that you play in holding states to the fire, feet desire in that in posting in a sense the principle of public education.
So thank you if I may call on you next. In a vision collective statement, numerous organizations and individuals are now reclaiming public education for all. Could you perhaps elaborate on the necessity for such a call? I mean, why is this so important right now?
And really, what are the primary action points that you’ve outlined in that statement and how do they align with the Abbajan principles? Over to you, Frank. Thanks. Greetings, colleagues. It’s great to see everyone. On this fifth anniversary. That was quite a half decade. We are, we’re living in a precarious time.
Countries around the world are facing autocratic movements, corporations in the private sector have increasing power. We’ve got multiple military crises and we’ve got the looming environmental crisis. Of climate change. That’s a lot. How should we respond? And the statement explains the importance of public education.
Hi, Splain to public education creates the public. And that we need to reclaim and strengthen to collectively face the challenges of today in our future.
So in terms of what the statement actually does and what the average on principles have to do with the statement, the statement addresses both research on how public education does work. And the difficulties facing the decades long endeavor of public education. Includes with 5 action points.
First, prioritize the public. Specifically, the average on principles prioritized the preservation of quality, public, inclusive, free education for all. In guiding principles, 17 and 29 to 31. And then we need to secondly robustly fund public education.
This doesn’t work without money. And that includes a minimum of 6% of GDP. And 20% of public expenditure. And guiding principle 15 specifies that states must allocate the maximum of their available resources. Towards ensuring free quality education and then they need to continuously improve it.
Number 3, we need to stop funding education privatization. States, development finance institutions, investors, funders, intermediaries should ensure their funding is not going to support private and particularly commercial and for-profit education.
Public funds should exclusively fund public education. And guiding principle 37 states that even in the state situation of limited resources states have to prioritize the continued provision of quality public education.
So action point number 4, we need to regulate and enforce regulations of private actors. All of the guiding principles and overarching principle 4 present specifically what states must do including the adoption and enforcement of effective regulatory measures towards private actors involved in the provision of education.
To realize the education there to ensure the realization of the right to education. 5, we need a narrative change. We need to change the narrative that highlights the successes of public education. Public education works when it receives sustainable support from states.
And the public supports public education around the world. So the statement combines all of these points. And you can see that they map very well into the average on principles. I’ll conclude here.
Brilliant, Frank. Sucksinked and very clear. Thank you for that. Now, colleagues, we were going to hear from Farida Shahid and who’s done a visit to Finland as well.
And you might want to look at the report that she’s done. I’m not sure if it’s free out yet, but Farida couldn’t be here for unforeseen first circumstances, but we have the research of brilliant research appraisal.
Perhaps you’re maybe maybe I call call upon you next. Maybe you can tell us in the context of the work that you’re doing. The salience that the Abidjan principles have. I think the question is about public education and and and and how it’s relevant to our lives, our world.
And I think I would go back to first principles actually. The ABJAN principles are based on a regulatory institutional frameworks. There but all of these are you know values based what is it that we actually value as a global society and and within our own within our own domestic.
Context and for that it’s important to understand that when we’re driving towards an inclusive public education system, there are 3 main things that we want to see. The first is access. The second is inclusion and the third is quality. And I don’t say this in any ordered terms.
Because they are all inter linked. Without access and inclusion, you cannot have quality. Without the other 2, you cannot have each other.
They’re all interlinked. And what I think the principals try to do is to show in very concerted ways how these are obligations on states, but also to call on the public on the community to demand those those essential functions of society.
To provide governments. And institutions and the community with a touchstone to demand those rights. It is not enough for these to be on paper.
They must be enacted. And if we go back to basic education, public basic public education, I would like to end with just 2 main points, which is that the family and schools are the 2 most fundamental institutions in the lives of children and young people.
And without having sustainable broad ranging access, support, and inclusion for all groups, we cannot realize global. Social progress. So without this in a sustainable way. To demand that we have that in a sustainable way.
Putting in resources, but actually looking at places where there are. Persistent gaps where there are persistent areas of discrimination. This is where the Abidjan principles can actually help to bring our global focus back on to the the primacy of public education.
Thank you, Brachy. Very, very clear. So colleagues who are joining us late, most you’re most welcome. Thank you for joining us for this celebration of the fifth anniversary. We’ve heard from Anne Skeleton, we’ve heard from Frank and now we’ve heard from Raji.
If I may just go back to you and to close off this section before Mark Dalena talks a little bit more about the trend of privatization and runs the next. Question there. Could I maybe just ask you what kind of concrete steps could you identify that states need to take?
In terms of your role on CRC for instance. What concrete steps to you, I expect of them. Well, I really do think that we can try to ensure that. In treaty bodies like the committee on the rights of the child.
And others such as the CRPD committee and I Cisco. And we. Can also be briefed by civil society to ask the questions of states that are not regulating and not not aware of the Abuja principles and we can direct them towards the Abuja principle so that’s one role that treaty bodies can play.
And special rapporteurs obviously also do already. I mean, I think the special laptop on education, and this is clearly on her radar and she does do this already. But I think for treaty bodies it might be a little less obvious and sometimes we need to have this information brought to our attention.
