The Right to Education

A/HRC/RES/47/6View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 3Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2021.

What other versions does this mandate have?

11 versions · 1980–2025

This is an older version — the most recent is A/HRC/RES/59/9

2025A/HRC/RES/59/9The right to educationLatestCompare with previous version
2023A/HRC/RES/53/7The right to educationCompare with previous version
2021A/HRC/RES/47/6The right to educationCompare with previous version
2020A/HRC/RES/44/3The right to educationCompare with previous version
2016A/HRC/RES/32/22The right to educationCompare with previous version

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

6 topics

Anti-Discrimination Measures Covid-19 Educational Policy Equality Gender Equality Right to Education

What does this mandate say?

35 operative paragraphs

Urges all States to give full effect to the right to education by, inter alia, complying with their obligations to respect, protect and fulfil the right to education by all appropriate means and without discrimination of any kind;

Calls upon all States to take all measures to implement Human Rights Council resolutions on the right to education with a view to ensuring the full realization of this right for all;

Also calls upon States to implement the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including Sustainable Development Goal 4, in accordance with human rights laws and standards, in order to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and to promote lifelong learning opportunities for all;

Urges all States to strengthen their legal frameworks, to adopt adequate policies and programmes and to allocate sufficient resources, either individually or through international assistance and cooperation, to the full realization of the right to education;

Also urges all States to expand educational opportunities for all, without discrimination, including by:

Implementing targeted programmes to address inequalities, including barriers to accessibility and discrimination against women and girls in education;

Recognizing the significant importance of investment in public education, and doing so to the maximum of available resources;

Increasing and improving domestic and external financing for education, including in sanitary and humanitarian emergencies and conflict situations;

Ensuring that education policies and measures are consistent with human rights standards and principles, including those laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and relevant international human rights instruments;

Strengthening engagement with all relevant stakeholders, including communities, children and youth, parents and legal guardians, local actors and civil society, to contribute to education as a public good;

Calls upon States to promote holistic technical vocational education and training, and work-based learning in all its forms for all, including in-service training, apprenticeship and internships, by implementing appropriate policies and programmes as a means of ensuring the realization of the right to education;

Also calls upon States to take all measures necessary, including by making education a priority in their national budgets by granting sufficient budgetary allocations to education, to ensure accessible, inclusive, equitable and non-discriminatory quality education to all at all levels, and to promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, paying particular attention to women and girls, children in the most vulnerable and marginalized situations, older persons, persons with disabilities, persons belonging to national or ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities and all persons in vulnerable and marginalized situations, including those affected by humanitarian emergencies and conflict situations;

Further calls upon States to continue to strengthen the protection of preschools, schools and universities against attacks, making them free from all forms of violence, including by taking measures to deter the military use of schools, such as by considering implementing the Guidelines for Protecting schools and universities from military use during armed conflict, and encourages efforts to provide safe, non-violent inclusive, effective and enabling learning environments and quality education for all within an appropriate time frame, including all levels of education in the context of humanitarian emergencies and conflict situations;

Calls upon States to accelerate efforts to eliminate gender-based discrimination, harmful practices such as female genital mutilation and child, early and forced marriage, and all forms of violence abuse and harassment, including moral and sexual harassment, school-related sexual and gender-based violence, and bullying in schools and other educational settings both online and offline, in particular against those persons who are most vulnerable, discriminated against and marginalized, and to guarantee gender equality and the right to education for all;

Urges States to take all necessary measures with a view to eliminate gender bias and gender stereotypes in education at all levels, including through the facilitation of gender-neutral learning environments and the promotion of equal opportunities in all fields of study;

Calls upon all States to take appropriate measures to accelerate efforts to bridge the digital divide and technological gaps, including but not limited to those based on gender, age, disability and migration or refugee status, and not only to combat discrimination and bias in the development and use of new technologies, particularly in terms of access to products and services that are essential for the enjoyment of the right to education, but also to ensure accessible and quality education at all levels, in order to increase the digital competencies and innovation skills of all, including of women, girls and persons with disabilities, while ensuring the protection of personal data in the use of technology in education;

