EU Statement – UN General Assembly 3rd Committee: Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Ms. Farida SHAHEED

Chair,

The European Union welcomes the report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to education. 

The EU and its Member States reaffirm the right to education for all, without discrimination of any kind, and our commitment to achieving SDG 4. 

Your report addresses the impacts of the growing debt crisis, the prioritization of debt servicing and fiscal adjustment in limiting States’ ability to invest in essential public services, including in education, with unequal effects on marginalized groups. 

Sustained public financing is key to achieve free, equal, inclusive and quality education. The international financial architecture can shape States’ capacity to comply with their minimum core obligations under ICESCR, including the mobilization of maximum available resources and refraining from adopting regressive measures that undermine the realization of economic, social and cultural rights. 

The EU supports efforts to enhance debt transparency, responsible lending and borrowing, and effective debt relief mechanisms to enable long-term, rights-based development strategies. Strengthening tax systems, tackling illicit financial flows, and improving governance are also necessary to accelerate progress towards the SDGs. Moving beyond GDP is also essential to designing human rights economies, including through advancing the right to education.

These efforts must be supported by effective, accountable and inclusive institutions and a global financial system that allows all countries to mobilise resources. Finally, the meaningful participation of youth on issues that directly concern them is key.

The EU and its Member States remain the world’s largest official development assistance donor and the main investor in education worldwide, investing more than 10% of its International Partnerships budget, over 6 billion EUR, to education. 

Madam Special Rapporteur, 

What best practices can States, IFIs and the international community implement as priority measures to allow for adequate public financing to advance the right to education?