And because, you know, we need to know all the detail about what’s happening at the country. And there’s a there’s an open process for that information to reach us. So just looking at it from my vantage point, I’m answering really with my committee on rights of the child hat on.
I think that there’s there’s work to be done using the principles that could feed directly into those processes and I would say the UPR process is another key space where we could be doing this work.
And so, so really the human rights frame framework within the office of the and the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Human Rights Council. These are all sites where this work can be taken forward and and is to some extent but there’s always room for strengthening I think.
Always room for strengthening and indeed. Now, how does this sit with you in terms of where we’ve got to before we start exploring privatization because again this is the call from the treaty bodies in a sense also to civil society and how we can engage through the UPR and through the various committees and the mandate holders and of course you’ve been a mad date holder yourself.
Any comments to close this section off before we call on some of the others to talk about privateization as it train.
I think there’s a vital role and I think that we’re going to explore that later today in this session, but These principles that been adopted outside an inter-governmental process have had already an enormous impact. With, you entreaty bodies with Monday holder, and also with other, with other regions.
So we are very lucky to have today actually representative of Economic Social and Cultural Rights monitoring bodies.
From the inter American system and also the African Commission on humans and people’s rights that can also speak and answer these questions on the way in which It has the principles have had influence within their work.
Thanks, Mark. So, Colin, you’ve heard about the notion of public education a lot now in this opening section. You think, well, you know, what’s the problem? We have public education. Why are we worrying about this?
But there has been a trend. Of privatisation and we’d like to maybe explore that a little bit more about this trend. Of privatization and commercialization and the challenges that exist in I guess combating or somehow addressing or restricting the reach of these challenges.
So maybe if I can call on Priya, Priya, Joseph, we are following the 2021 32 report on non-stage actors in education.
The 2,023 GEM report examines the theme of technology in education and of course this is the key site now and it’s an area where a high-end growing number of private actors are involved.
Particularly since the COVID pandemic. And of it, yeah, 2,019. Could you maybe just highlight some of these finding against recommendations for our audience here today? Congratulations on the fifth year of this landmark process and thank you very much for the opportunity to speak from the Gem Report perspective.
As you noted, the 2,02122 report focused on the role of non-state actors in education. It acknowledged that a diverse set of non-state actors are playing different roles in providing education, influencing education policies and practices and in financing decisions of various sorts.
We spoke of technology providers as, a, celery providers then. We highlighted the increasing number of technology providers, the concentration among established providers of textbooks, assessments and online learning. And the growing interest from technology giants and small players alike. We noted that these trends could exacerbate inequality.
You know, our recommendations for that year focused on the writing the rules of the game. Targeted to governments. Urging them to protect equity through financing, quality, governance, innovation and policymaking. And we stress the need for meaningful and effective. Implementation of regulations. In 2023 technology took center stage.
The reports rallying call was to keep learners best interests at the center of a framework based on human rights and focused on its learning outcomes and not digital inputs. And we had to really highlight this perspective. Since the use of technology in education is a source of intense debate, right?
Does technology democratize knowledge or does it threaten democracy? Does it level the playing field or does it exacerbate inequality? We recommended to decision makers that they should use a compass. You know, they should think about whether technology is appropriate for context, whether it’s equitable, whether it’s scalable.
And whether it promotes sustainable futures. Just to mention 1 point here in discussing governance of partnerships between governments and private technology providers. We talked about 3 types of concerns, right? First, The companies have a stranglehold on data, which really raises concerns over the abuse of data used, violation of privacy and safety.
Second, the the user platforms can affect essential pedagogical functions such as t-shirt autonomy or student assessment. And third, consumers can of course be misled through practices, marketing practices, and this cannot be the norm.
You know, decision makers have to look at the long term evidence on costs and benefits. We need to protect learners and teachers who human rights, well-being safety and privacy. While using technology for learning. And I think for meeting the right to education, this is all critical new territory that requires our attention.
And to underscore how much we lag behind on urgent regulatory and policy frameworks.
I just leave you with one statistic from our global peer profiles. As of 2023 only 16% of 200 countries guarantee data privacy and education with the law and 29% of the policy and in 41% of these countries the policies have been adopted since the COVID pandemic. So thank you.
Very telling statistic of the journey that still lies ahead and thank you for highlighting this. Could we maybe go to you next, David, David, in, 2,000, and, 23, you co-published the book, Geographies of Globalized Education Privatization in a in in brackets as privatizations in which you refer to the Abuja principles.
Could you maybe share some insights? From your findings regarding the global trend and again perhaps in the I’m sure Emily has been brilliant with this. She no doubt share the link to the book as well. Please over to you David.
Yeah, thank you. Thank you for the invitation and good afternoon. As you know, privatization of education is a global complex and a breed phenomenon that strongly relies on state action and political willingness to transform public education into Kazi markets.
What we wanted to underline in our in our research and in our book is that privatization of education is a non-stop process that’s now first moving into new areas and second is taking the positive figure of what we call the I mean, entrepreneur of education going from global ed business to small local entrepreneurs.
