CAFA participates in the Global Education Meeting, in Fortaleza, Brazil

Every two years, Education Ministers and other authorities from all over the world meet at the highest level to discuss progress made and challenges ahead, to ensure the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 4, on Education. The 2024 Global Education Meeting (GEM), was held in Fortaleza, Brazil, with over 650 participants including over 50 Ministers from across the globe, adopting the Fortaleza Declaration. The event was held back-to-back with the G20 Education Ministers’ Meeting, converging the priorities of UNESCO and the Brazilian G20 Presidency in addressing issues of inclusion, equity and sustainable financing. CAFA’s Executive Director, Camilla Croso, took part in the GEM, in particular in the side event Futures of the right to education, where she highlighted academic freedom as a core dimension of the right to education that urgently needs to be recognized as such and placed much more at the centre of global, regional and national debates on the implementation of SDG4 and the right to education.  Farida Shaheed’s 2024 report on this issue was particularly highlighted, as the Rapporteur elaborated on academic freedom as an integral part of the right to education, which is increasingly under threat, especially due to the rise of authoritarian governments and the commodification of education.