The Declaration of International Conference on the Right to Basic Education as a Fundamental Human Rights and the Legal Framework for Its Financing

We, the participants in the International Conference on the Right to Basic Education as a Fundamental Human Rights and the Legal Framework for Its Financing, comprising of Ministers of Education, Members of Parliaments, Government Officials, diplomatic corps, high level experts, educationists, lawyers, international and non-governmental organizations, private sector, and stakeholders in the field of education coming from 14 countries;

Expressing our deepest gratitude to the Government of Indonesia for their generosity and hospitality extended to us in this land of diversity – Bhinneka Tunggal Ika;

Greatly honored in having a Special Session with His Exc. Soesilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the President of the Republic of Indonesia, who expressed the determination of the Government of Indonesia to achieve fundamental right of every child to education and allocate resources as provided in the Constitution and Law and to promote a culture of excellence for education;

Inspired by the opening address by His Exc. Mr. Koïchiro Matsuura, Director General of UNESCO, in which he underlined the importance of the right to basic education in the process of Education for All (EFA);

Guided by the perspective provided by the Vice President of the Republic of Indonesia, His Exc. Muhammad Jusuf Kalla in his inaugural address, in which he emphasized that the right to basic education carries with it, the responsibilities as well;

Finding it commendable that the Act on National Education System of Indonesia (2003) guarantees the right to basic education as a fundamental human right as well as provides the legal framework for its financing;

Bearing in mind increasing evidence that the right to education is a prerequisite for the defense and enjoyment of all other human rights, and degree to which education is instrumental for enhancing democracy and social and cultural development, and recognizing education, especially basic education, as a public good;

Appreciating that the Conference provided an occasion to share experiences on the mechanism of formulating legal framework for education and advancing EFA in a spirit of friendship and cooperation to promote right to basic education as a fundamental right for all;

Bearing in mind that UNESCO has a key role to promote the right to education as an integral part of its constitutional mandate and that the Organization has principal role and responsibility in the UN System in the field of right to education, and appreciating UNESCO’s work in this field;

Adopt solemnly the Declaration on the Right to Basic Education as a Fundamental Human Right and the Legal Framework for Its Financing:

I. We emphasize that the right to education is an internationally recognized right in its interrelationship with the right to development; and that the legal and constitutional protection of this right is indispensable to its full realization.

We are of the view that the shift from the Commission on Human Rights to the proposed council on human rights should not result in down-grading the economic, social and cultural rights, of which right to education forms the core element. The right to education is a measurable right, whose normative content and interrelated essential features are clearly defined by the General Comment 13 on the article 13 - right to education - of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, elaborated by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR).

II. We recommend to UNESCO, to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and to the intellectual community (i) undertake in a comparative perspective the analysis of provisions on the right to basic education in constitution and laws, (ii) to highlight the ‘best practices’ for promoting basic education in the countries whose Constitutions or laws contain provisions and implement the right to basic education, (iii) to conduct reflection for providing operational definition of basic education universally accepted, on the basis of which this right can be monitored.

We urge States (i) to provide for the right to basic education in the constitutions and in laws, with a focus on EFA, and (ii) to take measures for its effective implementation, taking into account the legal culture and government priorities. We recommend that in order to inform world community about good practices, UNESCO in cooperation with the European Association for Education Law and Policy (ELA) should be encouraged to create a data bank on the right to education, including the constitutions, legislation and policy plans. It is also important to prepare a glossary of educational legislation;

III. The fundamental principles of non-discrimination and equality of educational opportunities are of key importance to govern the implementation of the right to education. We consider that it is important (i) to promote quality education with emphasis on quality learning outcome, rights-based schools which are child-friendly and respectful of human rights and moral values, are inclusive and welcome diversity (ii) to improve working conditions of teachers, both in public and private educational establishments and to make teaching profession more attractive for which legislation should set standards, and (iii) to ensure full respect of minority and language rights. Governments, community, parents and teachers all have a role and responsibility in this respect.

IV. On the basis of the four pioneering national experiences on financing education through a legal framework, namely Indonesia, Nigeria, India and Brazil, which we examined in detail, we recommend that (i) Governments elaborate legal framework for financing education, (ii) the CESCR considers means of generalizing this approach through discussions within country reports; (iii) to encourage private sector to enter into partnerships with governments for equitably sharing responsibilities and dedicate more investment to educational activities which have been proved to be economically rewarding and have direct impact on employment, productivity and poverty eradication; (iv) that international financial institutions give priority to financing educational projects specially as incentives to countries to promote EFA; (iv) designing legal framework be based upon public financing principles. Resource mobilization for financing education at national and international level deserves new international thinking, in both terms of fund raising and international partnerships for the right to education.

V. The Conference was a landmark in examining the follow up to the resolutions 2005/21 on the right to education adopted by the Commission on Human Rights. We suggest that: (i) the Chairperson of the Commission on Human Rights should present this Declaration to the forthcoming session of the Commission, and that (ii) the representative from Indonesia to UNESCO’s Executive Board should present this Declaration to the UNESCO’s Executive Board at its forthcoming session, with the expectation that this Declaration is followed up.

VI. W are encouraged by the fact that the Conference provided a forum for the specialists and experts for exchange of experience and professional accomplishments and planning action for establishment of networks/partnership to promote the right to education as a fundamental human right;

VII. We express our appreciation that on the occasion of the Conference, a Special Session on the role of Parliamentarians for promoting right to basic education for all was organized and we recommend to UNESCO that drawing upon the experience of Forum of African Parliamentarians For Education (FAPED), it is important to create a Forum of South and East Asian Parliamentarians for this purpose which could be broadened subsequently.