UNESCO Education Position Paper (2003)

In 2003, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), a branch of the United Nations that since its inception has spoken aggressively and specifically, although not exclusively, to how best to safeguard the civil rights and liberties of children regardless of national origins or specific circumstances (war, drought, political oppression), released a much publicized and sweeping position paper that sought to address specifically the growing problem with illiteracy among children under the age of 18 and how to preserve centrally the rights of children to education through the preservation of access to language skills. Targeting illiteracy—much as in the past UNESCO blue-ribbon panels and subsequent position papers had addressed issues ranging from hunger and malnutrition to child labor conditions and the status of ...