Youth Dialogues: How to promote the right to higher education?

On October 4 and 5, 2023, the “Youth Dialogues: How to promote the right to higher education” will be held at noon (Colombia time) with the participation of Arianna Valentini, Junior Analyst – Research and Foresight at UNESCO IESALC as speaker.

The right to education is a fundamental human right, first enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and subsequently developed in legally binding international treaties by UNESCO and the UN. International human rights law sets out specific obligations: higher education must be equally accessible to all, on the basis of individual capacity, by all appropriate means and, in particular, through the progressive introduction of free education. 

Although access to higher education has been increasing worldwide, the right to higher education is still denied to many as a result of ongoing discrimination, systemic inequalities and the unequal distribution of power and resources globally. The right to higher education implies not only ensuring equitable access to higher education, but also to high quality and supportive programmes that enable all students, once enrolled, to reach their potential through higher education and beyond. Therefore, the right to higher education is imperative in advocating for just societies. 

The Youth Dialogues are organized in light of UNESCO IESALC’s efforts to place the right to higher education at the centre of the evolving right to education agenda. UNESCO IESALC seeks to engage students enrolled in HEIs across Latin America and the Caribbean to: 

• Inform them about the social justice framework of the right to higher education; 
• Engage them to leverage their experience within higher education systems, focussing on participation, engagement and relevance of higher education in their countries; and;  
• Advocate for the implementation of the right to higher education in their own education systems. 

The information gathered from this meeting will be used to feed into the work of the right to higher education project.  

The event will be held in English on October 4 and in Spanish on October 5, at the same time, at noon (Colombia time).

This is a closed event in collaboration with the Hemispheric University Consortium (HUC).