Technology in education

Thi is a joint contribution to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)' calls for on the solutions to promote digital education for young people and to ensure their protection from online threats to be presented at the 57th session of the Human Rights Council in September 2024.

A Geneva Dialogue on the Right to Education was held on 18 and 19 June 2024 and organized by the Swiss Commission for UNESCO, UNESCO, the University of Geneva, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and the REGARD network.

In October 2024, the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, presented her report on AI in education, emphasiaing a human rights-based approach to its regulation. She showed AI's potential to advance access to education, particularly for individuals with disabilities and remote communities, while cautioning against its risks, such as undermining human connection, increasing digital divides, and excluding minority groups.

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FRENCH

This policy-oriented research paper investigates some of the aspects of the right to education that might require a stronger footing in the international normative framework and potential expansion for the 21st century. Digital education, increasing human mobility, changing demographics, climate change, and expectations of opportunities for learning throughout life are just a few of the areas that are testing the limits of the existing international normative framework.

The COVID-19 pandemic greatly accelerated the use of digital technologies in education. But beyond the emergency response, there is an international trend towards exploring how artificial intelligence and data-based analytics can support learning, learning assessments, and evidence-based policy planning processes. The use of data in education is a double-edged sword.

In her 2022 Report on the impact of the digitalisation of education on the right to education, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to education clarified that any introduction of digital technologies in education must be framed around the right of every person to public, free, quality education and the commitments of states in this regard both under international human rights law and Sustainable Development Goal 4.

In her first report to the Human Rights Council, 25 years after the establishment of the mandate on the right to education, the Special Rapporteur reviews achievements, particularly on how the right to education is understood today and the obligations it entails, as well as contemporary and emerging issues that need to be considered to ensure the right to education for all, today and in the future.

A/HRC/53/27

This documented was submitted to the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education in February 2023, in response to a call for contributions for a report she is developing for the UN Human Rights Council.