Public rights and private schools: state accountability for violations of rights in education

Abstract

This chapter discusses state accountability for violations of rights in education. Securing state accountability for vindicating the rights of children in education becomes particularly challenging in the context of private schools. In these schools, a private organisation is interposed between the rights-holder (the child) and the duty-bearer (the state). This poses the question of where responsibility lies if a child's rights are not vindicated. In essence, this was the question that confronted the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in O'Keeffe v Ireland. The key message of the O'Keeffe decision is a crucial one. Children have human rights while they are in school; they do not leave their rights behind at the school gate. The state has a direct obligation to protect the rights of children in all schools, whether fully public, fully private, or something in between.