After decades of privatizing and deregulating public education, privatization of education is looking to new frontiers in order to develop new frontiers in order to develop new markets.
We are looking to new frontiers in order to develop new markets and products. These ones are to be found in what was once at the margins of the education system.
And what was considered as non-profitable by private providers. I mean, education priority areas for instance, students with special needs, isolated rule area and so on.
In France, for example, in the face of public dissentment in priority education areas, community organizations that use to take charge extract curriculum activities and benefited from public subsidies and are asked to transform themselves into entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneur providing educational service in very poor neighborhoods. This is a major change because it informs us that privatization of education is not only about opening public education to new private providers.
It’s a larger process transforming education both from the inside and the outside into what we call in a book an entrepreneurial regime, education as an entrepreneurship system. Hey, Dupont, of course now the positive figure of privatization. We are witnessing a kind of personalization of the privatization through emblematic figures of entrepreneurial success.
In Europe, for instance, successful entrepreneurs are presented now as leader in disruptive innovation and we can transform the old world of education into a new one. In the US each year the magazine Forbes awards 50 majors and so-called innovating edu premise.
But entrepreneurs are not just some new private providers of education. They promote the idea that education is no longer a collective matter built into and for society but an individual responsibility so supposedly successful that asks everyone to be its own entrepreneur of education.
The exponential spread of entrepreneur in all areas of education in many countries obviously reinforced social and educational inequalities. David, we lost you briefly. You went mute. Please, just the last point. Yes, yeah. Okay, do you hear me now? Okay, well, I think you’re not lost.
I am for the moment. Well, I was just mentioning that entrepreneurs are not just some new private providers with education. They promote the idea that education is no longer a collective matter built into and for education, but an individual responsibilities are asked to everyone to be its own entrepreneur of education.
And to conclude, the exponential spread of a the printer in all areas of education obviously reinforce social and additional inequalities. But entrepreneurs cannot replace public education. E entrepreneurs are now here to be regulated both in the global north and global south and the Abigian principles could be of great help. Thank you.
Thank you. David much appreciated. I do recognize a new word if you haven’t come across that before. May I call on you, please, Bradley once again? I mean, your work has focused a lot on Friday.
And also low fee private schools. And you’ve returned to the theme now. Could you maybe, what is your assessment, I guess, of the current context and, and how do you see the Abigail principles playing a useful role in these challenges. Over to you, Bradley.
As you know loafi private schooling is just one form of private engagement and education but it’s a very important development when we first started working on this 20 years ago because it showed the gaps that were existing.
And the and and the need at least at a community level when the first wave of these schools started there was a there was a certain level of a need that was expressed in terms of those gaps.
That then, as I’ve described, moved on to a second wave. During the adoption and during the framing of the of the Abbey John principles that second wave was a much more commercialized.
Chain movement and raised a lot of concerns and that’s what informed some of the discussions around, you know, the commercialization of, of, education even at the basic levels. But what we’re seeing now and and what we have been seeing for for a number of years now is the emergence of networks.
How hybrid networks, which are very opaque. Of private actors and public and hybrid actors that are in a certain sense coalescing to bring forward certain issues that do not always work in the public good.
Most often this is in the context of either a real resource constraint resource constraint for education or a manufactured one.
The real resource constraints for education are very strongly tied in countries that are highly indebted countries very strongly tied to questions around debt repayments, macroeconomic financing issues, and the manufactured constraints are in context. In high income OECD countries where financing for education is continually being undermined and actually also being cut.
What we see in those contexts, both in high income and low, low middle income countries, is this vapour Schmo, a rather scary blah blah blah of commercial interests within the public sector for education.
And what that does is it moves education policy making into the private sphere outside of normal channels of citizen engagement outside of the normal channels of the institutional frameworks that we’re speaking about here.
So when we then think about how it is moving forward. There are a few things that the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us. And I’m just going to be very brief about these 3 things. The first is, even though we have seen rather strong pushes of private engagement and privatization in and of education.
The public bodies for regulation still assume the greatest importance. We can see that very strongly in terms of what happened in March and April of 2,020 at the height of the pandemic.
The it was the public bodies and the governance systems that decided school closures. It was the public bodies and governance systems that decided continuity. And in those countries and those domestic contexts where that was a strong functioning system and well covered public education systems, we saw fewer issues in terms of resumption.
Of a basic level of good quality education. So that’s very important to understand is even though we’re talking about privatization in terms of who is in charge of the system and where are the strengths that’s in the public system with public levels of governance.
The last 2 points that we learned, again, through the pandemic was that the emergence, I wouldn’t say the emergence, the unfettered access that commercial education technology companies have had in our in our systems is I think probably the greatest shift that we’ve seen And it isn’t that they’re weren’t private commercial players involved in education services before there were and it and it isn’t that we didn’t
Have commercial ed tech firms involved in education they were but it was the almost overnight turn to giving these private corporations access to 1.7 billion learners. That is a huge market. In terms of how having direct access and control in our in our public education systems.
