The right to education and the principle of equality: from an idea in the works of Professor Hersch Lauterpacht to enshrining in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Authors: Deshko L.M. 
Published: February 2024

The article examines the scientific contribution of Professor Hersh Lauterpacht to the development of the idea of enshrining in writing the right to education in the Bill, its content and the principle of equality. It is noted that Sir H. Lauterpacht’s scientific views on the right to education are still relevant today. Attention is focused on the fact that everyone’s right to education is sometimes replaced by people’s enlightenment. The issue of ensuring the right to education by the aggressor state in the territories temporarily occupied by it is raised. It is stated that the state violates its international obligations to ensure everyone’s right to education if it replaces people’s education with people’s enlightenment. The issue of the economic development of the state, the economic potential of the state, international and domestic standards of the right to education, and their interrelationship is also raised.

It is concluded that the ideas set forth in Professor G. Lauterpacht’s monograph «The International Bill of Human Rights» were progressive in nature, and essentially it was about the need to establish a written catalog of human rights, as well as about the fact that this catalog should be part of the structure of the world. Sir Gersh Lauterpacht in his scientific work applied the approach according to which he proposed to enshrine the state’s obligations in the field of human rights in the Bill. In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, an approach was applied, according to which human rights were enshrined, and with respect to the duties of the state, a veiled enshrining of them was applied.

It is established that Sir G. Lauterpacht: 1) considered the right to education of everyone as a duty of the state, which it must conscientiously fulfill; 2) linked the standard of the right to education with such factors as: 1) the economic potential of the state; 2) economic development of the state. Accordingly, in states that have higher economic development and greater economic potential, the standard of education should be higher, and in states that are less economically developed and have less potential, the minimum standard of the right to education should be ensured; 3) introduced such a criterion for evaluating the fulfillment of the state’s obligation to ensure the right to education as efficiency. If the state is an entity that has the duty to effectively ensure the right to education, then, accordingly, the state must bear responsibility if it does not effectively ensure this right.

Professor G. Lauterpacht proposed to enshrine the principle of equality in writing. Regarding the content of this principle, he applied an approach according to which the state is entrusted with the duty to ensure full equality before the law of all and equal treatment of every person of state power. It is established that the idea of the prohibition of discrimination and its content, which Professor Hersh Lauterpacht proposed to enshrine in the Bill, laid the foundation for desegregation in education.

The influence of Hersh Lauterpacht’s monograph on the formulation and consolidation of the right to education and the principle of equality in the written act on human rights - the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - has been revealed.