Cristina Maria Frăsie Otovescua, Maria Pescarub
aUniversitatea din Craiova, Craiova, Romania
bUniversitatea
Abstract
Education is very important nowadays. That is why, several states fight for the achievement of a favorable framework for field education. Thus, through the UNESCO Convention regarding the fight against discrimination in education, the states parties must eliminate discrimination in education and promote both the equality of opportunities and treatment for any person in this field.
Keywords: education; the human rights; discrimination; teaching; convention The manifestation of education occurs in ancient times. Plato defined education as being "the art of forming good habits or of developing the native skills for virtue of those who make use of them."
Education is a condition for the exercise of most of the human rights. The right of each person to education is, in fact, a right to knowledge, enlightenment, which is central in the human rights system. This right is a sine qua non condition for the exercise of the other rights and fundamental freedoms upon which effective development and fulfillment of human personality depends. The main component of the right to education is the right to education, stated in a number of international instruments, but which many of Earth's inhabitants do not know or do not treat as an individual need. The education for young people to obey human rights and fundamental freedoms, to eliminate discrimination in the education system is included in the concept of right to education. To ensure the effective exercise of this right there is, at an international level, a variety of instruments establishes the right to education as an essential right to any civilized society. There were also produced various studies and programs to combat illiteracy, discrimination in education, etc1.
Thus, the right to information, freedom of expression, the right to take part in public life, the right to elect and be elected, shall not be exercised without any minimum level of education.2.
The right to education means a variety of rights and freedoms that parents and children have, which correspond to a series of state obligations. This right is regarded as an economic, social and cultural right, as well as a right of civil and political nature. "The state
1 I.Cloşcă , I. Suceavă , Tratat de Drepturile Omului, Editura Europa Nova, 1995, p. 265
2 N. Purdă, N. Diaconu, Protecția juridică a drepturilor omului, Editura Universul Juridic, Bucureşti, 2007, p.182
Petrescu Ana-Maria, Stăncescu Ioana / Procedia – Edu World 2010
has the duty to ensure pluralism in education, but may impose some obligations on educational institutions or individuals.”3.
The United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture4. (UNESCO) has begun operations in November 4, 1946, and Romania became a member of UNESCO in 1956. The aim of the organization is to help maintain peace and international security through education, science, culture and communications, to develop cooperation among nations to ensure the universal respect for justice and law and human rights and fundamental freedoms which the United Nation Charter recognizes for all persons without discrimination of race, sex, language or religion, etc.. U.N.E.S.C.O. is an intergovernmental organization with the status of specialized agency which operates on several levels:5
• by actions with normative character, elaboration of projects, of international conventions and resolutions that are proposed to the Member States for adoption;
• by re-running dysfunctional education systems after hostilities, reopening of cultural institutions (museums, libraries) and restoration of cultural and scientific links;
• by undertaking pilot actions;
• by spreading educational directives to enable the peoples of each country to promote national cultural values and cultural heritage conservation, etc.
Actions initiated under U.N.E.S.C.O. have different themes and they included, among others: the problem of youth (1964), cultural and scientific cooperation at European level (1966), training and use of human resources (1966) etc6.
This Convention7 was adopted by the General Conference of the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture on 14 December 1960 and entered into force on May 22, 1962, under provisions of Art. 14. Romania ratified the Convention on April 20, 1964 by Decree no. 149, published in the “Official Gazette of Romania“, Part I, no. 5 of 20 April 1964.
Under the provisions of Article 1 the two words: discrimination and education are presented.
According to this Convention, the term discrimination includes any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference which, being based on race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, economic condition or birth, has as purpose or as result the suppression or alteration of equal treatment as regards education and in particular:
1. Of depriving any person or group from access to various types or educational degrees;
2. limitation of a person or group to a lower level of education;
3. Subject to the provisions of article 2 of this Convention, the establishment or maintainance of separate educational systems or institutions for persons or groups, or
placing a person or group in a situation incompatible with human dignity.
3 B. Selejan Guţan, Protecţia europeană a drepturilor omului, Ediţia a 2-a, Editura C.H.Beck, Bucureşti, 2006, p.195
4 B. Selejan Guţan, Protecţia europeană a drepturilor omului, Ediţia a 2-a, Editura C.H.Beck, Bucureşti, 2006, p.195
5 M. Mihăilă, Elemente de drept internaţional public şi privat, Editura All Beck, Bucureşti, 2001, p. 118
6 N. Ecobescu, Drepturile omului în lumea contemporană, Editura Politică, Bucureşti, 1983, p. 608
7 N. Ecobescu, Drepturile omului în lumea contemporană, Editura Politică, Bucureşti, 1983, p. 608
Petrescu Ana-Maria, Stăncescu Ioana / Procedia – Edu World 2010
For the purposes of this Convention, the term education refers to different types and different degrees of education and includes access to education, its standard and quality as well as the conditions under which it is taught.
