Mr. President,
For Cuba, the full realization of the right to education is a priority.
Education is not only the driving force and transformer of economic and social development, but also contributes comprehensively to the promotion and protection of all human rights, including the right to development.
Globally, we are far from achieving universal implementation of the right to education and meeting the goals agreed upon in SDG 4 of the 2030 Agenda.
It is alarming that 250 million girls, boys, adolescents, and young people do not attend school and that 175 million children are not enrolled in preschool. Girls continue to be more likely to be excluded from education systems.
Cuba supports the strengthening of international legal instruments to guarantee the universal realization of the right to education, including through the adoption of an Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
This Protocol should include the following eight elements, among others agreed upon by this Group:
1. Establish the right to early childhood care and education and to free, quality public preschool and secondary education for all as an intrinsic part of the right to education.
2. Establish the allocation of sufficient resources to education as a national priority for all States.
3. Commit States to guarantee equal access to educational opportunities and reduce inequalities in outcomes, including through the adoption of laws and policies to combat and eliminate all forms of discrimination and inequality in the school environment.
4. Promote inclusive institutional policies and practices to ensure safe and healthy learning environments, with emphasis on the most vulnerable groups.
5. Establish the elimination of unilateral coercive measures in the field of education. These measures create serious difficulties for affected countries in the acquisition or production of school supplies and materials, access to new information technology and telecommunications tools, access to the Internet and advanced learning programs, among other disadvantages.
6. Establish provisions that guarantee the provision of technical assistance, capacity building, and access to financing on preferential terms for developing countries. This will contribute to national efforts to improve teacher training, develop more advanced educational plans, techniques, and procedures, access to new technologies, acquire quality school materials, and maintain educational centers.
7. Promote international solidarity and cooperation for the implementation of the right to quality education for all.
8. Require States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of the Child to incorporate reports on their obligations under the Optional Protocol into their periodic reports under article 44 of the Convention. This would contribute to reducing the reporting burden and streamlining the work of the Committee on the Rights of the Child.
The Cuban delegation will continue to actively contribute, with concrete proposals and a constructive spirit, to the process of preparing the draft Optional Protocol, which we hope can be adopted as soon as possible.
Thank you very much.