I Book Review: Education Denied – Costs and Remedies
| Published date | 01 March 2005 |
| DOI | 10.1177/016934410502300110 |
| Date | 01 March 2005 |
| Subject Matter | Part D: DocumentationI Book Review |
I BOOK REVIEWS
Katarina Tomas
ˇevski,
Education Denied – Costs and Remedies
, Zed Books,
London, 2003, xiv + 205 p., ISBN 1-84277-251-1 (Pb)*
If one would think of developments that have contributed to putting the right to
education on the international human rights agenda, then the carrying out of the
mandate by the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education should certainly
be mentioned. The author of the book to be reviewed here was the first to hold this
position (1998-2004). She argued with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights and the UN Commission on Human Rights about the interpretation
of her mandate and the lack of support for her efforts to enhance the visibility of the
right to education.
1
On more substantive issues she repeatedly emphasised the
essential role of the right to education as a vehicle for social and personal
development and as a key right that embodies the interdependence of all human
rights. The present book is mainly based on the materials and information she
compiled and analysed in her capacity as Special Rapporteur and the reports she
submitted to the UN Commission on Human Rights. It departs from the premise
that in global debates there is much emphasis on the cost of providing education,
while there is reluctance to affirm that education is a human right. At the same time
there is silence about the cost of denying education for the individual and society as
a whole. The book integrates educational, economic, social, cultural and fiscal
perspectives into the concept of the right to education as a human right that are
relevant for a proper understanding of the costs and denial of education. Through
this multidimensional approach the book is original and interesting. It is divided
into three parts. The first part discusses why there is a human right to education and
which legal framework has been developed to claim the right to education and hold
duty-bearers accountable. The second part is about the current global approach to
education which denies that education is a human right. Instead this approach puts
more emphasis on the cost of providing education and the idea that education is a
service which means that other actors than just the State may be involved in decision-
making. The final part deals with the question how the human rights framework can
be put back into the education sector again, by reclaiming the full enjoyment of the
right to education, human rights safeguards in education and human rights through
education. The message of the book is to show and explain why rights-based
education makes a difference compared to merely an economic or fiscal approach.
One of the main arguments of the author is that making education available,
accessible, acceptable and adaptable requires political will and specific choices and
targeted policies. Non-realisation cannot be said to be exclusively due to a lack of
PART D: DOCUMENTATION
Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, Vol. 23/1, 151-167, 2005.
#Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM), Printed in the Netherlands. 151
* Fons Coomans, Centre for Human Rights, Maastricht University, the Netherlands. The book is also
available in a Spanish translation: Katarina Tomasˇevski, El Asalto a la Educacio
´n, Intermo´n Oxfam,
Barcelona, 2004, ISBN 84 8452-249-0.
1
See the interview with Katarina Tomasˇevski in Human Rights Features, 5-12 April 2004, available at
www.right-to-education.org.
To continue reading
Request your trial