select CategoryID, istopic from ( SELECT CategoryID, EXISTS (SELECT * from topics_equivalence te WHERE te.categoryid=acl.categoryid) as istopic FROM eZArticle_ArticleCategoryLink acl WHERE acl.ArticleID=40021 ) as subquery

Education: a Human Right Denied to Millions

PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release

8 March 2002

Education: a Human Right Denied to Millions

OneWorld (www.oneworld.net), the online human rights and sustainable development network, has produced a special portal website, LearningChannel.org (www.learningchannel.org), to promote quality education for all.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to free education. Yet education remains a human right denied to millions. In 1990, world leaders pledged to provide an education for all the world's children by the year 2000. They failed. Today, in 2002, over 125 million children do not have access to education.

This year is a crucial one if the agenda to bring education for all is to be achieved. Education will be discussed at UN Financing for Development Conference at the end of March; the World Bank-IMF Spring Meetings in April; the UN Special Session on Children in May; and the G8 Summit in Canada in June.

Anne Jellema, Advocacy Coordinator for the Global Campaign For Education (www.campaignforeducation.org), a coalition of development NGOs and teachers unions in 180 countries, says: "There is a now growing concern amongst NGOs and campaign groups that governments and international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF do not sufficiently recognise that they are heading towards continued failure on education. Yet again civil society must mobilise worldwide to ensure action is taken to generate the funds and political will to make education for all a reality."

The Global Campaign For Education, which will hold a Global Action Week from 22-29 April 2002, is one of over 300 organisations brought together by OneWorld at LearningChannel.org (www.learningchannel.org). The site aims to use the power of the Internet to raise the profile of education as a global issue and is a resource to enable citizens, civil society organisations, media and policy-makers to:

· keep informed with all the latest news, opinions and analysis on education as a human rights and global issue
· explore how education is linked with issues such as poverty, debt, gender, the environment, AIDS and health
· take action and find out more about education campaigns all over the world
· access a web directory of organisations working on education issues
LearningChannel.org is edited for a worldwide audience from the OneWorld centre in India. Geeta Sharma, LearningChannel.org Editor, says: "We invite everyone with Internet access who is concerned about education and children's rights to join us at www.learningchannel.org. Together we can bring forward the time when education will reach all those deprived of its benefits."

- ends -

For more information and media enquiries on OneWorld contact Glen Tarman, OneWorld publicity manager

Tel +44 (0)20 7735 4541 Email media@oneworld.net

Notes:

1. LearningChannel.org (www.learningchannel.org) is the OneWorld portal on education. Organisations partnering OneWorld in LearningChannel.org include ActionAid, Education International, Oxfam, Save the Children, UNICEF and VSO. For more information on LearningChannel.org see www.learningchannel.org/about/learningchannel/ or contact Geeta Sharma mailto:learning@oneworld.net.

2. OneWorld is a non-profit network that aims to harness the democratic potential of the Internet to promote sustainable development and human rights. Its website www.oneworld.net is the world's leading portal on global issues and a gateway to over 1000 partner NGOs worldwide.

3. The Global Campaign for Education (GCE) Global Action Week (22-29 April 2002) aims to deliver a clear message to the world - quality education must be free. GCE is inviting all people to join their ranks in the fight to make education free and accessible to all. For more details see www.campaignforeducation.org (media enquiries on the campaign should be directed to Anne Jellema, Advocacy Coordinator mailto:anne@campaignforeducation.org). Another OneWorld partner, UNESCO, has initiated Education for all Week (22-26 April) as an awareness raising campaign (www.unesco.org/education) to recall the international objective of education for all by 2015, take stock of advances towards this goal and to provoke public debate on education issues.