/ Social and Cultural Rights. The 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons also specifically affirms the right to education for stateless children.15 Setting out the problem: education is a right for all children The Convention on the Rights of the Child recognizes education as a right of every child, on the basis of equal opportunity. The Committee on the Rights of the Child, which has oversight of the Convention, has affirmed that the rights enshrined in the Convention (including the right to education) apply to all children without discrimination.10 States are obliged to implement the provisions on an equal basis in accordance with the principle of the best interest of the child:11 Article 28 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child guarantees free compulsory primary education for all children and guides that free secondary education that should be available and accessible to all. The provision further prescribes that every State should make higher education accessible based on its capacity. “The enjoyment of rights stipulated in the Convention are not limited to children who are citizens of a State party and must therefore, if not explicitly stated otherwise in the Convention also be available to all children – including asylum-seeking, refugee and migrant children, irrespective of their nationality, immigration status or statelessness”.12 Several other international13 and regional human rights14 instruments protect the child’s right to education for all children, such as the International Covenant on Economic, These provisions are binding under international law and are complemented by several international declarations, frameworks and global initiatives that further underscore the need for inclusive, equitable quality education for all children.16 Chief amongst these is the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal No. 4. SDG 4 on Quality Education calls on States to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. Despite these provisions and initiatives aimed at guaranteeing access to education for all children without discrimination, stateless children face disproportionate challenges to register for school and to attend on a continuous basis. In fact, the educational barriers faced by stateless children often arise by design, as a product of the same structural exclusion that also obstructs enjoyment of the right to a nationality. From the consultation with civil society actors working with stateless communities, two distinct types of discrimination emerged as principle underlying causes that inhibit free access to education for stateless children: 1. Direct discrimination, whereby discriminatory laws, policies and directives explicitly reserve public education for citizens only. This approach essentially excludes any person who is not a citizen – affecting all non-citizens and stateless persons alike. / CASE STUDY - MALAYSIA On the island of Omadal on Sabah, Malaysian Borneo, stateless children from the Bajau Laut community struggle to gain access to classrooms. Despite being the indigenous people of the Sulu and Sulawesi Sea, many Bajau Laut are born stateless. As non-nationals, they are excluded from accessing public education because Malaysian law reserves the right to public education exclusively for citizens. This position effectively blocks access to education for stateless children. Although a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Malaysia has entered several reservations to key articles in the Convention, including freedom from discrimination, the right to nationality and the right to education. Malaysia’s position creates significant challenges for stateless communities belonging to indigenous minorities such as the Bajau Laut, but the government has repeatedly ignored calls from human rights bodies and advocates to remove reservations to these provisions and ensure equal access to education for all children including non-nationals. 7