Non-governmental organisations, the United Nations Human Rights System and access to education in Europe

This article focuses on the key international legal mechanism used by Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) - that of State reporting - to highlight the barriers that Traveller children, Roma children, migrant, refugee and asylum-seeking children, and children with special educational needs and disabilities experience in accessing education in Europe. Drawing on the vast array of documentation submitted to the various United Nations (UN) treaty bodies and the Human Rights Council's Universal Periodical Review, the article shows that NGOs - through their research, monitoring and reporting - provide a deeper understanding of how education reinforces hierarchies, and that these 'on-the-ground' perspectives challenge governments and policy-makers to ensure that quality education is accessible, without discrimination, to all members of European society. The article also demonstrates the crucial role that NGOs play within the UN Human Rights State reporting mechanisms in documenting the relationships between access to education, poverty, discrimination, and the human rights of these four groups of disadvantaged learners.