By Astha Bhumish Shah 

The United Nation’s human rights body, the Human Rights Council on 10 July 2024 approved a proposal advanced by Luxembourg, the Dominican Republic, and Sierra Leone, and cosponsored by 34 other states, to establish a working group of countries to consider and draft a new treaty explicitly recognizing every child’s right to early childhood education, free public pre-primary education, and free public secondary education. The principal international children’s rights treaty, the 1990 Convention on the Rights of the Child, already recognizes a right to free and compulsory primary education. The proposed new treaty would build upon that foundation, recognizing that free primary education alone is insufficient to prepare children to thrive in today’s world. 

Over half a million people signed an open letter from Malala Yousafzai and Vanessa Nakate, sent by the activist group Avaaz, advocating for a new treaty. The treaty seeks to recognize rights to free pre-primary and secondary education through a fourth optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This initiative has received support from children’s rights experts, scholars, and child activists. In a further landmark move, the Human Rights Council also requested today that children be given the opportunity to express their views on the treaty’s substance and participate in the process. This will be the first time that children are consulted and given a voice in the drafting of a new international treaty. 

Countries may join the new working group which is set to meet in 2025. They must act promptly to adopt a treaty because  millions of children should not be made to wait longer before being guaranteed their inherent right to free education, from pre-primary through secondary school. 

Click here to read more.