Spotlight

The Cornell Law School International Human Rights Clinic, in partnership with the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights and the University of Virginia Law School International Human Rights Clinic, convened a conference in September 2009 at the University of Valle in Cali and the University of Los Andes in Bogotá, Colombia on "The Right to Education of Minorities in the Americas"; Cornell student Lindsay Strauss '10, drafted advocacy materials that were distributed at the conference and traveled to Colombia to participate. "It was extremely rewarding to participate in a conference that provided a forum for people who would otherwise be unable to be heard by policymakers and academics," Strauss said.

The conference launched a report on the "Right to Education of Afro-descendant and Indigenous Peoples in the Americas." The report addresses states' obligations to fulfill the right to education without discrimination and examines the failure to meet those obligations within the Americas, specifically in Colombia, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic. The keynote speaker at the conference was Gay McDougall, U.N. Independent Expert on Minority Issues for the United Nations. Also participating in the conference were Santiago A. Canton, Executive Secretary of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Dr. Camilo Castillo from the Center for the Study of Law, Justice and Society (DeJusticia), and community leaders.

Professor Sital Kalantry, director of the Cornell Clinic, delivered a lecture explaining the need for education to be accessible, available, adaptable, and acceptable and addressed the failure of Colombia's domestic education laws to conform to its international obligations. "The conference was successful in fostering a dialogue within Colombia among the various stakeholders," Kalantry said, "as well as promoting the issue within the international sphere through the participation of representatives from the U.N. and Inter-American Commission on Human Rights."

Participants addressed the ways in which governments in Latin America have failed to satisfy their obligations with respect to education. For example, in Colombia, the Constitution permits the government to charge for primary education, the fees for which are often prohibitive to the poor. Further, there are no secondary schools located near many indigenous communities and students have to travel to cities far away from their home just to attend school. The quality of publicly-funded school in largely minority areas is so bad that they are known as "garage schools."

Former Cornell Clinic Student, Esteban Hoyos LL.M. '09, currently a J.S.D. student at Cornell Law School, has recently filed a case in the Colombian Constitutional Court challenging national legislation that allows local governments to charge for primary education. In the petition, he argues that, among other things, these laws violate Colombia's international obligations under the Protocol of San Salvador and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The Cornell Clinic is filing an amicus brief in this case.