A Thought About Human Rights

Is education a human right? The Universal Declaration of Human Rights says it is. However, the Universal Declaration doesn't say how much education is one's right. Perhaps each society quantifies for itself how much education is a right for its members, and the universal right is simply the least amount that is assigned over all societies.

The right to education is secured by institutions that provide educational services, included the institutionalized means to secure the resources needed to provide those services, and by a legal structure which enforces that right. As the Declaration of Independence states:

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

Thus the processes of governance may be the way in which a society determines the rights to education that it accords to its members.