From April 29 to May 10, the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, invited by the U.S. administration under President Joe Biden, conducted an official visit to the country. The purpose of this visit was to analyze the strengths and challenges in the implementation of the right to education in the United States.

During her visit, the Special Rapporteur met with representatives of civil society, academics, officials, and policymakers. In particular, Farida Shaheed visited Washington D.C. as well as the states of Indiana and Colorado.

Given the significance of the United States in international debates and the various positive initiatives that have emerged to promote educational pluralism, OIDEL closely followed this visit. Furthermore, OIDEL facilitated the Special Rapporteur’s contact with experts in the right to education, including Ashley Berner (Director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy), Christy Wolfe (Senior Vice President for Policy, Research, and Planning at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and a member of our Executive Committee), Leslie Hiner (EdChoice) or Nicole Garnett and Diane Desierto (ND University). The Special Rapporteur also visited some of the Charters in deprived areas of Indiana.

On May 6, the Global Human Rights Clinic at the University of Notre Dame organized a seminar in Indiana with the Special Rapporteur to introduce her to the reality of non-governmental actors. The director of OIDEL was invited to this session by the University of Notre Dame.

The report resulting from this visit will be published and presented at the 59th session of the Human Rights Council, which will take place in June of this year.