PEHRC members participate in UNESCO’s International Symposium on the Future of the Right to Education

December 15, 2025

On Human Rights Day, a number of PEHRC members joined leading figures in education policy and practise from across the world at UNESCO’s International Symposium on the Future of the Right to Education in Paris. During the event, UNESCO launched its new report The right to education: past, present and future directions, which includes a section on non-state education.

Highlights from PEHRC members at the Symposium: 

Antoine Duwa, from Global Student Forum (GSF), presented the views of students and underscored the need for the right to education to “become a lived reality for all learners, everywhere”. Read more about GSF’s participation in their blog here. 

Delphine Dorsi, Director of the Right to Education Initiative, spoke on the panel Higher education as a space of intersecting human rights. She focused on equitable access to higher education responding to the question, “what is needed to advance or better implement the right to education?”. The conversation with the audience was very stimulating and inspiring, linking the right to education with academic freedom and science research. Delphine Dorsi also took the floor in one of the sessions on the future of the right to education - listen to her contribution at 5:05 of the recording here. 

Reflecting back on the Symposium, Delphine Dorsi noted the increasing participation of youth representatives who contributed their perspectives and experiences, which added great value to the conversation. During the Symposium, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education drew attention to a recently launched initiative, the Right to Education Youth Network.

Dr. David Edwards, General Secretary, Education International gave a powerful statement on the vital importance of the right to education: 

“We are actually talking about the future itself…Without the right to education, all of the other rights, human rights, are out of reach. Our democratic systems are completely undermined. The very concept of human rights is diminished because school is not only where we learn about our rights, how to claim them and uphold them for ourselves and others, it’s where we bring them to the next generation. It’s where we uphold them and realise them going forward.”

Watch part of his contribution here.