2025 has great potential of becoming a milestone year on our path to guaranteeing the right to education worldwide and strengthening SDG 4, as an initiative is currently underway at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva for a new treaty to strengthen the right to free education under international law.
A Human Rights Council Resolution, co-sponsored by 49 countries, including the majority of our fellow EU members, proposed a new optional protocol to the Convention of the Rights of the Child (the UNCRC), to guarantee free pre-primary as well as free secondary education.
This new addition would address a gap left by the 1989 UNCRC, which guarantees all children a right to free primary education, but says nothing about early childhood education or pre-primary education, and does not require governments to make secondary education free for all children.
For millions of children around the world, the cost of education remains one of the most significant barriers to education. And – although nearly 90 percent of children now complete primary education worldwide – only 59 percent complete secondary education, and only half of pre-primary-aged children attend preschool. Globally, only two thirds of students achieve the minimum proficiency level in reading and less than half in mathematics at the end of primary school, with pre-primary education linked to better overall child development (2024/25 GEM Report, chapters 7 to 9).
Ireland is not among the 49 states who originally proposed the additional treaty. But this summer offers a great opportunity for Ireland to get on board with the growing number of supporters.
- The first, will be the interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education during the June session of the UN Human Rights Council.
- The second, the first meeting of the Intergovernmental Working Group tasked with developing the treaty in September in Rome.
This is why we are launching our Campaign for Free Education Worldwide, beginning with a submission to the Intergovernmental Working Group through the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (the OHCHR).
In this submission, we highlight the transformative impact that free education has had in Ireland — which already exceeds the standards envisioned in the proposed new treaty. We believe Ireland’s experience and the evidence presented in the submission, can serve as a powerful source of inspiration for shaping an ambitious and effective new treaty for free education.
We will campaign to encourage the Irish government to build on its strong track record and deep commitment to realising the right to education for every child by publicly voicing its support for a strong treaty that guarantees free education for all children, from pre-primary through secondary. We will also work to ensure Ireland engages positively in the first meeting of the Intergovernmental Working Group and to help advance this vital initiative.
In the coming days and weeks, we’ll be reaching out to our members to build momentum and roll out this campaign more broadly. In the meantime, you can visit our campaign page here, read our OHCHR submission, show your support by sharing on LinkedIn, and stay tuned for more updates!
