This can get complex in a hurry, but essentially, the argument here is that under the WTO, "Liberalization increasingly converts education into a tradable commodity, which directly undermines rights-based education, namely as a 'public good' with governments assuming the primary regulatory role. It threatens to undermine progressive realization of the right to education, which requires the enforcement of governmental obligations, as required by international human rights law." Now of course the WTO specifically excludes services provided "in the exercise of governmental authority," which one would assume covers education, but this exclusion is very narrow: once fees are charged, the government is deemed to be 'in competition' with private providers. Moreover, "a conceptual shift towards characterizing education as a 'property right' may be a precursor to the subjecting of all education – including compulsory education - to liberalization pressures." I haven't addressed the WTO much in these pages - there are many people who can do that with more authority than I can - but my observation is that, under the WTO, human rights can and often do take a back seat to commerce, a trend that should concern us all.
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