{"id":1479,"date":"2018-10-23T14:39:10","date_gmt":"2018-10-23T13:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/bristol-law-school\/?p=1479"},"modified":"2018-10-23T14:39:10","modified_gmt":"2018-10-23T13:39:10","slug":"student-blog-post-in-light-of-the-article-by-melissa-bellitto-the-world-bank-capabilities-and-human-rights-a-new-vision-for-girls-education-beyond-2015-florida-journal-of-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/bristol-law-school\/student-blog-post-in-light-of-the-article-by-melissa-bellitto-the-world-bank-capabilities-and-human-rights-a-new-vision-for-girls-education-beyond-2015-florida-journal-of-in\/","title":{"rendered":"Student blog post: In light of the article by Melissa Bellitto, \u2018The World Bank, Capabilities, and Human Rights: A New Vision for Girls’ Education beyond\u2019 (2015) Florida Journal of International Law 91 discuss the role of the World Bank as a funder of education. \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/em>This post (edited for publication) is contributed to our blog as part of a series of work produced by students for assessment within the module \u2018Public International Law\u2019. Following from last year\u2019s blogging success, we decided to publish our students\u2019 excellent work in this area again in this way. The module is an option in the second year of\u00a0Bristol Law School\u2019s LLB programme. It continues to be led by Associate Professor\u00a0<\/em>Dr Noelle Quenivet<\/em><\/a>. Learning and teaching on the module was developed by Noelle to include the use of online portfolios within a partly student led curriculum. The posts in this series show the outstanding research and analytical abilities of\u00a0students on our programmes. Views expressed in this blog post are those of the author only who consents to the publication.<\/em><\/p>\n

Guest blog post:\u00a0Daniele Tatoryte<\/strong><\/p>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

This blog post examines the role of the\u00a0World Bank\u00a0<\/a>as a funder of education. Defined as an international organisation that helps emerging market countries to reduce\u00a0poverty<\/a>\u00a0and promote\u00a0prosperity<\/a>, the World Bank is part of the\u00a0World Bank Group<\/a>, which is a family\u00a0of five international organisations, and is composed of the International Bank for Reconstruction and D<\/a>evelopment\u00a0and the\u00a0International Development A<\/a>ssociation. The World Bank funds a variety of projects notably relating to education by providing loans in developing countries.\u00a0It has been involved in education since 1962, thus being the largest\u00a0international funder of education for development in\u00a0low-income countries\u00a0<\/a>and supporting them with\u00a0$3 billion a year<\/a>. Overall, the World Bank has funded 2512 education\u00a0projects<\/a>. In this blog post I will first discuss the issue of gender inequality and then discuss education in the broader framework of human rights as I believe that the World Bank\u2019s important role in supporting education should\u00a0be more human rights focused.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Gender Inequality<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against W<\/a>omen\u00a0is the key international legal instrument that seeks to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women. In spite of its existence, girls\u00a0(M Bellitto, \u2018The World Bank, Capabilities, and Human Rights: A New Vision for Girls\u2019 Education Beyond 2015\u2019 (2015) 27 Florida Journal of International Law<\/em> 91) are the most affected by education inequality as a large majority does not have access to education owing to cultural and social barriers (M Nussbaum, \u2018Women\u2019s Education: A Global Challenge\u2019 (2004) 29 Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society<\/em> 332). It is submitted that if girls could access education, they would better tackle issues such as medical care\u00a0and contribute to the economy of the State, which is the aim of the World Bank (Bellitto at 101).\u00a0Scholars such as Nussbaum and Sen have criticised\u00a0the fact that women are treated as economic commodities\u00a0and that their worth is based on their ability to contribute to the formal economy (see discussion in Bellitto at 95). The best way to deal with this problem is to implement anti-discriminatory laws that eradicate discrimination, a good illustration being India<\/a>\u00a0that has adopted a rights based approach in primary education. The World Bank, UNESCO<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Global Partnership for Education<\/a>\u00a0are focused on improving gender equality and empowering girls and women through quality education. To attain these goals, projects such as The Education 2030 Framework for Action<\/a> (FFA<\/a>) aims to achieve greater results by 2030. Some of their goals<\/a> are to train more teachers, to support gender equality and improve the quality of teaching. In this light it is argued that educational planning<\/a>\u00a0could be a good approach to take into account and tackle all factors affecting education.<\/p>\n