So how are we going to deal with some of those questions? And the final thing is moving public policy making into the private realm necessarily. Disempowers all of us. We it becomes much more opaque. We can, it’s much harder to hold private actors accountable.
It also sees a funneling of public financing to private firms to private actors, which could better be spent. So I hope that the next 5 years, we focus on some of these issues when we’re looking at how to rebuild our education systems after this very large and massive disruption that we’ve just seen.
Thank you very much, Brachy. Montana, you wanted to say something about the question answer. Speaker.
Yes, thank you. Thank you, Joshua. As we’re having a very solid audience of more than 100 participants, I want to remind all of you that the question and answer is section in your system and your zoom is open and we have a team that will be responding your questions so please I would like to encourage everyone the the conversation.
It is very complex. It’s very interesting. So feel free to pose those questions in the system. Back to you, Joshua.
Thank you, Dalan, and also thank you to our speaker so far who have really been keeping us on time and apologies in interpreters and we are going very fast please do signal it so so in a spent these principles you know framed by experts can often be principles that don’t get any life but really in terms of the the Abidjan principles life has been breathed into them by the way in which so
Many regional actors have engaged with it. So I just want to before we close this particular section. Maybe call on Mutford Zakarian, Mandegra and perhaps on him in Dus if he’s here to maybe reflect on this, you know, as the African commission on human and people’s rights.
What insights can you offer on the privatization challenges that are specific to the continent? And I guess in what capacity do you believe the Abidjan principles can counteract the proliferation of private educational providers. Over to you.
Oh, thank you very much and I’m happy to be. With you as you, Create the, I’ll go straight to the question, given the fact that.
We are not blessed with enough time. Now in the African context, some of the major challenges to the realization, the rights to education, evolve around the quality of education.
Provided by states, I realize that the enforcement of the rights to education. According to reports on a study carried out by UNESCO, In Sub-saharan Africa Which is the sub region with the hair straight of the education exclusion.
One fifth. Of children aged between 6 to 11. And one side of youth aged 1214 out of school. These shows that Not only for the church to regulate the rights to education, but must also ensure the enforcement of the and the same.
The low quality of public education needs many individuals to rely on. L which has turned out which in 10 has made the private education sector become elocative for business. That’s the number of private educational. Institutions across it driven. Rather than human rights. With it.
This profit orientation sometimes veils the human rights perspective to education, leading to discrimination in its various forms. Not only is there a tendency for the more vulnerable groups such as women, their child, places with disability persons living with HIV AIDS and certain indigenous groups to be discriminated against.
But there is also discrimination based on income level of the parents. And the providers. You know, since only a few persons from high income. Penning homes, are able to afford. The highest quality of education. Lever they they are being an We are all have the opportunity to enjoy.
The highest quality of education. It was an issue to do with the proliferation. May I quickly do with the proliferation. May I quickly do with that one right now? Justin, I don’t believe that the Abuja, can be used to counter.
Private education. Provide us are going to be there and they will stay with us for as long as It’s not took up their responsibility.
For providing public education. In order to ensure that their realization each citizens the right of education is something which accountant In my view, the Abidjan principles are meant would be the guidelines. Which provides the human rights obligations of the states. Good. Regression to provide the public education. And also the states.
Responsibilities. Public private. involvement in a decision. Even if it’s states, back on, privatization or commercialization of public education. The ought to remember. That they have obligation to provide public education. And they also have an obligation to regulate private involvement in education.
And this is where I think the, principles come in handy. I can just end up on that one. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mudford. Javier, Palu, more on to you next, please.
I mean, how does this? Experience that much for has talked about in the African context play out in the Americas over to you have yet. Thank you. Thank you very much. Joshua, Magdalena and Congratulations for the organization of this.
Event. It’s a pleasure to be here sharing. With such a standing colleagues and and and experts. I’m going to speak in in Spanish in order to to answer. So, Let’s in contact with.
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We’ve looked at the issues that have emerged, emerged from them through privatization. We’ve looked at some regional examples. Mangal and I’m going to hand over to you maybe to explore a little bit more how they have been used.
Thank you once again to all the speakers for keeping on time. We are exactly on schedule and I really appreciate it. Michael.
Thank you, Joshua. I think that this this moment, I mean, to go into how this principles has been used, it comes to the very rate moment of this of this conversation because they are unique.
Debian principles. What is not unique is that since the eighties, there’s been several human rights principles that explains certain obligations of the states But what is unique is that not all of them are endorsed as Just quickly ask the Abbey John principles has been indoors.
So in this commemoration and celebration of the fifth anniversary of the principles. We know now for a fact that they have been endorsed by many human rights monitoring bodies at the UN and at the regional level.
And by many mandate holders of the or UN special procedures in particular those working on the right to education. Just to give you some flavor of, some also example at the regional level, the general common 7 on the state of obligation under the African Charter of Humans and People’s Rights.
In the context of privatization of provision of services adopted by the commission in 2,023. They have the Prince, the average and principles serve as a reference as a key reference for this document. This same with Tash can declaration and commitments to action for transforming early childhood care and education.
