UNESCO launches international symposium on access to the right to education on Dec. 7

CAIRO – 6 December 2021: To contribute to Human Rights Day 2021, and in celebration of a year-long campaign to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in Education, UNESCO is holding the International Symposium on the Evolving Right to Education on December 7 – 8, 2021.

It will be attended by representatives from Member States, United Nations agencies, internationally renowned experts and civil society to discuss the right to education, which is evolving in tandem with the ever-changing global environment.

The Tenth Consultation on the Convention against Discrimination in Education (2020-2021) revealed new challenges faced in ensuring the right to education.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated pre-existing inequalities in education and recent unprecedented challenges, and the ongoing change of global leaders have shown that to ensure the equitable inclusion of all in quality education legal frameworks must look beyond traditional forms of education to adopt a lifelong learning approach.

Exploring the expanded aspects of the right to education comes in line with one of the nine recommendations of the International Committee of the Future of Education Initiative, which states that the global community must “extend the definition of the right to education to address the importance of communication and access to knowledge and information.”

This symposium aims to promote and develop discussion of this necessary development from various aspects - whether conceptual, legal, political or technical, in addition to identifying areas that need further regulation in order to respond to new and emerging challenges.

Through a high-level plenary session held on December 7, and parallel technical sessions held on December 8, this international symposium aims to further the following specific objectives: Identify emerging challenges and related obligations that the right to education needs to address and identify specific areas that require further regulation.