Articles & papers

This paper argues that social and economic rights, defined as rights to the satisfaction of basic needs, are constitutional essentials at domestic level and claims of the highest priority at supranational level. Their inadequate legal protection in national and supranational orders is not justified. Social rights have common foundations with civil and political rights, but have been neglected in law because of Cold War ideologies.

On 7 July 2014, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) held a General Discussion on the Right to Education for Girls and Women, the aim of which is to commence the Committee’s process of elaborating a “General Recommendation on girls’/women’s right to education.”

Brief about education and disability in Burundi in post-conflict recovery.

This article explores the increasing privatisation of education. It examines various criticisms of the private provision of education and claims that privatisation is driven by an ideological agenda which is generally uncaring about any notion of the “public good” purposes of education — that is, of its role in producing social cohesion through the provision of education that is of high quality for all members of society.

This study on academic freedom seeks to get first-hand perspectives on the state of academic freedom and its protection at institutional and national levels, examining what policies and mechanisms are put in place to protect this freedom, how academic freedom is threatened or curtailed, and finally what recourse may be available to the members of the academic community to complain and seek redress concerning such violations.

This study examines the relationship between institutional autonomy and the security of higher education institutions from violent and coercive attacks. The paper includes a review of the limited literature available, as well as a series of examples illustrating different forms of attacks. These include arrests related to classroom content in Zimbabwe, sectarian divisions in Iraq, impunity for murders of academics in Pakistan, and physical intimidation on campuses in Tunisia. The study suggests that institutional autonomy plays a direct and indirect protective function.

This article discusses the privatisation of education from a human rights perspective. It focuses on what international human rights law in general, and the right to education in particular has to say with respect to the operation and consequences of privatisation in the area of education. The article reviews the content of the right to education and makes observations on the relationship between privatisation and violations of obligations resulting from the right to education. It provides a definition of the privatisation of education and an analysis of potential human rights issues.