Blog by Ponke Danker, INEW Coordinator
We have exciting few weeks ahead of us, crucial for our Campaign for Free Education Worldwide.
Next week in Geneva, the United Nations will hold its first official meeting to consider a new treaty to embed the right to free pre-primary and free secondary education in international law. This Fourth Optional Protocol to the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, the UNCRC, would close a gap, guaranteeing that education should be free throughout a child’s schooling.
Irish civil society — spanning aid and development organisations, teacher unions, scholars, and human rights groups — has been clear about how significant we consider this new treaty. We’ve been among the most active in submitting feedback on the proposal to the UN to inform the process (submissions by Early Childhood Ireland, the DCU Early Childhood Research Centre on behalf of a global group of 70 scholars, and INEW representing 29 member organisations here).
But despite the support from over 50 countries, Ireland has not yet expressed its support for the initiative. Together with our partners at OMEP Ireland and the DCU Early Childhood Research Centre, we’ve urged the Irish government to support the process. So too did Plan International Ireland’s Youth Advisory Panel this week.
Yet as of today, it looks likely that next week Ireland won’t be among those backing an efficient process leading to a strong treaty.
That would be a missed opportunity. Ireland’s own history shows how free education expands opportunities for every child, regardless of family income.
This is an experience and value that resonates deeply with the Irish public, who rank education only second after health, amongst the most important priorities for the Irish government to support in our overseas assistance (Dóchas Worldview Survey, p. 63).
Silence now would have Ireland out-of-step with most EU members and the initiative’s many champions in the Global South—at a time when international cooperation is already under pressure. We hope that Ireland will take this vital opportunity to lead by example and reaffirm its role as a principled and unwavering defender of human rights, education, and particularly children’s rights on the world stage.
As we are approaching next week’s meeting fast, our colleagues at OMEP Ireland have a new online webinar on the initiative, and are using the final days before the Geneva meeting to encourage people to contact their TDs to urge Ireland’s support – a campaign that you can still join now.
Meanwhile, we recommend keeping a close eye on the negotiations. They are promising to be historic with young people and children included in the development process in an unprecedented way: next week, five young education activists – from Croatia, Indonesia, Liberia, Mexico, and the UK – will join the negotiations in Geneva. And children themselves will help draft an international treaty that will shape their future. Overdue, yes—but definitely worth celebrating. Over 8,000 children and young people aged from 3 years from 40 countries across five regions already responded to the public call for submissions.
To leave you inspired and excited for the next weeks – which we will cover on our social media and newsletter – here’s a piece by one of the children involved in the process so far. And learn more here about how the process is made accessible to our youth.
With your help, we’ll keep pressing for Ireland to join this historic initiative.
