A/HRC/15/28 Education “The New Dynamics of Higher Education and Research For Societal Change and Development”. 19. The Dakar Framework for Action on Education For All: Meeting Our Collective Commitments, adopted at the World Education Forum in 2000, 8 the major international platform for and collective commitment to the achievement of the goals and targets of Education For All (EFA), reaffirmed a vision of education supported by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and geared towards learning to live together. In the Dakar Framework, education is considered key “to sustainable development and peace and stability” (para. 6), by fostering social cohesion and empowering people to become active participants in social transformation. Goal 6 of the Dakar Framework is to improve all aspects of the quality of education, ensuring their excellence so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills. 9 It provides the basis for a concept of quality education that goes beyond reading, writing and arithmetic, and which entails competences for democratic citizenship and attitudes promoting solidarity as important outcomes. 20. In the Plan of Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, 10 education is seen as a process providing learners with knowledge, skills and attitudes enabling them to address important questions such as rural development, health care, community involvement, HIV/AIDS, the environment, traditional and indigenous knowledge, as well as human rights. It is further stated that successful sustainable development requires an approach to education that strengthens “our engagement in support of other values — especially justice and fairness — and the awareness that we share a common destiny with others”. 11 Accordingly, the World Programme creates synergies with the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014), coupling efforts to address issues of common concern. 12 2. Strategies 21. While the enjoyment of academic freedom requires the autonomy of higher education institutions, higher education, as a public good, must be a matter of responsibility and economic support of all governments. 13 Higher education institutions, through their core functions (research, teaching and service to the community), not only have the social responsibility to educate ethical citizens committed to the construction of peace, the defence of human rights and the values of democracy, but also to generate global knowledge to meet current human rights challenges, such as eradication of poverty and 8 9 10 11 12 13 Available at http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001211/121147e.pdf. According to general comment No. 1 (2001) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the aims of education, life skills include “the ability to make well-balanced decisions; to resolve conflicts in a non-violent manner; and to develop a healthy lifestyle, good social relationships and responsibility, critical thinking, creative talents, and other abilities which give children the tools needed to pursue their options in life” (para. 9). Report of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (A/CONF.199/20). UNESCO, “Education for Sustainability. From Rio to Johannesburg: Lessons learned from a decade of commitment” (2002). UNESCO Strategy for the Second Half of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2010/ED/UNP/DESD/PI/1, p. 9). See Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 13 (1999), para. 40, available at http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cescr/comments.htm. See also the final document of the 2009 UNESCO World Conference on Higher Education “The New Dynamics of Higher Education and Research For Societal Change and Development”, p. 2: “Higher education as a public good is the responsibility of all stakeholders, especially governments.” 9