On 13 February 2019, at a gathering convened in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, a group of 57 eminent experts in international law and human rights adopted the Abidjan Principles on the human rights obligations of States to provide public education and to regulate private involvement in education. In addition to the drafting at the final meeting, experts have contributed to the Abidjan Principles in various ways, through background research, reviews, or comments. The experts came from universities and organisations located in all regions of the world and included current and former members of international human rights treaty bodies, including regional human rights bodies, members of the judiciary, and former and current Special Rapporteurs of the United Nations Human Rights Council.
These signatories acted in their individual capacity. The institutions listed with the names of the authors are for the purpose of identification rather than endorsement of the commentary given by these institutions.
Based on rigorous legal research, the undersigned experts adopted the Abidjan Principles:
Frank Adamson; Assistant professor of Education Leadership and Policy Studies, California State University, Sacramento; United States of America
Amal Salman Aldoseri; Member, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child; Bahrain
Philip Alston; UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights; John Norton Pomeroy Professor of Law, New York University School of Law; Australia
Boly Barry Koumba; UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education; Burkina Faso
Lelio Bentes Correa; Justice, Superior Labour Court of Brazil; Member of the Committee of Experts in the Application of Conventions and Recommendations of the International Labour Organization; Brazil
Joanna Bourke-Martignoni; Researcher, Gender Centre, Graduate Institute; Switzerland
Virginia Bras Gomes; Senior Social Policy Adviser and former Chair of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; Portugal
Iain Byrne; Lawyer and researcher on economic, social and cultural rights; Fellow, Human Rights Centre, Essex University; United Kingdom
Joshua Castellino; Professor of law and former Dean of the School of Law and the Business School, Middlesex University, London; India
Fernando Cássio; Assistant Professor at the Federal University of ABC; Brazil
Lilian Chenwi; Professor of Law, University of the Witwatersrand; South Africa
Fons Coomans; Professor of Human Rights; UNESCO Chair in Human Rights and Peace, Maastricht University; The Netherlands
Klaus D. Beiter; Associate Professor of Law, North-West University (Potchefstroom); Associated Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Munich; Ambassador, Observatory Magna Charta Universitatum, Bologna; South Africa
Olivier De Schutter; Former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food (2008-2014); Professor, UC Louvain and Sciences Po; Belgium
Surya Deva; Associate Professor, City University of Hong Kong; China
Sandra Epal Ratjen; Independent researcher; France
Sandra Fredman; Rhodes Professor of the Laws of the British Commonwealth and the USA; University of Oxford; South Africa
Soledad García Muñoz; Special Rapporteur on Economic, Social, Cultural and Environmental Rights of the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights; Argentina
James Goldston; Executive Director, Open Society Justice Initiative; United States of America
Joanna Härmä; Independent researcher; Finland
Esteban Hoyos Ceballos; Professor of law, EAFIT University law school; Colombia
Ibrahima Kane; Advocate, Senegal and France; Senegal
Jamesina Essie L. King; Commissioner of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and Chairperson of the Working Group on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; Sierra Leone
David Kinley; Professor, Chair in Human Rights Law, Sydney Law School, University of Sydney; Ireland
Jayna Kothari; Counsel, Karnataka High Court & Supreme Court of India; India
Christopher Lubienski; Professor, Indiana University; United States of America
Marta Maurás Pérez; Chair of UNITAID Executive Board; Former Ambassador/Permanent Representative of Chile at UN, other International Organizations and the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva; Former Vvice-Chairperson of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child; Chile
Simon McGrath; UNESCO Chair in International Education and Development; Ireland
Archana Mehendale; Adjunct Honorary Professor at Centre for Education Innovation and Action Research, Tata Institute of Social Sciences; India
Angela Melchiorre; Academic Coordinator of Online Programmes, Global Campus of Human Rights; Italy
Mary Metcalfe; Senior Research Associate, University of Johannesburg; South Africa
Jacqueline Mowbray; Associate Professor, University of Sydney Law School; Australia
Binota Moy Dhamai; Independent researcher; Bangladesh
Lydia Mugambe; Judge; Uganda
Moses Ngware; Independent researcher; Kenya
Aoife Nolan; Professor of International Human Rights Law, University of Nottingham; Member, Council of Europe European Committee of Social Rights; Ireland
Manfred Nowak; Professor of Human Rights at Vienna University; Secretary General of the Global Campus of Human Rights, Venice; Independent Expert leading the UN Global Study on Children Deprived of Liberty; Austria
Chidi Odinkalu; Former Chair of Nigeria's National Human Rights Commission; Nigeria
Godfrey Odongo; Member, Board of Advisors, LLM programme Advanced Studies in International Children’s Rights, Leiden University; Kenya
Laura C. Pautassi; Researcher, Consejo de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Professor, University of Buenos Aires/UBA Law School, Buenos Aires; Argentina
Jeremy Perelman; Associate Professor and Director of Clinical Programs, Sciences Po Law School, Paris; France
Gauri Pradhan; Former Commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission of Nepal; Nepal
Mervat Rishmawi; Human Rights Consultant; Senior Research and Policy Analyst, Middle East and North Africa Specialist; Palestine
Clara Sandoval; Professor, School of Law/Human Rights Centre, University of Essex; Colombia
Benjamin Saul; Challis Chair of International Law, University of Sydney; Chair of Australian Studies, Harvard Law School; Associate Fellow, Royal Institute of International Affairs in London; Australia
Ian Seiderman; Legal and Policy Director, International Commission of Jurists; Switzerland
Magdalena Sepúlveda; Former UN Special Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty; Member, Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation; Chile
Ita Sheehy; Education Specialist; Ireland
Heisoo Shin; Member, UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; Republic of Korea
Ann Skelton; Professor of law, University of Pretoria; UNESCO Chair in Education Law in Africa; Member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child; South Africa
Maria Smirnova; Honorary Research Fellow, Manchester International Law Centre, University of Manchester; Russia
Prachi Srivastava; Associate Professor, University of Western Ontario; Adjunct Professor, School of International Development and Global Studies, University of Ottawa; Visiting Senior Research Fellow, Centre for International Education, University of Sussex; Canada
Manisuli Ssenyonjo; Professor of International Law and Human Rights, Brunel University London; Uganda
Gita Steiner-Khamsi; Professor, Teachers College, Columbia University (New York) and the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (Geneva); United States of America and Switzerland
Faranaaz Veriava; Head of the Education Rights Programme, Section27; Lecturer at the University of Pretoria; South Africa
Nesa Zimmermann; MLaw, LL.M., University of Geneva; Switzerland
Roman Zinigrad; J.S.D. candidate, Yale Law School; Visiting fellow at the Sciences Po Law School; Israel