Events details:

Centre of African Studies, University of London

Mon 22^nd June, 12pm to 2pm, Room 4426, SOAS, University of London, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG

Speakers:

Helen Mountfield QC

Professor Sandra Fredman (Oxford University)

Shona Gazidis (Legal Resources Centre)

To rsvp, email fiona@canoncollins.org.uk

This event is held in collaboration with Canon Collins Educational and Legal Assistance Trust

Fighting to Learn is the second edition of the publication Ready to Learn, which was prepared as a legal resource for realising the right to education in November 2013. The first book was based on materials used during the conference “The Legal Resources Centre and the Courts in South Africa; Realising Social, Economic and Cultural Rights through litigation”.

The LRC is South Africa’s largest and oldest public interest law organisation.  It has undertaken extensive litigation to hold the government to account for failing to realise the social, economic and cultural rights of its citizens as set out in the South African Constitution. Since 2010, the LRC has used the courts to enforce the right to education as set out in section 29 of the Constitution. In particular, cases have addressed the issues of replacing mud schools, infrastructure in schools, furniture, teachers, and transport. It has been successful in achieving court orders, which have forced the government to take action on these issues, explored in detail in Ready to Learn?

Fighting to Learn will provide an update on those cases, as well as a reflection on the broader topic of the role of education in achieving the Millennium Development Goals, and its integration into the post – 2015 development agenda.  The LRC hopes that other legal and civil organisations across the globe will find the publication useful in exploring ways to use the courts to enforce the right to education.