International and Macedonian legal treatment of the educational rights of refugees

Abstract

This article aims to provide an overview of the legal framework protecting the right to education of refugees in North Macedonia. The right to education is one of the fundamental human rights guaranteed by many international legal instruments. International treaties are particularly strong on the universality of the right to education. In the first part of the paper, the authors examined various international legal instruments regarding the educational rights of refugees and immigrants. In the second part, the emphasis was placed on the Macedonian legal framework and public policies by examining the incorporation of the norms of international law into the domestic legal order by comparison. As part of the so-called Balkan route, North Macedonia has witnessed mixed migration flows from the Middle East through the Balkans on their way to Central and Western Europe in 2015-2016. Although it has been a transit country for most of the time, there are some asylum seekers whose educational rights were disregarded due to the existing gap between the legislation and implementation. The authors’ conclusion emphasizes the challenges that have to be tackled by different stakeholders in order to facilitate access to education for refugees entirely.