To eliminate or prevent any discrimination, participating States shall8:
1. repeal all legislative and administrative provisions and to end any administrative practices which involve discrimination in the field of Education;
2. take necessary measures, if necessary through legislation to make no discrimination in admission of students in educational institutions;
3. Not to allow, in terms of tuition fees, award of scholarships or other forms of aid to students, licensing or facilities that may be required to follow their studies abroad, no difference in treatment between nationals by authorities, except those based on merit or need;
4. not to accept, if any help, given under any form by public authorities, any restrictions or preference based solely on the ground that pupils belong to a group;
5. To give foreign national residents who live in their territory the same access to education as to their own nationals.
According to Art. 4, States Parties shall make primary education compulsory and free, to generalize and make secondary education in all its different forms to be accessible to all, depending on individual capacity under conditions of full equality, higher education, to ensure enforcement of the obligation by all school prescribed by law. The education quality should be identical in all public educational institutions of the same degree. People who have not attended primary school or have not completed it should be encouraged to pursue their studies according to their skills. Also, preparing for the teaching profession must be ensured without discrimination.
State Party to this Convention agree 9:
1. Education shall be directed to the full development of human personality and strengthening respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and that it should promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations and all racial or religious groups and United Nations development activities to maintain peace;
2. It is necessary to respect the liberty of parents and, where applicable, legal guardians in certain circumstances, namely:
o To choose for their children educational institutions different from those of the state, but appropriate to minimum standards that can be prescribed or approved by the competent authorities;
To ensure, according to the manners of application specific to each state law, religious education and moral development of children in accordance with their own convictions, also any person or any group should not be compelled to receive a religious instruction inconsistent with their beliefs.
3. It is necessary that national minorities have the right to pursue their own educational activities acknowledged, including maintenance of schools and, according to each state policy on education, to use or teach in their own language, but provided that :
8 N. Ecobescu, Drepturile omului în lumea contemporană, Editura Politică, Bucureşti, 1983, p. 608
9 Art. 5, Ibidem
Petrescu Ana-Maria, Stăncescu Ioana / Procedia – Edu World 2010
o This right is not exercised in a manner that would prevent members of minority from understanding the language and culture of the entire community and from taking part in its activities, or from prejudicing national sovereignty;
o The doctrine taught in these schools should not be lower to the general level prescribed or approved by the competent authorities, and
o Attendance at such schools should be optional.
States Parties to this Convention will have to prepare regular reports which they will present to the General Conference of the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture.
In Art. 8 stating: "Any dispute between two or more countries involved in fuck the present Convention, regarding the interpretation, or application of this Convention and which will not have been settled by negotiations shall be submitted at the request of parents in dispute, to the International Court of Justice so that it should decide in this issue without any other dispute settlement procedures."
The Convention was conducted in English, French, Russian and Spanish, the four texts being equally authentic. The Convention was opened for accession to any State which is not a member of the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture, invited to do so by the Executive Council of the Organization. Accession shall be effected by depositing an instrument of accession with the Director General of the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture.
The provisions of art. 15 state that each State Party to this Convention acknowledges that it is applied not only to their metropolitan territory but also to all self-governing, non under guardianship, colonial and other territories whose international relations are ensured, they undertake to consult, if necessary, the governments or other competent authorities of the so-called territories at the time of ratification, acceptance or accession or in advance in order to achieve implementation of the Convention to those territories, and to notify the Director General of the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture, territories to which the Convention shall apply, this notice will take effect three months after its receipt.
This work was supported by the strategic grant POSDRU/89/1.5/S/61968, Project ID 61968(2009), co-financed by the European Social Fund within the Sectorial Program Human Resources Development 2007-2013.
References
I.Cloşcă , I. Suceavă , Tratat de Drepturile Omului, Editura Europa Nova, 1995,
N. Purdă, N. Diaconu, Protectia juridică a drepturilor omului, Editura Universul Juridic, București, 2007, B. Selejan Guţan, Protecţia europeană a drepturilor omului, Ediţia a 2-a, Editura C.H.Beck, Bucureşti, 2006, M. Mihăilă, Elemente de drept internaţional public şi privat, Editura All Beck, Bucureşti, 2001,
N. Ecobescu, Drepturile omului în lumea contemporană, Editura Politică, Bucureşti, 1983, Convenţia UNESCO privind lupta împotriva discriminării în domeniul învăţământului
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Section 2 – MANAGEMENT OF SCHOOLS
4th International Conference "Education Facing Contemporary World Issues" Piteşti, Romania, 2010, 2010, October
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