Of 2022 and we also and we just heard from Javier, the Inter-american Commission, Human on Human Rights Declaration on the Principles on Academic Freedom and University Autonomy adopted in 2,021.
Yeah, and principles were also a reference to this document. So this panel, we’re going to hear from colleagues from Civil Society Organization, from academia and from regional monitoring bodies. Oh, the principles has been used by them. I’m going to first give the floor to, Johnstone’s, it’s from each rights.
He’s joining us from Kenya to this meeting. Could you provide concrete examples on how we put the Abidjan principles into practice within your initiative in PH each rights Kenya. Johnson, do you have that? Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations for the fifth anniversary for Pijan Principles.
As an organization, the East African Cent of human rights, it rights. We undertake advocacy that champions write to education as one of our program areas.
And having a clear understanding that the Pijan principles are unguard on the human rights principles. This is at the core of the work that we do, particularly on right to education.
So how we’ve utilized the Appian principles has been in last year and in 2,022 and 2,023 we’ve realized that one for us to really engage and create awareness on right to education, there is need to have a clear framework and a begun principles have been very clearly instrumental in terms of helping us integrate what right to education means.
Because in Kenya, these like so many speakers have mentioned, is a very big growing trend in terms of privatization and sometimes even people, people’s rights are related without understanding that education is a right that needs to be claimed because it is already inshined in our legal framework.
So we use the Pijan principles first of all to create awareness to help people understand one, education is a right, which is I’m mandate of the state to make sure that everybody enjoys it.
Number 2, we have engaged the Ministry of Education Officers in terms of helping them to understand that in as much as they are implementing education is not just a service.
We We want them to help understand that they are doing this because it’s a right. They need to really ensure that even in planning and designing the education programs.
This is very much taken into consideration. Number 3. We are continuing also to engage even the civil society organization to understand that yes, education being a right, there is that need for us to push the government to push the state to its accountability because when we say the state has to be accountable we are saying we are pushing for the state to allocate enough budgets on education.
Number 2, we are pushing even for the implementers and the duty bears at the classroom level at the school level to make sure that they are looking and holding those in leadership.
Accountable. How much is that money being used for the right purpose? And then number 3 for the Civil Society Organization, we are saying how can we utilize the existing framework and the existing framework which has already been highlighted is the TTY.
And the UPR like it rights we are the secretariat for the civil society organization in Kenya. We have been engaging the civil society organization to understand the framework of the UPR and how to use that to hold the city accountable in terms of their performance.
Right now we are preparing for the effort cycle for Kenya and we are bringing together different actors and I had the education cluster on the UPR process.
We are already trying to review, we have already done a midterm assessment, we are compiling a report where we want to see how is the Kenya performing in terms of delivering its mandate to the citizens.
And what are the gaps that need to be addressed? So all these are frameworks that we’ve realized that began the principles is well. Much elaborated to help people understand from the right perspective to how the state needs to work and even to the level of compliance.
We’ve been pushing, each rights has been very instrumental in the center of advocacy against abuses, for instance, the bridge issues. And we are looking at compliance. How is non-state actors complying with the national regulations on education. So that’s been at the center of our work and the PGAN principles has been taken possibly.
And finally, last month we just worked on a paper together with the ministry officers. We did a research just to assess the implementation of quality education.
And one of the issues that we brought into this at the discussions, it was the right best approach to addressing issues of access, availability, and we looked at the 4 parameters the Ministry of Education uses in terms of access to quality education.
Out of that we have developed a policy brief that we are already engaging at the higher level at the ministry to see which are some of the policy and recommendations that we need to adopt. And one of them is the Pijan principal speaking to the issues of access, availability and affordability.
Where the state has to regulate. Private actors. Thank you.
Thank you very much. You have, giving us or share with us very concrete examples how each right has been using the Vijayan principles with policymakers at the Minister of Education at the local level, but also and in response of what I’m Skeleton was saying at the very beginning, you’re also using it with the UPR, Kenya’s UPR.
So we see that there’s been a very diverse ways in which you have been used. Now we’re moving from Kenya to Nepal and we have here Caruna Paradjuli from the ICJ.
Karen and welcome to the discussion. We know that the ICT in Nepal worked with lawyers and judges, so we would really like to know What is ICJ doing or what which engagement has been proven valuable in order to bring the AVEN principles forward.
In Kenya or other parts of your region. Ferna, you have this one. Yeah, thanks, Magdalena. I’m really happy to be happy to join this celebration from Nepal and share how we are engaging with Avidan principal.
So in terms of right to education in the past year ISIS has been working to popularize Abhidan principles in the judicial committee, community including lawyers and judges.
So, to Nepal, I says they worked with Nepali, itating lawyers to train them on international laws, standards and principles and right to education including Aberdeen principles and we were successful to initiate litigation and for this we took some reference of legal instruments that actually enforce the state’s role to ensure right to education first.