(The first UNESCO chart below shows the number of children (according to education level and gender) who were not enrolled in education between 2000 and 2015 whilst the second\u00a0 \u00a0indicates that the number of children without access to education varies depending on the continent.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>Human Rights and Education<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, how can this problem be tackled? First, one may argue that the World Bank is bound by human rights law. After all, it has international legal personality\u00a0as it fulfils\u00a0three requirements:\u00a0(1) it is independent from its member states in its functioning; (2) it possesses the capacity to create international rights and obligations; (3) and it possesses the capacity to bring or defend international claims (see here<\/a> at 364-365).\u00a0Unfortunately many courts do not have jurisdiction over international organisations and so there is no international judicial remedy against the World Bank. That being said, the Inspection Panel of the World Bank plays an important role as a control mechanism<\/a>. If the funding provided by the World Bank is not used correctly, a claim can be brought by a minimum of two\u00a0individuals so that the\u00a0Inspection Panel\u00a0<\/a>can start an investigation. For example, in\u00a0Nepal<\/a> a claim, later dismissed, was made that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation applied to vocational education. Another solution could be to\u00a0direct the funds of the World Bank to\u00a0local\u00a0NGOs,\u00a0rather than to\u00a0central governments and education ministries (see here<\/a> at 61-62), with a view to making\u00a0education more effective and compliant with human rights law.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b<\/p>\n

Conclusion\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

From my point of view, the World Bank and the State should work together\u00a0to overcome social and cultural barriers affecting gender inequality in education. Undoubtedly, there has been a marked improvement in providing education and achieve gender equality. That being said, I could also argue\u00a0that the approach the World Bank is adopting\u00a0towards education is more economic\u00a0than human rights based as primary education is supposed\u00a0to be free and accessible\u00a0to everyone.\u00a0If access to education\u00a0depends on one\u2019s ability to pay for it then the human rights to education is violated.\u00a0Moreover, it should be stressed that education\u00a0is a necessity for the economic\u00a0growth and\u00a0development of these countries.\u00a0On the one hand the World Bank provides these developing countries with funding to improve their economy but on the other, it takes away their financial independence and obliges them to violate human rights law by complying with conditions such as the privatisation of schools. Consequently, the implementation of a monitoring\u00a0body independent\u00a0from the World Bank is essential to improve its functioning and ensure that all its actions comply with human rights law.<\/p>\n

A summary of this blog post in the form of a Prezi presentation is available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0This post (edited for publication) is contributed to our blog as part of a series of work produced by students for assessment within the module \u2018Public International Law\u2019. Following from last year\u2019s blogging success, we decided to publish our students\u2019 excellent work in this area again in this way. The module is an option in … Continue reading “Student blog post: In light of the article by Melissa Bellitto, \u2018The World Bank, Capabilities, and Human Rights: A New Vision for Girls’ Education beyond\u2019 (2015) Florida Journal of International Law 91 discuss the role of the World Bank as a funder of education. \u00a0“<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":1481,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[237,238,5],"tags":[30,109,163,180,185,208],"class_list":["post-1479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","category-students","category-uwe","tag-bristol-law-school","tag-law","tag-research","tag-student-blog","tag-students","tag-uwe-bristol"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/bristol-law-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/bristol-law-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/bristol-law-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/bristol-law-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/bristol-law-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1479"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/bristol-law-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1482,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/bristol-law-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1479\/revisions\/1482"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/bristol-law-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/bristol-law-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/bristol-law-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.uwe.ac.uk\/bristol-law-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}