Right To Literacy :: Declarations

Why A Literacy Declaration?

ELI Net: 2015 by Renate Valtin

European Declaration

In Europe we face serious literacy challenges: one in five 15-year-olds and nearly 55 million adults lack basic literacy skills and in the last 10 years there has been little improvement in the levels of literacy in Europe. International ELINET experts have discovered that the Universal Declaration is too unspecific with regard to literacy.

Literacy has been recognized as a human right for over 50 years in several international declarations and initiatives. Since its creation, UNESCO has promoted literacy as a right: 1975 Persepolis Declaration, 1997 Hamburg Declaration, 2006-2015 Literacy Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE), with a focus on those countries that face the biggest literacy challenges, mainly in Africa and Asia.

Everyone in Europe has the right to acquire literacy. EU Member States should ensure that people of all ages, regardless of social class, religion, ethnicity, origin and gender, are provided with the necessary resources and opportunities to develop sufficient and sustainable literacy skills in order to effectively understand and use written communication be in handwritten, in print or digital form.

A European Declaration of the Right to Literacy was thus developed to re-emphasize this universal right.  READ MORE >>

The Fundamental Right to Literacy: Relitigating the Fundamental Right to Education After Rodriguez and Plyler

NLG Review: Spring 2016 by Malhar Shah

In 1973, and again in 1982, the Supreme Court of the United States avoided addressing whether education is a fundamental right guaranteed by the United States Constitution. Subsequent federal courts have, unfortunately, mistakenly interpreted those two opinions as holding that education is not a fundamental right, even in the absence of language indicating such a holding. In the 1973 case, San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez, the Supreme Court rejected a challenge to a Texas city’s school funding scheme and refused to reach the fundamental right issue because “[e]ven if it were conceded that some identifiable quantum of education is a constitutionally protected prerequisite to the meaningful exercise of either right, we have no indication that the present levels of educational expenditures in Texas provide an education that falls short.” In its 1982 opinion, Plyler v. Doe, the Supreme Court invalidated a Texas statute prohibiting undocumented children from receiving a public education under the Equal Protection Clause of the Four­teenth Amendment without reaching the fundamental right question. But the Plyler Court’s opinion, when addressing the total deprivation of education experienced by undocumented children, implicitly identified deprivation of basic literacy skills as the line below which states could not fall.

This article is intended, in five sections, to pick up where the Plyler Court left off and to serve as the substantive basis for potential litigation seeking to secure a holding that the U.S. Constitution guarantees the fundamental right to acquire basic literacy skills.  READ MORE >>

Functional Literacy: A Path To Progress

OWP: 5.02.2017 by Lavanyaa Rhaasa

Fifty-one years after the first International Literacy Day was held in 1966, literacy has been disseminated rapidly to young people, women, and adults globally. As the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights makes clear, education is fundamental human right. However, the 1975 Persepolis Declaration, the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) goes further by explicitly recognizing literacy as a right. Literacy is not just the ability to read, but also the ability to use that skill in everyday life, such as through filling out governmental forms and accessing health or education services. This is called functional literacy. It is a tool for self-empowerment and political, social and economic mobility. It is a prevention strategy for conflict. It decreases poverty and breaks down gender disparity in societies. However, its potential for creating stability and peace in developing nations is often overlooked. More value needs to be given to literacy programs and more money, and resources need to invested long-term into education. If Western countries wish to prevent involvement in direct conflict abroad, they’d benefit by promoting literacy.

As the Persepolis Declaration states, “Literacy is not an end in itself. It is a fundamental human right,” which is a principle that was echoed by former UN General Secretary Kofi Annan.  READ MORE >>