The right to education: for marginalized and ostracized group of persons

Abstract

A huge corpus of human rights law has evolved since 1948 at both international and national levels, which recognizes the rights of every individual without discrimination of any kind based on race, color, descent, sex, language, religion, and national or ethnic origin. Human rights are regarded as worth of respect and protection but there are plenty of gaps in translating internationally recognized human rights into entitlement for people in countries' national legislation. Although worries about such gaps have been expressed by the U.N., still less substantial efforts have been made by national governments. This paper focuses attention on Caste System, which is highly prevalent among the Osu of Nigeria and the Dalit of India. It provides examples of violations against marginalized persons of both the countries and relevance of economic, social and cultural rights for them. It also looks at the efforts made by governments to fulfill their commitment and examines their enforcement policies for the implementation of the right to education for the marginalized persons. Finally, it discusses various recommendations made by human rights organizations and scholars for realizing the right to education for marginalized persons universally.