New Sustainable Development Goals: UN expert urges
Governments to announce plans on education
GENEVA (28 September 2015) – The United Nations Special
Rapporteur on the right to education, Kishore Singh, today called on all UN
Member States to announce without delay their plans to realize the right to
education in line with the new Agenda for Sustainable Development, which aims
to end poverty by 2030 and universally promote shared economic prosperity,
social development and environmental protection.
Welcoming the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals
-the successor to the Millennium Development Goals- in New York on Sunday, he
noted that “political commitments made by governments to education goals in
future development agenda will remain hollow unless governments take real
action to expand educational opportunities and restore public confidence in
good quality public education.”
“This is all the more important as education is a key
instrument to eradicate poverty, and for achieving any of the new development
goals,” the human rights expert stressed.
The Special Raporteur emphasized that achieving free,
universal secondary education of good quality, to which international community
is committed, cannot happen unless governments’ investment in education is
significantly enhanced. “This will require new investments, as well as ensuring
existing funds are well spent,” he said.
“These goals expand free, universal education to the
secondary level, and call for full equality between boys and girls. These
commitments require not just financial support, but bold political actions to
address the barriers which have kept many children out of school,” Mr. Singh
added.
“But I urge governments to refrain from privatizing
education to meet these new goals if the education is not free to students, or
if it increases inequality in society,” the expert warned. “The rapid rise of
private providers, often unregulated and privileging the wealthy, must be
replaced by efforts which reduce inequality and expand opportunities of good
quality public education without exclusion.”
“Governments must ensure that education of good quality is
available from early childhood until late adulthood, equally to all,” Mr. Singh
said, commending the Incheon Declaration made at the World Education Forum last
May, which provided a detailed roadmap for nations seeking to improve the state
of education.
“We must all work to preserve education as a public good and
to foster the humanist mission of education,” the human rights expert
underscored.
ENDS
Mr. Kishore Singh (India), the Special Rapporteur on the
right to education since August 2010, is a professor specialized in
international law who has worked for many years with UNESCO for the promotion
of the right to education, and advised a number of international, regional and
national bodies on right to education issues. Throughout his career, Mr. Singh
has supported the development of the right to education in its various
dimensions and worked to promote better understanding of this right as an
internationally recognized right. Learn more, log on to:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Education/SREducation/Pages/SREducationIndex.aspx
The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the
Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest
body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name
of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that
address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of
the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not
UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from
any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.
For inquiries and media requests, please contact Stee
Asbjornsen (+41 22 917 9827 / sasbjornsen@ohchr.org) or write to
sreducation@ohchr.org
For media inquiries related to other UN independent experts:
Xabier Celaya, UN Human Rights – Media Unit (+ 41 22 917
9383 / xcelaya@ohchr.org)
For your news websites and social media:
Key messages about
our news releases are available on UN Human Rights social media channels,
listed below. Please tag us using the proper handles
Twitter: UNrightswire
Facebook: unitednationshumanrights
Google+: unitednationshumanrights
Youtube: unohchr
Nema komentara:
Objavi komentar