A/HRC/41/37 IV. Development of the normative framework on the right to education in the context of the ongoing privatization in education 26. In response to the changes in the educational context, created in particular by the preoccupying increase in private involvement in education and the questioning of the role of the State, the human rights framework needs to provide precise guidance. That is necessary, both for human rights to remain relevant to the evolving context and to avoid unregulated changes in education destroying 50 years of progress in the realization of the right to education, including the progress made in relation to Millennium Development Goal 2 and Sustainable Development Goal 4. The risk is that, if left unchecked, the increased involvement of private actors in education “cripples the universality of the right to education as well as the fundamental principles of human rights law by aggravating marginalization and exclusion in education and creating inequities in society” (A/69/402, para. 41). 27. As set out in international treaties, States have recognized the right of everyone to education without discrimination. They have committed to making primary, secondary and higher education available free to all as expeditiously as possible and to actively pursuing the development of a system of schools at all levels. Furthermore, States are to respect the liberty of parents to choose for their children schools other than those established by the public authorities, which conform to the minimum standards established by the State in accordance with international law, and to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions. They must also protect the liberty of individuals and bodies to establish and direct such educational institutions. 28. Human rights law therefore sets up a delicate balance between the State obligation to deliver education and the freedom of private actors in the realization of the right to education. The liberty to choose schools other than those established by States contributes in particular to ensuring that education does not become an instrument of indoctrination in the hands of States and to ensuring respect for cultural diversity and cultural rights within the education system. When the human rights treaties were drafted, the intention was not to protect commercial interests in the area of education or to offer States a way to escape from their responsibilities through the implementation of austerity measures and neo-liberal policies. 29. The human rights framework has been protected and increasingly enriched in the last decades through the interpretation of courts and human rights mechanisms, progressively unpacking that balancing exercise and signalling the obligation of States to protect education systems against commercialization. United Nations and regional human rights treaty bodies, as well as national and regional courts, have repeatedly addressed the issue of the role of private actors in education. 35 They have expressed concern about the commercialization of education and underlined the crucial role of States in realizing the right to education. In particular, according to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights regards States as having the principal responsibility for the direct provision of education in most circumstances, and States have an enhanced obligation to fulfil (provide) the right to education. 36 The Committee on the Rights of the Child has stipulated that: “States must adopt specific measures that take account of the involvement of the private sector in service delivery to ensure the rights enumerated in the Convention are not compromised.”37 35 36 37 8 See www.gi-escr.org/concluding-observations-private-education and www.right-toeducation.org/privatisation#section_view-default-5; and www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Guide_Art_2_Protocol_1_ENG.pdf. See general comment No. 13 (1999) on the right to education, para. 48. See general comment No. 16 (2013) on State obligations regarding the impact of the business sector on children’s rights, para. 34. See also Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, general comment No. 4 (2016) on the right to inclusive education, para. 76; Committee on the Elimination of