Nepal as a party to ICSR had an international obligation to fulfill this ride. Second, the new constitution of Nepal of 2,015 guarantees right to education as fundamental right with judicial remedies and third and importantly we also refer to international standards including Aidan principles to say that state has an obligation to respect protect and feel right to education and while doing so we also raised concern.
Regarding violation of right in terms of unregulated private actors and lack of proper infrastructure in public schools a lack of access to books and learning materials and in response to this case the lack of access to books and learning materials and in response to this case the court for the first time made a landmark decision in response to this case the court for the first time made a landmark decision where it referred for the first time on
Abidan principles and it ordered the private institutions to follow the government rules in terms of operating their schools.
And secondly, it also, you know, we have this new federal structure in Nepal after 2,015 so it directed the local government to monitor the educational institution within its jurisdiction and it has explicitly referred to the Abidan principles.
But now if we see the, these, itating lawyers that we are engaging with, these lawyers, whenever there it comes, you know, the cases related to child ride, they’re looking how right to education could be related and referred in terms of Avidan principle and we support them in reviewing their read petition and whenever I and our colleagues from ICC we review their application.
Read petition, and then we see, you know, Avidan principles being claimed in their, petition, which is itself, example like how the lawyers are using it and apart from that the lawyers have also, during this process of getting this, judgment, they have come up with a idea to form a group of public interest educating lawyers group.
So they are now, they are organized in their way to train the young lawyers. So just to some of I would say that this.
Litigating lawyers in Nepal are using Abidan principles as advocacy tool to demand right to education on one hand and on the other hand they are also training the young set of lawyers to defend right to education. Thank you.
Thank you very much. It’s really, I’d like to see how in some countries like the case of Nepal, we are going to have litigation at the domestic level on on the right to education and hopefully those by exhausting domestic remedies we could also see this moving to the international level.
Now I’m going to move to Commissioner Mandenga. And again, we are inviting him to get today and it’s this is very important because maybe not all of you are aware that the African Commission was the first human rights body that mentioned the Aboriginal principles in in a resolution.
And this was in 2,019. And again in 2,020. Emphasizing the needs to regulate private actors in social services. And then the commission move forward the adoption of a landmark general comment that should serve as an example to all other regional and global human rights bodies.
That is a general comment 7. On state obligations. In in the context of the private profession of social services.
That is the way in which the African Commission name public services. So, Commissioner, I would like to ask you if you could allow a little bit more on how the Aboriginal principles inspired the African principles inspired the African Commission for the drafting principles inspired the African Commission for the drafting of these documents.
Commissioner, you have the flu. Thank you very much. Well, I think. Something which we must accept that in fact we really did grow some, inspiration from, the, and principles when we the resolutions as well as the general comment that you have mentioned.
In the best I think I should start off by saying. They need to address the regulation or private actors in social services. Has become more apparent over years. And they believe perhaps that in most of the reason which led to the adoption of the Gianna principle.
But you may be interested to know that prior to that. Prior to the adoption of the and principles. Actually the African Commission had adopted the peculiar declaration on economic, social and cultural rights in Africa and the principles and guidelines on the implementation of economic social and customer rights.
Now, these instruments I’ve mentioned are generic in nature and not address the specific issues related to education as does the in the subsequent information. In a bid to reinforce the importance of such regulation. In the promotion and protection of human rights, the African Commission also Count it necessary to adopt resolution.
Resolution on states obligations to regret private actors involved in the Oh, growth and education services, which is reversed on 4.2 of, 2,019. Again, the the resolution you are going to see that then there’s open aspect so the, principles, which are being, a you.
Oh, no specific mention is made. Then there is also resolution 4 30. In 4 34 2020 which is a a resolution on the need. For the on state obligations to regulate private address involved in the provision of all. Gotcha, services. No. In this particular resolution. There is a specific mission. Of the, principles.
So you can clearly see. That it commissioned the African Commission inspiration from the represent principles when they were coming up with the these important.
The aftermath. 4 34 or 2020 is the general comment. Is the general comment that came out and that general comment is the one that also deals with the Which was to do with a The state’s obligations Thank you, late. The private state actors.
In the context of provisional social services. Now in addition to these low is the commission has also adopted the protocol for the African Charter on human in people’s rights on the rights of citizens.
To social protection and security. Which is that unfortunately to come into effect. But it also seeks to ensure the realization of the right to education among other rights once you read this particular document.
So without doubts, the are very fundamental in the weeks of the African Commission and they make inspirational in the manner in which we deal, the result and in 2,019 the result and in ultimately the general comment number. 7, which is an instrument with the Gross inspiration. From the Abuja. Thank you.
Thank you. Very much, Commissioner. But it has the A. John Principal has in Paris document not only At the African level, we have also seen the influence at that they had they have had in the Inter-american system. So I’m going to call again the special rapporteur on economic, social, cultural and environmental rights.
Of the inter- system to ask him directly how do you see how if you could elaborate a little bit more on how the Avian principles So, influence the inter-american principles on academic freedom and university autonomy. Javier, you have the throw. Thank you very much, Velena.
