02. Foreword

It gives me a great deal of pleasure to support this civil-society initiative towards a rights-based governance structure for the schools in New York City. My hope is that New York City will join the precedent-setting moves around the globe in setting up an accessible, welcoming and representative public institution on behalf and at the behest of school children and their parents. As always and everywhere, it is civil society that leads in exposing and opposing human rights violations. The spotlight on education is well timed. This publication simply and clearly diagnoses the many wrongs in education, ranging from the well-known racial profile of the denial of the right to education, to the absence of any help for immigrant parents in understanding how the system works, to the widespread incomprehension of the jargon used by education bureaucracy, or to the simple fact that most teachers do not have telephones. It recalls and highlights the lack of responsiveness to the much cited evidence of the many wrongs. To its great credit, it does not stop there but identifies barriers to change and suggests effective ways for overcoming them.

Righting wrongs is the essence of human rights activism. The suggestion that an Ombudsperson for the Right to Education be explored as a step forward is excellent. More than any other category, school children need a public institution to defend and promote their rights. More than any other area, education needs a public institution to bring undetected human rights violations to light, and to remedy them rapidly and inexpensively. We can all easily join the authors and editors to affirm that “all of society has a stake in the education of its future citizens.” My hope is that many, many will join them in making an Ombudsperson for the Right to Education come true. I shall certainly be among them.

Katarina Tomasevski
UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education