The term "compulsory education" emerged in the context of the debates that took place during the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), in reaction to the atrocities committed during the Second World War.

By signing it in 1948, the Member States undertook to promote universal respect for, and observance of, fundamental freedoms and human rights. The merging of fundamental freedoms and human rights in a single document represented a significant philosophical and diplomatic advance.

For example, the process of drafting Article 26 on the right to education¹began in June 1946, when the United Nations created the Commission on Human Rights to help prepare and draft the first international declaration of human rights.

The right to education is intended to enable the realisation of other fundamental rights. As a result, it is a right to autonomy, a right for peace and the protection of dignity to preserve our humanity. This right must be exercised within a balance of powerto protect individuals from the arbitrariness of a state that is both judge and jury.

Consequently, the word "compulsory education" must be interpreted as meaning that no one (neither the State nor the family) can prevent a child from receiving basic education, but that the idea of coercion can in no way be applied to it.²

The term "compulsory education" means that all young people have the possibility to learn, so that they can flourish as individuals in society.

This obligationto respect every young person's right to education, therefore applies to the State and the familybut this does not mean that the young person is forced to attend school.

(NB The term child is used in our texts in the legal sense of "minor".)

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