rights progressively (including the right to education); and provide judicial remedies.115
However, there is a lack of international enforcement power to ensure that this occurs, except
for political sanctions and monitoring by international organisations such as CESCR.116
Where the justiciability of the right to education is guaranteed in State legislation,
accountability of the State for breaches of the right to education will be ensured.
Individuals must be able to have legal recourse where their right to education has been
violated, as they are the beneficiaries of the right.117 The ability for individuals to invoke the
right to education before a judicial or quasi-judicial body is fundamental to the existence and
continued strengthening of the right. It is critical that individuals know about the avenues for
redress and possible remedies.118 To achieve this, individuals must receive minimum basic
education so that they are empowered to seek redress.119 This somewhat circular proposition
means that where individuals receive minimum basic education, the justiciability of the right
to education will be assured as the judicial processes are more likely to be accessible to all.120
Interaction between domestic law and international instruments on the right to
education
As discussed above, jurisprudence has increasingly confirmed the justiciability of the right to
education.121 However, the enforceability of the right to education depends on where the right
115
UN Special Rapporteur on Education, E/CN.4/2005/50 17 December 2004, http://daccessdds.un.org
/doc/UNDOC/GEN/G04/171/40/PDF/G0417140.pdf?OpenElement (last accessed 27 March 2007)
para 52; see also CESCR General Comment 3: The nature of States parties obligations, 5th session
14 December 1990 http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(symbol)/CESCR+General+comment+3.En?Ope
nDocument (last accessed 27 March 2007) especially at paras 2, 5, 9. The Supreme Court of India
interprets the right to education to encompass a citizen’s right to call upon the State to provide
educational facilities to him within the limits of its economic capacity and development – Unni
Krishnan JP v State of Andhra Pradesh (1993) 1 SCC 645, at 737 para 181, 182.
116
UNESCO(CR)/ECOSOC(CESCR) Joint Expert Group on the Monitoring of the Right to Education
Justiciability of the Right to Education 175 EX/28 12-13 May 2006, at paras 3, 7 and 10. Some
international instruments include a specific time limit for the implementation of certain aspects of the
right to education – Freeman, Van Ert, International Human Rights Law, 2004, at 79.
117
UNESCO (CR)/ECOSOC (CESCR) Joint Expert Group on the Monitoring of the Right to
Education, Justiciability of the Right to Education 175EX/28 12 - 13 May 2006, para 1.
118
UNESCO (CR)/ECOSOC (CESCR) Joint Expert Group on the Monitoring of the Right to
Education, Justiciability of the Right to Education 175EX/28 12 - 13 May 2006, para 19.
119
UNESCO(CR)/ECOSOC(CESCR) Joint Expert Group on the Monitoring of the Right to Education
Justitiability of the Right to Education 175 EX/28 12 - 13 May 2006, at para 19.
120
UNESCO(CR)/ECOSOC(CESCR) Joint Expert Group on the Monitoring of the Right to Education
Justitiability of the Right to Education 175 EX/28 12 - 13 May 2006, at para 19.
121
Dilcia Yean y Violeta Bosica (Case No 12 189) Inter-American Commission on Human Rights,
22 February 2001 and Unni Krishnan JP v State of Andhra Pradesh (1993) 1 SCC 645, at para 183,
page 738. Autism Europe v France Complaint No. 13/2002 Committee of Social Rights. Freeman, Van
Ert, International Human Rights Law, 2004, at 79; UNESCO CESCR General Comment no. 3 The
nature of State party obligations Article 2, 5th session 14 December 1990, http://www.unhchr.ch/tbs/do
66