Refugee children in Egypt and the right to education : examining the gap between theory and practice

Abstract

This paper focuses on one of the rights around which confusion exists, that of access to primary education. The reservation that Egypt made to Article 22(1) of the Refugee Convention and its subsequent ratification of other human rights treaties that emphasize the compulsory nature of the right to primary education have left many questions unanswered. Is primary education a right enjoyed by refugees in Egypt or not? This paper will examine the reasons behind this confusion, and will attempt to provide few solutions to one of many problems refugees face in Egypt. The position of Islamic Sharia on the matter will also be considered. Perhaps it is worth mentioning that this is the first paper that examines the right of refugee children to education in Egypt from a legal point of view in a significant degree of detail. Its main purpose is to provide lawyers and academics with a starting point for further, and perhaps more detailed, writings on the subject. The major obstacle I came across while writing this article was the lack of information on the topic. Most papers written on education examined the subject from social and anthropological angles. In addition, there is hardly any jurisprudence that deals with this right as far as refugees are concerned, which aggravated the difficulty of the information gathering process. It is only through my position as a legal advisor for asylum-seekers and refugees that I found enough resources that enabled me to write this article.