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July 2019 update on the implementation of the Abidjan Principles on the right to education
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There has been major progress on the dissemination and promotion of the Abidjan Principles since their publication in March – including a ground-breaking recognition by the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights. Below is an overview of some of the key developments – for more information, you can also follow the developments on the Abidjan Principles website, and on Twitter via the hashtag #AbidjanPrinciples:
- In June, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights published a landmark resolution regarding the role of private actors in education and health, and recognised the Abidjan Principles as guidelines for States to meet their human rights obligations.
- The Abidjan Principles were published in full in the June 2019, Volume 8 - Issue 1 of the International Human Rights Law Review, one of the most reputable peer-reviewed journals on international human rights law. This further affirms the value that the legal community gives to the Abidjan principles, and establishes their status as the reference legal tool on the right to education.
- The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Dr Boly Barry dedicated her last report, that was presented at the Human Rights Council on 25th June, on an analysis of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in accordance with the right to education. She makes in particular an analysis of SDG 4 on education in accordance with the Abidjan Principles, and recommends for instance, that all States should develop and implement adequate regulations for the involvement of private actors in education, as articulated under Guiding Principle 55. Civil society organisations expressed their support for the report in an oral statement urging States to consider the use of the Abidjan Principles to inform their efforts to implement SDG 4 and their education programs.
- The Abidjan Principles are beginning to play an important role in discussions in major global policy decisions and funding allocations. This has been the case recently, when the Global Partnership for Education (GPE)’s board met to discuss its policy on engagement with the private sector. The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education wrote a letter to the Board of Directors to express major concerns about the initial draft of the private sector strategy, and request that the strategy be implemented in line with the right to education, including the Abidjan Principles. The final strategy adopted by the GPE Board of Directors includes a mention of the Abidjan Principles, and the adoption language stipulates that ‘no GPE funds can be used to support for-profit provision of core education services’.
- However, more work needs to be done to ensure that the strategy is aligned with the right to education, as the adoption language opened up a space for exceptional funding to for-profit actors and did not specify the safeguards to put in place when funding non-profit actors. As detailed in the Abidjan Principles, the right to education requires that no funding be provided to commercial actors in education, and that funding to non-commercial actors meets substantive, procedural and operational requirements.
- Ahead of the Education-Development Ministerial meeting for the G7 2019, a civil society joint paper on education was issued. It includes recommendations on the regulation of private actors and urges the G7 to take a leading role in the implementation of the Abidjan Principles.
- National and local organisations have mobilised to bring the Abidjan Principles and the right to education to the core of policy making. In Uganda, the Initiative for Social and Economic Rights facilitated initial discussions with representatives from the Ministry of Education to apply the Abidjan Principles to the Ugandan context. In South Africa, the Equal Education Law Centre made a submission before the Constitutional Court that includes the Abidjan Principles, related to the duties and obligation of private schools. Also, ActionAid International recently released a report from multi-country research on private education which used the Abidjan Principles to analyse and propose constructive solutions to the education challenges at the national level.
- In June, GI-ESCR published a database of caselaw related to education. This is the beginning of the efforts to publish the large amount of background material that was prepared to support the drafting of the Abidjan Principles. The eight background papers that were commissioned from academics to inform the draft are also being reviewed and discussions are on-going with book publishers.
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