New NORRAG Book "Realizing the Abidjan Principles on the Right to Education"

Human Rights, Public Education, and the Role of Private Actors in Education

‘Realizing the Abidjan Principles on the Right to Education: Human Rights, Public Education, and the Role of Private Actors in Education was published in May 2021 and presented during a CIES 2021 panel session chaired by Professor Gita Steiner-Khamsi, Director of NORRAG. The volume is edited by Frank Adamson, Assistant Professor of Education Leadership at California State University; Sylvain Aubry, Research and Legal Advisor at The Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; Mireille de Koning, Program Officer in the Open Society Education Support Program at Open Society Foundations and Delphine Dorsi, Director of the Right to Education Initiative (RTE).

This is the third volume of the open-access book series entitled NORRAG Series in International Education and Development, published by E. Elgar Cheltenham, UK. The books in the series intend to generate an international debate on emerging trends in education and provide space for authors that represent diverse perspectives and knowledge communities.

This insightful book analyses the process of the first adoption of guiding human rights principles for education, the Abidjan Principles. It explains the development of the Abidjan Principles, including their articulation of the right to education, the state obligation to provide quality public education, and the role of private actors in education.

Multidisciplinary in approach, both legal and education scholars address key issues on the right to education, including parental rights in education, the impact of school choice, and evidence about inequities arising from private involvement in education at the global level.

Focusing on East African and Francophone countries, as well as the global level, chapters explore the role and impact of private actors and privatization in education. The book concludes by calling for the rights outlined in the Abidjan Principles not to remain locked in text, but for states to take responsibility and be held to account for delivering them, as promised in international human rights treaties.

Interpreting human rights law as requiring that states provide a quality public education, this book will be a valuable resource for academics and students of education policy, human rights, and education law. It will also be beneficial for policy makers, practitioners, and advocacy groups working on the right to education.

Watch the video presentations in our showcase

A launch event took place on 15 June 2021 featuring editors and authors of the book for a panel discussion.

Download the brochure

Read this open access book at the Edward Elgar website (From: May 2021)

Contents of the book:

1. Chapter 1: Developing Human Rights Guiding Principles on State Obligations Regarding Private Education (Sylvain Aubry, Mireille de Koning, & Frank Adamson)

Part I: The Contours of the Human Right to Education

2. Chapter 2: Human Rights Guiding Principles: A Forward-Looking Retrospective (Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona)
3. Chapter 3: Is there a Right to Public Education? (Jacqueline Mowbray)
4. Chapter 4: Parental Rights in Education under International Law: Nature and Scope (Roman Zinigrad)
5. Chapter 5: State funding of Private Education: The Role of Human Rights (Sandra Fredman)

Part II: What Education Research Reveals

6. Chapter 6: Evidence on School Choice and the Human Right to Education (Joanna Härmä)
7. Chapter 7: How and Why Policy Design Matters: Understanding the Diverging Effects of Public-Private Partnerships in Education (Antoni Verger, Mauro C. Moschetti, and Clara Fontdevila)
8. Chapter 8: The Growth of Private Actors in Education in East Africa (Linda Oduor-Noah)
9. Chapter 9: The Evolution and Forms of Education Privatization within Francophone Countries (Marie-France Lange)
10. Chapter 10: Synthesizing the Research to Strengthen the Implementation of the Abidjan Principles (Frank Adamson, Delphine Dorsi, and Magdalena Sepúlveda Carmona)

Annex
The Abidjan Principles Process and the Ten Overarching Principles