Right to study free of charge

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A right to free education studying there in Germany (no longer). However, opponents of tuition fees demand such a right. A legal minor opinion is that such a right can be derived from the UN social pact.

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Opponents of tuition fees try (legally unsuccessful) to claim a right to free studies from Article 13.2.c of the multilateral international treaty of the United Nations, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (also IPwskR, UN Pact I or UN Social Pact called). The social pact was passed unanimously on December 19, 1966 by the General Assembly of the United Nations . The rights enshrined in the pact apply to all people without discrimination. Its compliance is monitored by a corresponding UN committee.

right to education

The right to free studies, which came into force with the adoption of the UN Social Pact, is part of a whole series of specifications of the right to education, which was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.

In article 13 of the IPwskR it says

  1. States parties recognize the right of everyone to education. They agree that education must be directed towards the full development of the human personality and the awareness of their dignity and must strengthen respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. They also agree that education must enable everyone to play a useful role in a free society, that it foster understanding, tolerance and friendship among all peoples and all racial, ethnic and religious groups, and that it promote the work of the United Nations for preservation of peace.
  2. States parties recognize that, with a view to the full realization of this right
    • (...)
    • higher education must be made accessible to everyone equally according to their abilities in any suitable way, in particular through the gradual introduction of free of charge;

Compliance with the UN social pact

According to the free association of student bodies (fzs for short), the Federal Republic of Germany violates this right by introducing general tuition fees by the federal states. The introduction of tuition fees in some federal states is therefore contrary to international law and not permitted. The action before the UN Social Committee is intended to ensure that the federal government must guarantee compliance with the pact.

The Education and Science Union (GEW) also sees a violation of the pact. Together with the fzs, she wrote a statement to the UN committee. In their opinion, this report proves that the introduction of tuition fees in Germany is in contradiction to the social pact and thus violates applicable international law.

On October 24, the parliamentary state secretary at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research , Andreas Storm, commented on the report by fzs and GEW as part of a Bundestag question time. Cornelia Hirsch ( Die Linke ) asked about the Federal Government's position on the report:

The Federal Government is of the opinion that the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of December 19, 1966 does not contain a ban on the introduction of tuition fees. It is crucial that access remains independent of the financial strength of the individual. In its tuition fee ruling of January 26, 2005, the Federal Constitutional Court did not see a prohibition on tuition fees in the contract, but cited the pact as an expression and specification of the responsibility of the federal and state governments in the social welfare state.

The Federal Government assumes that the federal states will take into account the objectives and the regulations of the pact when designing their tuition fee systems as a specification of their welfare state obligations. At the same time as the tuition fees, all of the countries that levy tuition fees have introduced low-interest, parent-income-independent loans for socially acceptable design. Regardless of the introduction of tuition fees, equal opportunities for access to university studies are also ensured by the BAföG. Against this background, the Federal Government is of the opinion that no violations of the pact are recognizable.

Lawsuits against tuition fees

Lawsuits by student representatives or individual students in administrative courts have so far been rejected with mostly similar grounds. The Higher Administrative Court of Münster in North Rhine-Westphalia, for example, has dismissed a lawsuit by the Paderborn General Student Committee (AStA) against the tuition fees in the state on the grounds that “the UN social pact on economic, cultural and social rights is only to be understood as a goal and nationally as directly applicable law could not be applied. "

The Hanover Administrative Court issued a similar ruling on a student's complaint.

University Framework Act

In 2001 the Red-Green Federal Government tried to establish a ban on tuition fees and thus a right to free studies in the University Framework Act. On January 26, 2005, the Federal Constitutional Court declared the prohibition of tuition fees introduced in 2001 in the University Framework Act to be null and void, as it interfered with the legislative competence of the federal states.

swell

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court: BVerfG, 2 BvF 1/03 of January 26, 2005, paragraph no. (1 - 94)