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We’re going to move from Washington, DC. To the UK and I have the pressure that the pleasure of bringing now to the discussion. Professor Sandy Friedman, professor of law at Oxford University. Sandy, it’s a pleasure to have you here with us.
You were one of the members of the Abbey Jan Principles drafting group. And now you’re also leading the development of the guiding principle on early childhood care and education. So, the question that I have for you is. How have the Avian principal serve as an inspiration? You have the phone.
Thanks so much, and I’m so glad to be here at the fifth anniversary of the Abidjan Principles. And I would like to say how honored and inspired I was to be part of the drafting committee and had worked together and collaboratively over so many countries, so many stakeholders, experts and advocates.
And I think it was this momentum and energy from the collaboration that brought us towards the central goal which we all set which was 2 reinvigorate the key duty of states to provide quality education for every single person.
And I think this shows how that engaging with international human rights law from a very wide civil society perspective can be effective and positive. So this is certainly inspired me to take the work forward in relation to the youngest among us, that is preschool, children from birth until they reach school.
And for these children, education and stimulation is key from the moment of birth and well before they reach formal education. In this area, there’s an equally urgent need to set out the obligations in international law which are present overlooked especially after COVID where many facilities were closed down and never opened up again.
In this field, the early childhood education field, there are also some of the very same challenges maybe even writ larger. As we face in the Abidjan principles. The most glaring of these is the vast inequality.
Between children who can access quality early Car and education and those who can’t. And this inequality is frequently because states are not providing sufficiently publicly funded programs and instead are leaving it to private provision.
So the role of private providers in early childhood education remains very central and very challenging. And this private provision exacerbates inequalities because they can range from very expensive private childcare chains where many multinational corporations are now being now taking on early childhood care for high fees.
And this is contrasted with the kind of care either provided in a small way by the state or provided in a very informal way. By community members, the neighbours who might take in neighbours children in poor conditions with very little infrastructure.
So the key message of Abidjan, which is the need for proper quality state funded education for all, is even clearer for early childhood care and education and the need for us to collaborate. Across many stakeholders, lawyers, experts, advocates, cross countries for which we can get inspired by Abidjan continues. So thank you.
Thank you very much. Joshua, we just saw how the, principles has been used. How they have been an inspiration to different other human rights instrument and instrument regarding education. So I pass it on to you to explore the future of the LITAM principles.
Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Sandy. It’s been an amazing journey to listen to all of this work and the 19 min or so that we have left 18 min I see now of this work and the 19 min or so that we have left 18 min I see now maybe we can call on many of our experts once again to give us their concluding thoughts in terms of the future.
So could I maybe get from you maybe a minute and a half and if you don’t mind. And really how can these play how can these principles play a pivotal role in advancing the spirit of the Avijan principles over to UN?
Well, I think that you know all of the processes that we’ve been talking about give us a very wide canvas for the work that we can take forward with the Abbey John principles.
And the conversations are clearly getting sharper. You know, in other words, we again, we’re finding the the niches, new, new information around early childhood. Education, which I think is an interesting space that although the Abuja and principles broadly touched on, more detail is something that could definitely.
Benefit from. And then we’ve also in this conversation talked about all the ways in which those working on the ground can actually advance their work by using the, the Abujan principles, whether it be through litigation, whether it be through advocacy work, whether it be through the accountability mechanisms or monitoring mechanisms in the United Nations or at the regional level as well.
So I think there are so many ways in which we can still, utilize these instrument, this, these principles.
And that we perhaps haven’t fully engaged with yet. And so I feel at that on the one hand, this is a moment for us to take stock and say, yes, there does seem to have been an impact.
People have been using the principles and we can see some evidence of that. But we can still do more and we can still think about how we can, weave the principles, into our work going forward and, take them further by bringing them into the specific spaces of work.
And that are going on whether it, you know, whichever part of the transformation of the right to education that we’re all talking about, and how that can be. Enhanced through using the Abidjan principle. So I feel quite hopeful that we’re at a good, vantage point for further conversations.
And I think this this conversation that we’ve had today is a good starting point for us. For going forward on these areas of work. Brilliant, and thank you very much. Javier, could you maybe reflect on that in the America’s context?
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Well, thank you very much. I used that of from this the situation which we had from Nepal. I think the man in which they are porting the Apejan principles to use. Very inspirational. For me, it’s, it’s my idea that, I think it should be.
What’s in such a way that It’s put across to governments. So that, the rights to education. One. Is made to be a justiceable right. Because right now in most of our African countries, for instance, it’s not a justiceible right.
So for me, the basis upon which we can advocate for each, Nice in us, championing the epigen principles. The, principles can be used. Okay. We inform legislation. About the rights of education. We’ve already got a document which I think is with Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you much further. So we’ve heard from stakeholders, perhaps we can hear from our researchers and maybe researchers here’s an extra challenge for you if you can maybe give us 3 key words in terms of what you think the future should hold.
So and without giving you enough notice of this David, may I call upon you? What would be your 3 words for the future? Okay. Do you wanna go first, Frank? 3 words. I think there needs to be investment. Implementation and regulation.
Very clear. What about you for you, Rajik? What would be your 3 keywords?
