CEDAW/C/GC/36 governmental and civil society organisations and academics, at a preliminary half day consultation hosted by the Committee in June 2014. B. Justiciability of the right to education 6. Since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) by the United Nations General Assembly in December 1948, education has been acknowledged as a basic human right.6 Subsequently, several international, regional and national instruments and court decisions7 have established that the right is justiciable, and consequently enforceable in law. These instruments therefore provide that protection from discrimination in the field of education, an underlying and basic principle in human rights law. 7. Therefore, in line with GR 33 on women’s access to justice, all States parties have an obligation to protect girls and women from any form of discrimination that denies them access to all levels of education and to ensure that where this occurs they have recourse to avenues to justice. C. Right to education: existing normative framework 8. In addition to the UDHR, the right to education is reaffirmed in a number of international and regional8 legally binding instruments. States parties, therefore, have an obligation to respect, protect and fulfil the right to education which must be justiciable in national legal systems. 9. As a human right, education enhances the enjoyment of other human rights and freedoms, yields significant development benefits, facilitates gender equality and promotes peace. It also reduces poverty; boosts economic growth and increases income; increases chances of having a healthy life; reduces child marriage and maternal deaths; and, enables individuals to combat diseases such as HIV/AIDS. 10. Although it is recognised internationally, including by UNESCO, that education can be progressively implemented according to available resources, aspects of national law that constitute the core of the right to education must be immediately implemented. These include: ensuring the right of access to public educational institutions and programmes on a nondiscriminatory basis; ensuring that education conforms to the objectives set out in international standards; providing primary education for all; adopting and implementing a national educational strategy that includes provision for fundamental, secondary, and higher education; and, ensuring free choice of education without interference from the State or third parties, subject to conformity with ‘minimum educational standards’. 9 11. International legally binding instruments on the right to education include: the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Article 13); the International Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Racial Discrimination(Article 5); the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (Article 30); the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (Article 24); and, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Article 28); the UNESCO International Charter of Physical Education and Sport (Article 1); the Convention on Technical and Vocational Education. 6 7 8 9 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. http://www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Documents/UDHR_Translations/eng.pdf SERAP v. Nigeria, Judgment, ECW/CCJ/APP/12/07; ECW/CCJ/JUD/07/10 (Nov. 30, 2010) The Arab Charter on Human Rights, the Charter of the Organization of American States, the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, the first Protocol to the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the European Convention on the Legal Status of Migrant Workers. The Right to Education: Law and Policy Review Guidelines. UNESCO 2014. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002284/228491e.pdf 3