Abstract:
On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization characterized the novel COVID- 19 disease as a pandemic. In response, governments worldwide adopted measures to contain the spread in their territories including restricting human mobility, reducing high concentrations of people, and limiting the presence of persons in non-essential activities. Education centers of all levels were among the first activities affected by the restrictions. With only few exceptions, schools and universities around the world rapidly suspended lessons, conferences, counseling and other in-person school services. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization at the peak of the school closure during the pandemic, the measures impacted 91% of the student population worldwide, forcing nearly 1.6 billion student out of schools from which 156 million belonged to Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). As an alternative, many educational systems turned to online education. The move to distance learning, however, was not easy. It evinced the existing deep inequalities in internet access, a situation especially acute in the LAC region. The present paper addresses the current importance and legal status of internet access as an independent human rights (if so) and as a essential component for the realization of the right of education in light of the experiences in LAC during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaker:
Alfonso Calcáneo Sánchez, Associate Professor of Law, Juarez Autonomous University (Mexico)
Mr. Calcáneo holds a bachelor’s degree in law (2005-2009, academic distinction) from the Juarez Autonomous University of Tabasco (Mexico), and a master’s degree in the Theory and Practice of Human Rights (2013-2015) from the University of Oslo (Norway). During his career, Alfonso has effectively combined his academic development and practice. During the past five years, Alfonso has carried out several professional activities related to human rights and international law -with emphasis on international human rights courts- in Europe, North America, Latin-America, Africa, and Asia. Mr. Calcáneo has served as research and teaching assistant for the China Autonomy Programme of the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights in China in 2014; he has also made legal internships at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in 2014 and at the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights in 2015; among other activities.
Alfonso’s experiences in Mexico includes his designation in two occasions by the Congress of the State of Tabasco as Member of the Human Rights Commission of Tabasco (Mexico) for the two-year terms 2016-2018 and 2018-2020. Since 2016, Mr. Calcáneo has been an associate professor of law at the Juarez Autonomous University of Tabasco, and the Puebla University Institute.