Not good with keywords. Because I think the reason I, I think Frank has already said the main ones, the reason I’m not good with those kinds of answers on this issue is that it’s far too complex to boil down into 3 words.
What I would say is that the point of just disability is very important. And I would say that we need to start approaching the right to education and education generally. Less as a technical enterprise and more as a normative imperative. And I think that’s really the point here.
The principals provide a really strong framework, but they are based in law which ultimately are around norms and values.
And we need to be very clear about that. So we need to ask big questions. Why is it, for example, that we allow pretty much free reign in pre primary education why is that when we know that that’s a critical period for skills development for all sorts of socio-emotional learning for for for a real integrated start from birth all the way through life.
So the 2 things I would say is. Norman is imperative and to view the implementation of the Abujan principles. Through a continuous progressive system that starts from birth and goes all the way through adulthood and into old age. That Thank you, Prrachy. David, to you. Yeah, please.
Yes, yes, I won’t be very serious and I will answer to you question by my freaky words regulation regulation and regulations. Sorry for that, but to be serious, to be serious, 2 keywords, regulation of course. Excellent. Yeah.
And Frank talk about it and I will also add a new one common good I think that education is not only a right it’s a common good that we need to reinforce and the Abigian principle are probably the only tool we have so that both in the global sales and also in the North context.
William Javi, thank you very much. What about for you, Sandy? So I would like to add to the words that have already been given equality because it seems to me that as inequalities grow exponentially.
The foundations of inequality are settled. From in the education system and the more inequality we get in education again from birth all the way to higher education the more that multiplies and accelerates later on in life.
So in order to assure that we can reduce inequality we have to provide good quality education equally to everyone. State provided. Thank you. Brilliant. Thank you very much. What about Askville Society Organization representatives and Karuna? What for you? Would be 3 words or a piece sentiment you wanna put forward.
Well, and what’s not good data, But what we felt you know like the Getting jasmine itself is not enough, you know, like in other part of the world, implementation is again another challenge.
So whenever we are demanding right to education from code best quote best engagement we need to combine it with other social moments.
And that’s my, first thing that I would say and second is I was also checking the, discussion is I was also checking the discussion and there are some people who are trying to create a discussion and there are some people who are trying to create a false narrative.
And there are some people who are trying to create a false narrative, surrounding Abigail, surrounding, Avicenna, there are some people who are trying to create a false narrative, surrounding Abidan principle saying that, look, it has like, you know, it gives space for private education.
So private investor. So we need to collectively fight against such kind of negative narrative to ensure 2 things.
First, as Abidan principal claims and we need to firmly call upon states as Abidan principle that state are the primary duty bearers of right to education and second state has responsibility to regulate not delegates its obligation to ensure right to education to private educational providers. Thank you.
Thank you, Karina. From Nepal to Kenya, Johnston, what would you add to this? Thank you for me 3 things. There is the issue of accountability. A civil society organization will still continue to put pressure on the state.
To ensure accountability and compliance with already passed regulations. Number 2, the issue of regulation just ensuring that they are proper occupations, especially to monitor the implementation of right to education.
And finally, the issue of implementation. We have quite a lot of policies, but most of the time they are not implemented to meet the right holders needs. Thank you. Thank you, Johnston. And then over to you, Priya at UNESCO as the last word in terms of the reaction here.
Thank you so much. I think. We clearly need to raise the alarm bells on privacy, commercialization of data, marketing, and also get both the international and national communities to do all they can to hold global and local companies together is a tough task, but I feel like it requires the levels of action.
I just wanted to end by saying that It will choose a subtitle who chooses who loses for the 2,021, 2,022 report on unsaid actors. We want governments to do a better job. You know, to meeting equity goals, preserve the right to education through all of our assessments of evidence policies and trends.
And you know, preserving and supporting public education is really the only way we can get closer to achieving equity. We also, I feel like there’s a lot of complex reasons for this, but government capacity and issues of trust also come up.
I would say 2 things. It’s important to find ways to shift the narrative. Maybe highlights the how the combination of political commitments and financing can strengthen public education and also public sector capacity to manage and balance relationships with.
You know, private actors. And I think to shift norms, as I think, had mentioned the importance of networks, it’s important to continue building coalitions of the like-minded people who are here.
But also it would be great. 5 years later to see. More people, a broader coalition of people who are not here and maybe are more swayed by the arguments. So that’s where I would leave it. Thank you.
Thank you, Priya, Magdalena, 120 s to go and a lot of people to thank for a feminine phenomenal seminar over to you to close us out. Thank you.
Thank you. It has been a phenomenal seminar as you said, Joshua, I invite everyone to put the cameras on so we can take a picture of everybody. Thanks also to the interpreters. We spoke very, very fast. You didn’t amazing work.
So, thank you from all of us. And this, as we said at the beginning, this is. To figure and to continue collaborating. More networks and more people working on the AGEN principles.
And regulation, global good, equality, broad movement, were one of the few words that were set for the future and we look forward to that. Thank you to all. And please be there for the photo. Okay. Bye.