A/HRC/41/37 D. Role of donors 66. States remain responsible for their conduct when they participate in or transfer their competencies to an international organization (Guiding Principle 22). They must take all reasonable steps to ensure that the relevant organization behaves consistently with its international human rights obligations, for example through closely monitoring the conduct of the organization, and through their votes and the policies they promote within the organization. For instance, States that are partners in the Global Partnership for Education have an obligation to ensure that the Partnership does not act in violation of their own human rights obligations. 67. When providing international assistance and cooperation for education, States must prioritize support for free, quality, public pre-primary, primary and secondary education for all, especially vulnerable, disadvantaged and marginalized groups, moving as rapidly as possible towards free, quality education in public educational institutions at other levels (Guiding Principle 38). That does not mean that private educational institutions may never be supported, in particular non-profit institutions in emergency contexts, but States and international organizations may only fund private actors in a manner consistent with human rights, in particular by not funding commercial providers of education. 68. The Special Rapporteur is encouraged by the adoption in November 2018 by the European Parliament of resolution 2018/2081 (INI) on EU development assistance in the field of education, whereby funding to commercial schools is banned, and by the latest draft of the private sector engagement strategy of the Global Partnership for Education. The Partnership is a multi-stakeholder partnership and funding platform that aims to strengthen education systems in developing countries. Its upcoming private sector strategy, which will be considered for adoption at its Board meeting in June 2019, mentions human rights, including the Abidjan Principles, as one of its foundational principles. According to the draft strategy, the Partnership will not fund commercial actors directly or indirectly but focus its funding on public education. 69. Guiding Principle 63 states that: “Where necessary for the realisation of the right to education, international assistance and cooperation for education should also aim to strengthen the regulation of private instructional educational institutions in accordance with the recipient States’ human rights obligations.” Reportedly, there have been some opportunities missed by technical partners to reinforce national systems of regulation, such as in the latest grant of the World Bank and the Global Partnership for Education to Haiti, which supported a parallel regulatory and monitoring system for the private sector, rather than building up government capacities.52 70. Donors have a responsibility to redress any negative impact they may have caused on the right to education. For instance, it has been argued that World Bank structural adjustment programmes in the 1980s and 1990s, and the policy of introducing fees has had a damaging effect on public education. 53 E. Civil society and stakeholder engagement 71. Civil society has a central role to play in supporting the right to education. It can help States to address corruption, identify demands from the population and design solutions and policy reform. Civil society can also help States by providing independent outside monitoring. Such monitoring should not be seen as adversarial by States, but 52 53 See Global Initiative for Social and Economic Rights and Sciences Po Law School Clinic, “Misusing influence: France’s failure to prevent international organisations’ support to privatisation and violations of the right to education in Haiti”, alternative report to the Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, fifty-eighth session, available at http://globalinitiative-escr.org/wpcontent/uploads/2016/06/CESCR-Report-on-France-ETOs-and-private-education-May-2016.pdf. Macleans A. Geo-Jaja and Garth Mangum, “Structural adjustment as an inadvertent enemy of human development in Africa”, Journal of Black Studies, vol. 32, No. 1 (September 2001). 15