Discrimination in Education

• Pages: 157-159

Contenidos

• The Issue.
• Legal and Policy Considerations.
• Practice Examples.
• References.

Page 157

The Issue

Education is indispensable for the full development of the person. In addition, education decreases the risk that children will be sexually exploited, experience unwanted pregnancy, or acquire sexually transmitted infections. Additional years of schooling have been shown to lower the risk of HIV infection in children. Schools may provide nutrition assistance to the most needy, and may be the only forum for a discussion of safe sex practices, contraception, and HIV/AIDS geared to the child's level of development and maturity.

However, stigma and uncertainty about HIV and AIDS often lead to discrimination in the education sector. Children may be refused access to school due to their perceived or actual HIV seropositive status, or that of their parent/s, or they may be required to leave after having been admitted. Within the education system they may face discrimination in the form of segregation, isolation, or differential and prejudicial treatment.

Legal and Policy Considerations

Education is a basic right, as recognized by the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Art. 13) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (Art. 28). The general antidiscrimination clause proscribing discrimination on the basis of "other status" in both of these international agreements has been interpreted by the relevant treaty-monitoring bodies as forbidding discrimination on the basis of HIV status.

National constitutions in many countries guarantee a right to education and contain generally-applicable antidiscrimination provisions that can be relied upon to outlaw or to combat HIV-based discrimination in educational settings. In addition, there is a broad category of laws and policies that prohibit discrimination in the context of education generally. Despite the existence of these constitutional and statutory protections, states are often unable to effectively regulate de facto discrimination and stigma that occur in schools, or to properly monitor private educational institutions.

Some countries have adopted laws and policies that directly prohibit discrimination in education based on HIV status. Countries that adopt this approach typically define these protections within a national law or policy that covers multiple aspects of HIV and AIDS (see the Philippines and Cambodia examples below). These provisions may...