Côte d’Ivoire: UN expert launches mission to assess progress on right to education

French

GENEVA (30 November 2017) – The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education, Koumbou Boly Barry, will visit Côte d’Ivoire from 4 to 11 December 2017 to gather first-hand information on the country’s implementation of the right to education, in particular with regard to achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4 on quality education.

Her eight-day mission will include meetings with the Government, as well as visits to primary and secondary schools and universities to meet educators, academics, students and teachers’ representatives. She will also hold discussions with civil society representatives, including NGOs. 

Ms. Boly Barry, who monitors and reports on the full realization of the right to education globally, will also seek to offer practical policy and legal recommendations to help the country deliver inclusive and equitable quality education for all.

The Special Rapporteur will hold a press conference to share her preliminary findings at 14:00 local time on Monday 11 December 2017, at UNDP offices, 1 Angle Avenue Marchand, Rue Gourgas, Abidjan. Access will be strictly limited to journalists.

The Special Rapporteur’s full observations and recommendations will be presented to a forthcoming session of the UN Human Rights Council.

ENDS

Ms. Koumbou Boly Barry (Burkina Faso) took office as Special Rapporteur on the right to education on 1 August 2016 following her appointment at the 32nd session of the Human Rights Council. She holds a PhD in Economic History from Cheikh Anta Diop University in Senegal. She is the former Minister of Education and Literacy of Burkina Faso and has consulted widely for various governments and international institutions on the right to education. Dr. Boly Barry has been an advocate on gender issues in education. She also has ample knowledge and experience in training and research, is a visiting professor at University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, University of Louvain La Neuve, Belgium, and a lecturer at Ouagadougou University, Burkina Faso, Vitoria University, Brazil and Fribourg University, Switzerland.

The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.

UN Human Rights country page – Côte d’Ivoire

For inquiries and media requests, please contact:
In Côte d’Ivoire (during the visit):
Teizu Guluma (+41 079 444 4552 / tguluma@ohchr.org)
Mr. Giscard Kouassi (+225 20 31 74 29 / giscard.kouassi@undp.org)
In Geneva: Teizu Guluma (+41 022 917 9455 / tguluma@ohchr.org)

For media inquiries related to other UN independent experts please contact:
Bryan Wilson – Media Unit (+ 41 22 917 9826 / mediaconsultant2@ohchr.org) 

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