SDG 4: An Opportunity to Strengthen Inclusive and Quality Education and Promote Life-long Learning Opportunities for All

This module lasts approximately 5 hours.

Education is a free-stading right and an empowerment right, which enhances the ability of individuals to achieve other human rights, and is also shown to have multiple benefits for families, communities and society as a whole. Education contributes to progress on a number of other Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including eradication of poverty (SDG 1), improved health and gender equality (SDG 3), and the promotion of peace and good governance (SDG 16).

This course focuses on Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4 Education), which aims to “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all”,  addressing unfinished aspects of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), in which Goal 2 aimed to achieve universal primary education. SDG 4 recognizes that while the MDGs resulted in substantial advancements in the area of education, there is still a long way to go before full realization of this fundamental right. At the same time, SDG 4 recognizes that education as a whole is a lifelong process and right, one which includes all levels of education as well as vocational and skills-based training. In this way, SDG 4 seeks to create a holistic system in which individuals have the ability to access and benefit from education and training in order to assist themselves and their communities in the present day and in the future.

The course provides a cursory survey of principal national and international law, policy and governance measures that have the potential to contribute to realizing SDG 4. It considers options for legal and policy preparedness, notes the potential for mainstreaming and more integrated implementation at the international and national levels, and offers some recommendations to deal with these issues.

The course includes an accompanying PowerPoint and covers: 

• Introduction offers brief background to the issues, the structure of the course, and an overview of the intended audience.
• Legal Innovations & Practices from Across Canada to Achieve SDG 4 provides an initial survey of federal, provincial, and territorial approaches which support achievement of specific targets under the SDG.
• International Legal Dimensions of SDG 4 highlights legal obligations under international instruments related to education.
• Legal Preparedness for Achieving SDG 4 with Canadians summarizes findings and provides mechanisms for enhancing efforts across all levels of government.

The analysis suggests that the SDG 4 targets are supported by international governance systems and legal measures, as well as Canadian domestic instruments and institutions which provide pre-existing pathways to support national implementation. While law and governance mechanisms which support achievement of the SDG 4 have been identified, there remain significant areas of opportunity to promote greater policy cohesion, refinement, scaling up of ambition, and engagement with civil society actors.

Primary Instructors

Dr. Alexandra R. Harrington

Dr. Alexandra R. Harrington, J.D., LL.M., D.C.L. (McGill), Professor, University of Albany School of Law, and Fulbright Canada Special Foundation Fellow at the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Waterloo, Canada.

Dr. Harrington is the author of the book International Organizations and the Law and the forthcoming International Law and Global Governance: Treaty Regimes and Sustainable Development Goals Interpretation. She is the Director of Studies for the International Law Association Colombian branch, a member of the International Law Association Committee on the Role of International Law in Sustainable Natural Resource Management for Development, and an adjunct professor at Albany Law School. She also provides guest lectures globally on topics related to international law, environmental law, global governance and sustainable development.

Dr. Harrington has served as a consultant for entities such as the Commission for Environmental Cooperation of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation and UN Environment. Dr. Harrington’s publications address a variety of fields relating to international law, including environmental law, legal issues relating to climate change, natural resources regulation, international organizations, international human rights law, international child’s rights, international trade law, corporate social responsibility, and criminal law. Dr. Harrington routinely presents her works at domestic and international conferences

Prof. Dr. Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger

Professor Dr Marie-Claire Cordonier Segger, DPhil (Oxon) MEM (Yale) BCL and LLB (McGill), BA Hons, Full Professor of Law, University of Waterloo, Fellow at C-EENRG and LCIL, University of Cambridge, International Advisor, IC3, is a distinguished professor, scholar and expert jurist in law and governance on sustainable development.

She serves as Senior Director of the CISDL in a pro bono academic capacity, where she mentors CISDL lawyers and fellows, and guides new international legal scholarship and education. She is also a Full Professor of Law (part-time) at the University of Waterloo and Fellow of the Balsillie School of International Affairs in Canada; and Fellow and Advisor of the Centre for Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Governance (C-EENRG) and Affiliated Fellow of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law (LCIL) in the University of Cambridge. Her current research focuses on law and governance regimes related to climate change; natural resources and biodiversity management; investment, trade and the green economy; among other emerging sustainable development challenges. She received the 2016 international Justitia Regnorum Fundamentum Award for her leadership on behalf of future generations, among other international awards and honours.

Professor Cordonier Segger has edited/authored 20 books and 120+ papers in five languages, edits the Cambridge University Press Implementing Treaties on Sustainable Development Series, and serves on the Editorial Boards of 6 law journals. As an expert jurist, she is active in international sustainable development debates. She advises United Nations treaty negotiations and organizations, serving as Executive Secretary of the Climate Law and Governance Initiative in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Chair of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Biodiversity Law & Governance Initiative. She is Rapporteur for the International Law Association’s Committee on Sustainable Resources Management; Chair of the World Bank Law Justice and Development’s Climate Law Community of Practice; and member of various Boards of Directors and Foundations.

Along with other CISDL contributors