GI-ESCR supports a workshop on the right to education and the Abidjan Principles in Saudi Arabia
Ms Nouf Albluwi, National Human Right Officer, OHCHR
On February 23rd and 24th 2020, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Technical Cooperation Project (OHCHR TCP) and the Saudi Human Rights Commission brought together officials from the Ministry of Education, the National Center for Privatization, and GI-ESCR, to discuss the impacts of privatisation on the right to education and the relevant human rights standards, including the Abidjan Principles on the right to education.
This discussion comes at a time when the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) adopted Vision 2030, their development agenda, which aims to ‘build an education system aligned with market needs’. This plan proposes an increase in the activity of private sector in the education system, for instance through the transfer of some public schools to private management.
Privatisation and the right to education
Ashina Mtsumi, a Legal and Policy Officer at GI-ESCR, and Nouf Albluwi from OHCHR TCP led participants in unpacking the elements of the right to education, the various ways private actors can be involved in education systems, and the evolving conceptualisation of privatisation. This was an occasion to discuss the forms, trends and impacts of increasing private involvement in education as documented in various contexts, including the particular risks of commercial private actors, and relate this to the context of the right to education in Saudi Arabia.
Contextualising the Abidjan Principles
The participants had a chance to review the Abidjan Principles, discussing how they were relevant to the Saudi Arabian context and particularly the plans to increase private sector operations in the education system. This was an occasion to bring the right to education to the core of policy debates. Using the 10 Overarching Principles of the Abidjan Principles as a guide, recommendations to the Saudi Human Rights Commission were developed focusing on including the right to education in the implementation plans for their Vision 2030.
You can see highlights of the discussion in Arabic here: https://twitter.com/HRCSaudi/status/1231458667548966912?s=20
The Arabic version of the Abidjan Principles is available here (Note the Arabic version of the Abidjan Principles is not an official translation): https://www.abidjanprinciples.org/en/principles/overview