Rasool Mogooei
PhD Student in International Relations, University of Isfahan
Education is one of the fundamental human rights and a key tool for the realization of other economic, social, cultural, and even civil and political rights. According to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, education is like a lifeboat for humanity in the storm, the foundation of a healthy society, and a path toward individual freedom (Falsafi & Gorji, 2016: 13). According to Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, education is a right for all and must be accessible to everyone without discrimination. However, despite improvements in global education and literacy in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, educational discrimination and the deprivation of millions of people from standard, safe, organized, and non-discriminatory education remain persistent in many parts of the world. Educational discrimination refers to unequal treatment of individuals or groups in access to, quality of, or benefit from education. This discrimination may be based on factors such as gender, ethnicity, language, physical disability, economic status, or geographic location. Educational discrimination violates the principles of equality and justice in educational systems and stands in clear contradiction to states’ human rights obligations.
Gender-based educational discrimination is one of the most common forms of discrimination in this field. For example, girls in countries such as Afghanistan, following the Taliban’s return to power, are deprived of education at various levels solely because of their gender. This deprivation extends even to essential education such as medical and healthcare training.
In other cases, individuals are denied access to education or face restrictions on standard education due to ethnic differences. For instance, Rohingya Muslim children in Myanmar, because they are not officially recognized as citizens by the state, not only suffer from widespread marginalization but also face educational discrimination and denial of schooling. Similarly, Palestinian children, who are subject to constant racist discrimination, suffer from educational inequality. While children in Israel benefit from the highest educational standards, Palestinian children endure difficult educational conditions due to ongoing wars, widespread destruction, and restrictions imposed on their lives. This situation intensifies the educational gap between Palestinian and Jewish children. Ethnicity-based educational discrimination may also include language-based discrimination, as ethnic differences naturally lead to linguistic differences. This issue is fully evident in both cases mentioned—Myanmar and the occupied Palestinian territories.
In many regions and countries, individuals with physical disabilities also suffer educational discrimination due to structural deprivation. These individuals often face overt discrimination and lack equal access to educational opportunities and facilities available to non-disabled persons, resulting in discriminatory outcomes.
In addition to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights mentioned at the outset, many international human rights conventions have addressed the importance of education and the need to combat educational discrimination across countries. These include:
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Article 13 of this covenant states: “The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to education. They agree that education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and the sense of its dignity and shall strengthen the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms” (International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, 1966).
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women: Article 10 of this convention provides: “States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in order to ensure equal rights with men in the field of education.” This includes various dimensions, such as eliminating gender-based educational stereotypes, equal vocational guidance, ensuring the attainment of at least a diploma, reducing girls’ school dropouts, providing equal opportunities for physical education and sports training, and ensuring access to educational information (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, 1979).
Convention on the Rights of the Child: Article 28 of this convention affirms: “States Parties recognize the right of the child to education.” Such education must inherently be implemented in a non-discriminatory setting and includes several aspects: compulsory primary education for all children, accessible education based on children’s abilities, and facilitation of access to technical and scientific knowledge, among others (Convention on the Rights of the Child, 1989).
UNESCO Convention against Discrimination in Education: As its name suggests, this convention specifically addresses educational discrimination. According to this convention, educational discrimination encompasses various dimensions, including: denial of education to any person or group, restriction to substandard education, and establishment of educational conditions contrary to human dignity. In this regard, eliminating all forms of educational discrimination requires the removal of laws and regulations that align with such discrimination, preventing discriminatory behavior by public officials in educational settings, ensuring the absence of preferential limitations in funding educational institutions, and providing educational resources for foreign nationals equivalent to those of domestic citizens (Convention against Discrimination in Education, 1960).
UN Sustainable Development Goals: Of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, Goal 4 pertains to inclusive, equitable, and quality education. According to these goals, by 2030 it must be ensured that: all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care, and pre-primary education; all women and men have equal access to affordable technical, vocational, and higher education; gender disparities in education are eliminated; and equal access to education is ensured for vulnerable groups including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples, and children. Furthermore, educational facilities for children and people with disabilities should be significantly built or upgraded (Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education, 2015).
Despite these international laws and conventions, as discussed, many people around the world still face discriminatory educational environments or are entirely deprived of education. This issue not only affects educational conditions in such societies but also impacts broader matters such as the promotion of peace and human rights. Indeed, one of the most crucial and inevitable means of establishing and deepening sustainable peace in the world is education in peace, tolerance, and respect for fundamental human rights—or more precisely, human rights education. Therefore, without ensuring equal educational rights for all, the promotion of peace will remain incomplete (Falsafi & Gorji, 2016: 32–33), and other human rights and freedoms will face serious threats.
References
Convention against Discrimination in Education (1960). Retrieved from https://www.unesco.org/en/legal-affairs/convention-against-discrimination-education
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979). Retrieved from https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-elimination-all-forms-discrimination-against-women
Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/child-rights-convention/convention-text
Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all (2015). Retrieved from https://sdgs.un.org/goals
Falsafi, N., & Gorji Azandariani, A. (2016). The Right to Education in International Law and Iranian Law. Tehran: Jangal Publications.
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966). Retrieved from https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/international-covenant-economic-social-and-cultural-rights
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948). Retrieved from https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights
