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UN requests that Chile explain when it will end segregation in educatio

UN requests that Chile explain when it will end segregation in educatio

UN Committee requests that Chile explain when it will end segregation in education and abandon voucher system

 

Press release - 24th March 2015

(Santiago) In a list of issues released on 5th March 2015, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) formally asked the Chilean Government to explain the impact of privatization in education and its measures “to put an end to segregation in the education system and guarantee the right to equality and non-discrimination in terms of access to education and within schools”.

In paragraph 14 of the document, the Committee further requested that Chile “indicate whether there are plans to abandon the voucher system and the student selection process in all public, subsidized and private schools.”

The CRC highlighted in its questions one of the key problems in the Chilean education system: the vouchers, through which the State subsidizes private schools, organizing education as a market. Yet, together with student selection in schools, this system led Chile to be the education system with the highest segregation based on socio-economic origin in the world. The Government is now trying to reform the system to address some of the issues, following massive student protests in 2011

The clear questions on vouchers, student selection, and segregation within the list of issues represents an important development.  Besides bringing important elements of reflection for the reforms in Chile, it also sends a strong sign to other States, such as Morocco, which may be tempted to adopt a similar voucher system as Chile.

The list of issues presented by the CRC follows a report from a coalition of Chilean and international organizations raising concerns about the effect of privatization in education in Chile on the realization of human rights. The report was prepared by the Sciences Po Paris Law School Human Rights Clinic and the Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, working in partnership with the Foro por el Derecho a la Educación, the Red de Estudios para la profundización Democrática, the Latin American Campaign for the Right to Education, the Privatisation in Education Research Initiative, the Right to Education Project, Education International, the Global Campaign for Education, and the Equal Education Law Centre.

In December 2014, another UN human rights body, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) had already called attention to the same issues, following another report from the same group of organizations. The CESCR had asked the Chilean State to report on “any measures adopted to eliminate fee-paying and selective systems that restrict equitable access to education and indicate what concrete steps the State party has taken to reduce the inequality caused by the current education system”.

The organizations involved in the report now stand ready to contribute to the debate on the reform of the education system in Chile. They will keep on working on this topic with the Chilean civil society in the coming months, as the State party is requested to respond in writing to the questions from the CRC by 15 June 2015. The State of Chile will then be formally reviewed before the CRC during its 70th Session between 14th September and 2nd October 2015, in presence of representatives of the Chilean Government, following which the CRC will issue concluding observations. Before that, Chile will also be reviewed before the CESCR, on 9th and 10th June 2015.

END

Full CSO report on http://bit.ly/1xelYDh

Summary of the report available on http://globalinitiative-escr.org/?p=1712

List of issues available on http://bit.ly/1OuHjh1

For further information or comment please contact

Chilean Forum for the Right to Education:  Francis Valverde +56998441718 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Red de Estudio para la profundización Democrática (Chile): Camila Cociña +447402984293 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Campaña Latinoamericana por el Derecho a la Educación: Tatiana Hirano +55 11 9 9103 4200 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Sylvain Aubry +254 7 88 28 96 34 / This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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We will mainstream rights-based and genderjust transition priorities in key multilateral spaces (particularly, within the Just Transition Work Programme and the to-be-developed Just Transition Mechanism, within the UNFCCC) to guarantee that just transitions are advanced at all levels.

We will also translate our work, through strategic advocacy, into at least two concrete policy wins, whether promoted, adopted, implemented, or scaled, in priority countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, South Africa, or Kenya), ensuring these policies align with human rights standards, centre gender equality, and reflect the needs and views of affected communities.

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Our work has transformed the global discussion on fiscal policy in a more just, emancipatory and sustainable direction. Our approach has combined both high-level, expert contributions within decisionmaking circles, with bold, impactful work on narrative change with the general public.

We have been instrumental in the inclusion of human rights as a guiding principle of the future United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, a multilateral instrument with the potential of raising approx. USD 492 billion per year in public revenues currently foregone to global tax abuse. In the process leading to the ‘Compromiso de Sevilla’ decided at FfD4, we proposed and succeeded in creating a specific human rights workstream within the Civil Society Financing for Development Mechanism, which was critical to ensure that explicit commitments on the matter were included in the negotiating outcome. In a context of cutbacks in multilateral institutions, we have amplified the capacities of technical experts, providing rigorous technical support and leveraging our influence to ensure the enactments of groundbreaking standard-setting instruments, such as the 2025 UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Statement on Fiscal Policy and Human Rights, and the first ex oficio hearing on the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights on Fiscal and Economic Policies to Address Poverty and Structural Inequality, leading to an upcoming thematic resolution on the matter. We have also bridged the silos between multilateral tax discussions and climate finance debates, promoting ambitious financing commitments to increase international and domestic resource mobilisation during COP 28, 29 and 30.

At the regional level, our engagement with fiscal cooperation platforms such as the Platform for Fiscal Cooperation of Latin America and the Caribbean (PTLAC), where we are member of its Civil Society Consultative Council, and the African Anti-IFFs Policy Tracker, for which we participated in the pilot mission in Ivory Coast together with Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA), have been critical in cementing a growing engagement between tax administrations and ministries of finance with international legal experts, exploring actionable and transformative initiatives, such as the taxation of high-net-worth individuals, beneficial ownership registries and corporate countryby-country reports, to be implemented at the international level.

At the local level, our interventions in fiscal reform debates in Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Nigeria have contributed to shaping legislative outcomes in a more progressive, rights-compliant direction.

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In Ivory Coast, our work with Mouvement Ivoirien des Droits Humains and affected communities since 2023 exposed how privatisation and lack of accountability restrict access to quality healthcare. It contributed to the closure of 1,022 illegal private health centres, an executive instrument strengthening the regulation of private hospitals across the country, and the creation of a permanent complaints management committee in healthcare through a bylaw issued by the prefect of Gagnoa. Partners engaged through this process also advanced concrete improvements at facility level: members of the Gagnoa Midwives Association who took part in the participatory action research pooled resources to renovate the neonatal unit of the Regional Hospital, and the Director of the Gagnoa General Hospital launched an action plan to expand services and improve patient reception, with the facility receiving the award for best hospital in the country in 2025.

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In Ivory Coast, we will evaluate and strengthen the complaints management committee and position it as a replicable model for other health facilities. In Kenya, we will support the Mathare community to co-design a model public school for Mabatini and Ngei wards, grounded in human rights standards. Building on our multi-country austerity study, we will drive national advocacy on financing for education and health: advancing reforms in Ghana; launching a fiscal policy and public services financing agenda in Kenya through the CESCR process and targeted coalition work; and, in Nigeria, using the new tax acts in force since 1 January 2026 to catalyse a national accountability campaign for adequately funded, quality public services. In Latin America, we will amplify locally led care pilots across 8 countries and turn lessons into influence—advancing care policies that strengthen care organisations, protect care workers’ rights, support unpaid caregivers, include disability and family networks, and redistribute care more equitably.