Rights, goals and targets: how do those for education add up?

The great majority of countries in the world have ratified international treaties which enshrine the right to education and to gender equality. As a result, they are legally obliged to meet these provisions and to follow a reporting procedure assessing the extent to which they are implemented. The record on reporting is patchy. At the same time, several UN conferences over the past fifteen years have produced declarations that reaffirm the right to education. They have been signed by a majority of countries and thus carry political weight. This paper focuses more specifically on the Dakar goals adopted at the World Education Forum in 2000 and on the two Millennium Development Goals relating to education and gender equality, adopted the same year. It argues that these instruments reinforce and go beyond the human rights treaties, both in substance and by setting time-bound targets. It goes on to discuss their meaning and the difficulties of measuring progress. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.