Leading scholar calls for global free education treaty

70 renowned scholars, experts and researchers from 30 countries called Calls for a new international treaty recognizing children’s rights to free early childhood education and free secondary education.

Experts said sufficient scientific evidence “clearly” showed that education was essential for children’s healthy development and lifelong prospects, but international law had not yet caught up with the research proving its benefits.

The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and subsequent treaties make primary education free and compulsory for all, but say nothing about early childhood education. Nor do these treaties require that secondary education be free, calling only on countries to “provide and make it universally available.”

Seventy years later, the scholars said: “We think it’s time for a change.”

The academics called on governments to support a new optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child to ensure recognition of the rights to free early childhood education and free secondary education, in addition to the existing explicit right to free and compulsory primary education.

The academics noted that there are deep inequalities in children’s access to education and educational outcomes within and between countries, particularly for children from disadvantaged and marginalized communities. The experts called for an “urgent recommitment” to building education systems that deliver fair and equal outcomes for all children, and said this commitment must be backed by a legal mandate to ensure its success.

The scholars’ call comes ahead of the 56th session of the UN Human Rights Council, which begins on June 18 and will consider a resolution led by Luxembourg, Sierra Leone and the Dominican Republic to begin work on a protocol focused on the right to free education from pre-primary to secondary school.

Millions of children are out of school because of school fees. A new global treaty that stipulates that all children should have free education from pre-primary to secondary school will have a major impact on children, families and societies. “Education is not only valuable in itself, but also has a multiplier effect – that is, education helps children to acquire other rights during childhood and as adults. At the societal level, investing in education is the most effective policy tool for any country to ensure prosperity, social cohesion and sustainable development,” the scholars said.