Urges all States to regulate and monitor all education providers, private and public, including those operating independently or in partnership with States, inter alia by putting in place adequate mechanisms to hold accountable those whose practices have a negative impact on the enjoyment of the right to education, to address the negative impact of the commercialization of education, and to strengthen access to appropriate remedies and reparation for victims of violations of the right to education;

Takes note with appreciation of the two most recent reports of the Special Rapporteur on the right to education presented to the Human Rights Council, on the impact of the coronavirus disease crisis on the right to education: concerns, challenges and opportunities, and on the cultural dimensions of the right to education, or the right to education as a cultural right;

Calls upon States, in the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic, to consider re-opening education institutions as a priority with adequate attention to the health and safety of students, teachers and all other educational personnel; to conduct a careful assessment of the impact of the closures of educational institutions on all learners from early childhood to adulthood, taking into account the intersectionality of discrimination, and to adopt or enhance targeted measures, including through international cooperation, to mitigate the impact of such closures, especially on those learners in most vulnerable situations;

Also calls upon States to urgently take measures to encourage and facilitate the safe and responsible return of children to school, with a special emphasis on girls and women, who have had their right to education particularly affected by the pandemic;

Encourages all States to develop and strengthen emergency education preparedness within their respective education systems, grounded on human rights, and to train educational planners at all levels;

Urges all States to recognize that cultural diversity, in its broadest sense, is a fundamental characteristic of contemporary societies that should be reflected at all levels of education systems, and to take appropriate measures to ensure that all education institutions, public or private, promote respect for the universal values of human rights and fundamental freedoms and cultural diversity in their curricula and learning methods, and in their determination to respect persons with different cultural references;

Encourages States to promote the diversity of the educational landscape, to develop a governance of education systems that is participatory, and to allow an adequate degree of decentralization and autonomy of education institutions to set up projects in response to the educational needs of students with specific cultural references;

Welcomes:

The work of the Special Rapporteur on the right to education;

The work of the treaty bodies and the special procedures of the Human Rights Council in the promotion of the right to education, and 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;

The contribution of the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, which is the lead agency on Sustainable Development Goal 4, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and other relevant United Nations agencies and bodies towards attaining the goals of the Education for All agenda and the education-related Sustainable Development Goals;

Stresses the importance of international cooperation, including policy dialogue and the exchange of good practices, and of technical cooperation, capacity-building, financial assistance and technology transfer on mutually agreed terms in facilitating the realization of the right to education, including through the strategic and adapted use of information and communications technology;

Encourages all States to measure progress in the realization of the right to education, inter alia by developing national indicators as an important tool for the realization of the right to education and for policy formulation, impact assessment and transparency;

Encourages States to give domestic legal effect to the right to education, including by ensuring its justiciability;

Acknowledges the role that communications procedures can play to promote the justiciability of the right to education, and in this regard calls upon all States that have not yet signed and ratified the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a communications procedure to consider doing so as a matter of priority;

Encourages the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the treaty bodies, the special procedures of the Human Rights Council and other relevant United Nations bodies and mechanisms, specialized agencies, funds and programmes, within their respective mandates, to continue their efforts to promote the full realization of the right to education worldwide and to enhance their cooperation in this regard, including by enhancing technical assistance to Governments;

Encourages the High Commissioner to collaborate with relevant United Nations agencies, including the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the Global Partnership for Education, and civil society organizations to provide technical support to States to realize the right to education in the COVID-19 and post-COVID context;

Commends the contribution of national human rights institutions, national mechanisms for implementation, reporting and follow-up, civil society, including non-governmental organizations, children and youth and parliamentarians to the realization of the right to education, including through cooperation with the Special Rapporteur;

Decides to remain seized of the matter.

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