I feel as though this summer I've taken an entire course in economic, social, and cultural rights. While Adrian and I were originally asked to do our reserach on educational equality, we realized very quickly that in order to get to that point, we had to understand the greater context of the issue at hand. This involved not only understanding the right to education, but the justiciability of economic, social, and cultural rights in general. It was difficult to come to terms with the fact that so much of our time was spent on understanding the content, measurability, and process of enforcement of those rights, and not much of that research will be helpful to the organization in and of itself since it is only the background against which they so their work. However, it was extrememly important for us to understand this very current and contentious topic in order to conduct further analysis and I know that that knowledge was reflected in the rest of our work.

In addition to learning about socio-economic rights, we also learned about the budgetary process and the various ways in which it can, does, and should affect those righrts. The way I see it, budgets are one of the more significant ways that governments can give effect to their international, national, and local obligations with respect to those rights.

From that starting point, Adrian and I started to examine the right to education specifically. This entailed understanding (a) the content of the right to education, (b) ways in which it can be measured (i.e. measuring the status of the right to education in a particular geographic context by using relevant indicators), and (c) how budgets can be drafted in order to comply with the content of that right, by taking into account the aforementioned analysis regarding the status of that right and allocating accordingly.

We looked at various case studies/initiatives in this field and complied ideas suggestions regarding each of those three stages. The hope is that this report will be useful for the organization when designing future advocacy and/or litigation strategies in this field. They will be able to draw on the information and the lessons learned from other initiatives around the world in order to strengthen their own efforts.

By way of conclusion, I can confidently say that I learned a lot while compliing this report and, as I said before, I feel as through I have taken an entire course this summer on the realization of economic, social, and cultural rights. I have discovered that this is an areas of law that interests me greatly and one which I intent to pursue further. I have also strengthened my understanding of the role of economics, or rather budgets, play in the fulfillment of those rights. It is wonderful to know that the information I learned this summer will influence and affect the choices I make regarding my intended career path and future advocacy strategies. I hope the same can be said for future steps taken by my host organization. I thank ILP and my host organization for allowing me this opportuntiy!