Open-Ended Intergovernmental Working Group on an Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Rights to Early Childhood Education, Free Pre-Primary Education and Free Secondary Education

A/HRC/RES/56/5View 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 2024.

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Extracted automatically from each entity’s budget submission.

What subjects does this mandate have?

6 topics

Preschool Education Right to Education Rights of the Child Secondary Education Treaties Working Groups

What does this mandate say?

15 operative paragraphs

Decides to establish an open-ended intergovernmental working group of the Human Rights Council with the mandate of exploring the possibility of, elaborating and submitting to the Human Rights Council a draft optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child with the aim to:

Explicitly recognize that the right to education includes early childhood care and education;

Explicitly state that, with a view to achieving the right to education, States shall:

Make public pre-primary education available free to all, beginning with at least one year;

Make public secondary education available free to all;

Recall that States shall promote and encourage international cooperation in matters relating to education;

Consider a provision that would allow for States parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child to incorporate all reporting on their obligations under the optional protocol into their reports submitted under article 44 of the Convention, eliminating the need for an initial or other separate reports;

Also decides that the working group will meet for five working days in Geneva in a hybrid format, including a webcast, and that its first session should be held before the end of 2025;

Further decides that the sessions of the working group will be dedicated to conducting constructive deliberations on a future optional protocol in accordance with the scope defined in paragraph 1 above;

Requests the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to provide the working group with all the assistance necessary for the effective fulfilment of its mandate;

Requests the working group to ensure the meaningful participation of children, in an ethical, safe and inclusive manner, and in particular to give children the opportunity to express their views on the topic and substance of the proposed optional protocol, to facilitate their expression, including through child-friendly information, to listen to children’s views and to act upon them, as appropriate;

Requests the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to ensure appropriate resources to support the participation of children, from all five regional groups, ensuring that they have easy access to relevant premises, and to make the discussions fully accessible to children and to persons with disabilities;

Decides to invite representatives of the Committee on the Rights of the Child to attend sessions of the working group as resource persons, as well as, where appropriate, relevant special procedures of the Human Rights Council and other relevant independent experts, and invites them to submit input to the working group for its consideration;

Invites States, civil society and all relevant stakeholders, including through consultations with parents, legal guardians and educators, to contribute actively and constructively to the work of the working group;

Requests the working group to submit a report on progress made to the Human Rights Council for its consideration no later than at its sixty-second session and to make the report available in an accessible and child-friendly format.

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What does this mandate say?

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