UNESCO publishes advances of the World Convention on the Recognition of Studies

From September 3, 2019, the Report on the progress made in the preparation of the project World Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education is available on the UNESCO website. It will be at the 40th General Conference of the organization that will be held from November 12 to 27, 2019, when the organization’s general director, Audrey Azoulay, presents the document to the members of the organization for its approval.

In March 2019, Member States, Associated States and interested organizations were invited to comment on the draft global convention. At the end of the delivery period, in June of the same year, UNESCO received more than 1,000 written reflections from 69 States.

From July 11 to 13, 2019, government representatives from 23 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean met at the International Conference of States, held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, for the final review and unanimous approval of the New Convention for the Recognition of Studies, Degrees and Diplomas in Higher Education in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Both the World Convention and the one referring to Latin America and the Caribbean will favor academic mobility, intra-regional cooperation and regional and global integration. Its implementation, once adopted and ratified by the Member States, will significantly contribute to the protection of the right to education, to inclusion and to the continuation of the Sustainable Development Goal 4 agenda and its goal that “no one be left behind”.

The draft World Convention will be implemented in coordination with existing conventions, and will not replace or substitute any other bilateral or multilateral recognition agreement already in force.