right to education
The right to education is a human right under Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations of December 10, 1948 and has been expanded to include a cultural human right under Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (IPwskR).
The right to education is also anchored in Article 28 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child . Article 22 of the Geneva Refugee Convention prescribes access to public education, in particular to teaching in elementary schools, also for refugees .
The right to education is regarded as an independent cultural human right and is a central instrument to promote the realization of other human rights. It addresses the human right to free access to education, equal opportunities and school law.
Education is important for people's ability to stand up for their own rights and to work in solidarity for the fundamental rights of others.
This applies to everyone equally without discrimination with regard to race, skin color, gender, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status (Article 2.2 IPwskR).
The pact was passed unanimously by the UN General Assembly on December 19, 1966 and is a multilateral (multi-sided) international law treaty that aims to guarantee compliance with economic, social and cultural human rights.
Central instrument
This human right is a key instrument to promote the realization of other human rights. It addresses the human right to free access to education , equal opportunities and school law . Education is the prerequisite for people's ability to stand up for their own rights and to work in solidarity for the fundamental rights of others.
monitoring
This fundamental right is monitored by both the UN Commission on Human Rights and the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights .
In this context, the UN special rapporteur Vernor Muñoz inspected Germany in February 2006.
Legal classification in Germany
Germany signed the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (IPwskR) on October 9, 1968. The GDR had also recognized the IPwskR, but the right to education (like other human rights) was not implemented in practice (see educational discrimination as an instrument of repression ).
In the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany one is right to education does not explicitly standardized. However, the right to education (opportunities) results from the basic rights laid down in the Basic Law . The elementary basic principle of human dignity forbids arbitrarily denying people educational opportunities. The constitutional principle of equal rights prohibits people from being disadvantaged or favored because of their gender, descent, race, language, homeland and origin, belief, religious or political beliefs or disabilities because of their education.
Some of the state constitutions stipulate further rights. So z. For example, the Constitution of the State of Hesse only charges school or university fees "if the economic situation of the student, his parents or those otherwise liable for maintenance allows it".
Schooling is compulsory in Germany to enforce the right to education . The right to education is thus in conflict with the right of parents to raise their children. Particularly in the area of sex education , parents partially reject the state's demand for information and demand a right to “protect” their children from confrontation with their sexuality. In extreme cases, this leads to school refusal . In order to enable the children to receive a professional education, homeschooling is sometimes required in these cases . Vernor Muñoz is a prominent proponent of this demand .
With the question of compulsory schooling for asylum seekers and foreigners without residence status , there are repeated legal disputes and political discussions about the right to education in Germany, also in the context of the integration of immigrants in the course of the refugee crisis . For example, was the compulsory education for refugee children central to the debate on the draft of a Bavarian Integration Act . In addition, there were court rulings on mixed-sex sports and swimming lessons as well as on wearing a headscarf in school .
See also
literature
- Axel Bernd Kunze: Freedom in thinking and acting. An educational-ethical and socio-ethical foundation of the right to education, Bielefeld 2012.
- Axel Bernd Kunze: Education as a freedom right. A critical interim assessment of the discourse on educational justice, Berlin 2012.
- Claudia Lohrenscheit: The right to human rights education. Frankfurt / Main 2004
- Mona Motakef: The human right to education and protection against discrimination , German Institute for Human Rights, 2006, ISBN 3-937714-19-7 ( available as PDF )
- Marianne Heimbach-Steins, Gerhard Kruip, Axel Bernd Kunze (ed.): The human right to education and its implementation in Germany. Diagnoses - Reflections - Perspectives, Bielefeld 2007, ISBN 978-3-7639-3542-0
- Bernd Overwien, Annedore Pregel (ed.): Right to education. On the visit of the United Nations Special Rapporteur to Germany. Barbara Budrich Verlag, Leverkusen 2007, ISBN 978386649-076-5
- Marianne Heimbach-Steins, Gerhard Kruip, Katja Neuhoff (eds.): Educational paths as obstacle courses. On the human right to education in Germany, Bielefeld 2008, ISBN 978-3-7639-3545-1
- Ralf Poscher, Johannes Rux, Thomas Langer: The Right to Education - Basics of International Law and Internal Implementation, Baden-Baden 2009, ISBN 978-3-8329-4398-1
- Pascal Förster: The right to education in the state constitutions, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-6681-1393-0
Web links
- Research project "Human Right to Education" at the University of Bamberg, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
- " Refugees in Germany - focus on educational aspects ", dossier of the German Education Server (DBS)
- " Education for refugees in an international perspective ", dossier of the DBS portal Education Worldwide
Individual evidence
- ↑ Anja Mihr: Amnesty International in the GDR: The Stasi - Research on Human Rights in the Sight of the Stasi, Research on GDR Society, 2002, ISBN 9783861532637 , p. 37, online
