Integrating Refugee and Asylum-seeking Children - Center for the ...

comparative report: educational integration of refugee and asylum-seeking 45
3.3. human rights approach
Education has formally been recognised as a
human right since the adoption of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. This has
since been reaffirmed in a number of significant
human rights treaties, such as the Convention
against Discrimination in Education (1960) and the
International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights (1966). These treaties established an
entitlement to free compulsory primary education
for all children. 25
The human rights based approach was developed
by the UN and is applied by its agencies to
education, health, employment, etc. Some of
its principles are particularly relevant to the
educational integration of RASC: universality,
inalienability, equality and non-discrimination. A
person cannot voluntarily give up their human
rights; nor can others take them away. All human
beings throughout the world are entitled to these
rights without discrimination of any kind, be it
on the basis of race, colour, ethnicity, language,
religion, national or social origin, birth or other
status. 26 This is based on the idea of human
development expanding people’s choices, with
education being one of its three main pillars.
The human development paradigm does not
regard people as passive beneficiaries of economic
and social activities. People must become active
agents of social change. This implies opportunities
for participation, empowerment, and access to
information. 27 The human rights based approach is
an alternative to the needs-based or service-delivery
approach. 28 People are recognised as key players in
their own development, rather than passive recipients
of commodities and services (UN 2003).
The human rights approach is most clearly set out
by the authors of the reports on Germany and
Austria:
“Human rights highlight the empowerment of the
right-holder – here: child refugee and asylumseeking
children – and the accountability of dutybearers
– here: primarily the government, with its
relevant authorities in areas such as asylum and
migration, education, social assistance and child
and youth welfare services.” 29
This thorough and elaborate definition demonstrates
the high normative pathos of the human rights
approach. The integration conceived by the human
rights perspective is extremely ambitious and
mobilises several other politico-normative categories,
such as equality, non-discrimination, participation,
empowerment and accountability.
Most countries mix elements, practices, experiences
and experiments inspired or imported by one or
the other of the main models.
The diachronic analysis is as eloquent as the
typological one. It shows that policies are not
crystallised models; the same countries can shift
from one conception of integration to another,
sometimes the opposite one. The Dutch report is
the most explicit concerning this. Three stages are
distinguished: 30
1. Initially, Dutch policy-makers assumed that
migrants’ stay would be temporary and did not
encourage any form of integration.
2. Policies introduced in 1983 encouraged immigrants
to integrate while retaining their own cultural
identity, and set up special programmes to
improve educational opportunities and increase
25 UNICEF and UNESCO (2007), A Human Rights-Based Approach to Education for All – A Framework for the Realization of Children’s
Right to Education and Rights within Education. UNICEF/UNESCO, 2007. Available at: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/
001548/154861e.pdf, p. 7.
26 UN (2003), The Human Rights-Based Approach to Development Cooperation: Towards a common understanding among UN
agencies, Report of The Second Interagency Workshop on Implementing a Human Rights-based Approach in the Context of UN
Reform. Stamford: UN, available at: http://hrbaportal.org/?page_id=2127.
27 Fukuda-Parr, Sakiko and A.K. Shiva Kumar (eds.) (2005) Human Development: concepts, measures and policies for a development
paradigm. New York: Oxford University Press.
28 UNICEF and UNESCO (2007), A Human Rights-Based Approach to Education for All – A Framework for the Realization of Children’s
Right to Education and Rights within Education. UNICEF/UNESCO, 2007. Available at: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/
001548/154861e.pdf, p. 9.
29 Country Report: Germany.
30 In the first phase, these policies targeted mostly Turkish and Moroccan ‘guest workers’, but the policy analysis has a broader
relevance.