A/70/342 73. The key importance of skills development is recognized in goal 4.4. of the proposed sustainable development goals: “By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship”. 18 The Special Rapporteur trusts that Governments in developing countries will be able to develop innovative modalities of public-private partnerships, harnessed for skills development, to respond to the imperatives of quality and the rising aspirations o f young people. V. International legal framework for the right to education, State obligations and public-private partnerships 74. Any modality or arrangement for public-private partnerships should always be driven by a human rights approach, giving paramount importance to the norms and principles of the right to education. 75. Universal access is an entitlement under the right to ed ucation. That right also empowers learners by providing the knowledge, values and skills needed to participate in society. Full consideration should be given to the impact of public private partnerships in education on both those dimensions, bearing in min d State obligations to respect, fulfil and protect the right to education, for when a Government enters into partnership or joins hands with the private sector for the provision of education, those obligations remain constant. Public -private partnerships do not alter or diminish State obligations regarding the right to education, as laid down in international human rights conventions; on the contrary, the State remains accountable for its own actions, as well as those of its partner(s) and of all other providers of education within its jurisdiction. It must ensure that the right to education is respected protected and fulfilled, with the latter incorporating an obligation to facilitate and provide. 19 76. When entering into partnership with private providers, the State should not divest itself of its responsibility. The European Court of Human Rights has held that, under the European Convention on Human Rights, a State cannot absolve itself from responsibility by delegating its obligations to private school bodies. 20 That position is also reinforced by the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which emphasize that, when States delegate their responsibilities to businesses, they remain responsible for ensuring that their human rights obligations are being met. 77. Governments cannot divest themselves of their core public service functions. 21 The State has the principal responsibility for “the direct provision of education in most circumstances”, on account of its international legal obligations. 19 __________________ 18 19 20 21 14/25 See A/69/L.85 for the draft of the sustainable development goals for transmission to the General Assembly at its seventieth session. See Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 13. Costello-Roberts v. the United Kingdom, 25 March 1993, application No. 13134/87. The Supreme Court of the United States stated in Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U.S.205, 92 S. Ct. 1526, 32 L.Ed.2d 15 (1972) that “Providing public schools ranks at the very apex of the function of a State,” and “education is perhaps the most important function of State and local governments”. 15-12538