The right to education - Asia Pacific Knowledge Base on Open and ...

A multi-faceted <strong>right</strong>21force of law. It is not a treaty but an internationallyendorsed statement of principles. <strong>The</strong> transformationof the principles in<strong>to</strong> treaty provisionsestablishing legal obligations on the part of eachratifying state was undertaken in two covenantsprepared after the Declaration was adopted: theInternational Covenant on Economic, Social andCultural Rights, and the International Covenant onCivil and Political Rights.In contrast <strong>to</strong> the preparation of the Declaration,the preparation of the Covenants was amuch longer process undertaken over a period ofeighteen years. <strong>The</strong> two Covenants were adoptedby the United Nations’ General Assembly in 1966,but another ten years were <strong>to</strong> pass before a sufficientnumber of States (thirty-five) had ratifiedthem <strong>to</strong> bring them in<strong>to</strong> force, i.e. make themlegally binding on the ratifying States.<strong>The</strong> <strong>right</strong> <strong>to</strong> <strong>education</strong> is dealt with in Articles13 and 14 of the International Covenant on Economic,Social and Cultural Rights (Box 1.4), and isalso mentioned in Article 18(4) of the InternationalCovenant on Civil and Political Rights.<strong>The</strong> latter affirms the ‘liberty of parents and, whenapplicable, legal guardians <strong>to</strong> ensure the religiousand moral <strong>education</strong> of their children in conformitywith their own convictions’, as stated in paragraph3 of Article 13 of the International Covenan<strong>to</strong>n Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.Besides the Covenants, which <strong>to</strong>gether aim at acomprehensive coverage of the <strong>right</strong>s and freedomsset out in the Universal Declaration, a largenumber of other international treaties have beenadopted over the years in regard <strong>to</strong> specific <strong>right</strong>s,or specific aspects of some or all of the <strong>right</strong>s, e.g.the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms ofDiscrimination against Women (1979). <strong>The</strong> fiveprincipal international treaties relating directly <strong>to</strong><strong>education</strong> are:• International Covenant on Economic, Socialand Cultural Rights (1966);• Convention against Discrimination in Education(1960);• Pro<strong>to</strong>col Instituting a Conciliation and GoodOffices Commission <strong>to</strong> be Responsible for Seekingthe Settlement of any Disputes which mayarise between States Parties <strong>to</strong> the Conventionagainst Discrimination in Education (1962);• Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989);and• Convention on Technical and Vocational Education(1989).<strong>The</strong> position as regards ratification of thesetreaties is shown in the table at the end of AppendixI (pages 108 –109).While the number of countries which have ratifieda given treaty can be taken as a fair measureof the international community’s overall degree of‘commitment’ <strong>to</strong> its provisions, it should be notedthat the ratification process allows countries, ifthey wish, <strong>to</strong> include with their instruments of ratificationa formal declaration on how the countryintends <strong>to</strong> interpret one or more of the treaty’sprovisions, or alternatively a reservation that itdoes not intend <strong>to</strong> implement one or more provisionsat all. For example, in respect <strong>to</strong> Article 13of the International Covenant on Economic, Socialand Cultural Rights (henceforth referred <strong>to</strong> as ‘theCovenant’), Ireland made the following Reservation:Ireland recognizes the inalienable <strong>right</strong> and duty ofparents <strong>to</strong> provide for the <strong>education</strong> of children, and,while recognizing the State’s obligation <strong>to</strong> provide forfree primary <strong>education</strong> and requiring that childrenreceive a certain minimum <strong>education</strong>, neverthelessreserves the <strong>right</strong> <strong>to</strong> allow parents <strong>to</strong> provide for the<strong>education</strong> of their children in their homes provided thatthese minimum standards are observed.In regard <strong>to</strong> the same article, Japan indicated thatit ‘reserves the <strong>right</strong> not <strong>to</strong> be bound by “in particularby the progressive introduction of free <strong>education</strong>”referred <strong>to</strong> in the said provisions’, whileZambia indicated that although it ‘fully accepts theprinciples embodied in the same article and undertakes<strong>to</strong> take the necessary steps <strong>to</strong> apply themin their entirety, the problems of implementation,