Education is a Human Right

International Human Rights Day: Standing for Dignity, Equity, and the Right to Education

December 10 is International Human Rights Day, a moment each year when communities around the world reaffirm a simple but powerful truth: every person deserves to live with dignity, fairness, and opportunity. For the Camosun College Faculty Association, this day is not abstract. It speaks directly to our classrooms, our campuses, and our shared responsibility as educators to protect and uphold human rights in practice, not just in principle.

This year, we mark Human Rights Day in the shadow of sweeping federal changes to international student visas and post-graduation pathways. These shifts, introduced quickly and without meaningful consultation with those who work on the front lines of post-secondary education, have created instability and harm that ripple across our community.

The Right to Education Is a Human Right

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes education as a fundamental human right. For decades, Canada has welcomed international students with the promise of high-quality learning, safe communities, and meaningful opportunities after graduation. These students contribute deeply to our classrooms, cultures, and local economies, and they enrich the learning experiences of domestic students.

But when visa rules change abruptly, pathways narrow, processing slows, or financial burdens increase, the message becomes muddled. Access to education becomes precarious. And the burden shifts disproportionately onto vulnerable learners who have already invested their savings, hopes, and futures into coming here.

Faculty see this impact every day. Students who are unsure if they can continue. Students whose family plans have been upended. Students are anxious about whether they still belong. This is not what a fair, rights-based education system should look like.

Human Rights Include Stability, Safety, and Fair Processes

A human-rights approach demands that policy shifts be transparent, predictable, and grounded in equity. Instead, the sudden federal changes have intensified financial pressures on colleges and students alike, while doing little to address the underlying systemic issues that created reliance on international tuition in the first place.

The provincial Post-Secondary Review will only compound these pressures unless funding realities are addressed honestly. Without adequate public investment, students, especially international students, are caught in the crossfire of policy decisions made far above their heads.

International Human Rights Day reminds us that stability, safety, and fairness are not luxuries. They are rights. And they require governments to act in ways that support, not undermine, learners and the educators who serve them.

A Call for Responsible, Rights-Centred Policy

On this day, the CCFA joins others in calling for policies that honour the integrity of Canada’s education system:

• Stability and clarity in international student pathways
• Adequate provincial funding so that institutions are not forced to depend on volatile international tuition
• Authentic consultation with faculty, staff, and communities before changes are made
• Protection of students’ basic rights to safety, housing, and accessible education

Faculty uphold human rights every day through our teaching, advocacy, and solidarity with students. But our ability to do so depends on governments recognizing their own responsibilities in building a just, inclusive, and sustainable post-secondary system.

On International Human Rights Day, we reaffirm this truth: every student deserves dignity. Every educator deserves a system that works. And every community deserves a government that protects the right to education, not as a commodity, but as a cornerstone of human rights.