RIGHT TO EDUCATION: CHALLENGES FOR INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS

Abstract

The article deals with the specifics of realization and ensuring the right to education for internally displaced persons. The right to education is emphasized as one of the most important human and civil rights and freedoms, and this fact determines the relevance of the issue of equal access of “refugees” in their country to high-quality education services, guarantees of their ensuring, maintenance and protection. In the 21st century, access to high-quality education is considered to be a conceptual direction of Ukraine’s development, despite the current military and political challenges, since the increase in the level of literacy of citizens, their cultural enrichment and self-identification definitely have a positive impact on a variety of spheres of public life, both at the national and international levels. Meanwhile, the qualitative transformation of these processes directly depends on the ensuring of the right under analysis, particularly for internally displaced persons who are classified as persons with special educational needs because of the psychological trauma and emotional swings caused by forced displacement. The national legislation of the country where the migration process takes place has been determined to play a leading role in ensuring and implementing the rights and freedoms of internally displaced persons, while there is no separate international legislation. Although there are provisions of global significance (for example, Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement by UNHCR), they are only advisory in nature, and therefore only offer general rules for dealing with internally displaced persons, ensuring and implementing their rights and freedoms to state governments where there is forced displacement of citizens within the country, and they are used mainly as guidelines. The high-quality realization of the educational rights of internally displaced persons is ensured only if the authorities respond promptly and not just through normative-legal consolidation. Practical aspects of implementing legal guarantees of the right to education are also of great importance, taking into account the needs of internally displaced persons, while the child-centered approach and protection of the rights and interests of children of internally displaced persons in pedagogical activities should be a priority.