Is literacy a human right?

A “right” is a freedom that belongs to every human, fully and innately, without discrimination. Should literacy be included with life and liberty?

The Right To Read

Is my coffee cup correct?

Literacy is a human right. When I saw this sticker at a library conference, I immediately slapped onto my coffee cup. I look at this claim every morning and have been pondering it deeply.

Is literacy a human right? And if so, how do individuals and society support that right?

Human rights are innate and inalienable

What, exactly is a human right? Well, they say life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are human rights.

Life means, well, you have the right to live, so someone can’t deprive you of food, water, or shelter from the elements—and, of course, they can’t murder you.

The right to liberty means if we break no law, we can’t be detained.

The pursuit of happiness means we can move around freely and do what we want, presumably if it doesn’t harm others.

Embedded into the concept of human rights is that they are inborn and inalienable to all humans, no matter where we’re born, what we look like, what religion we believe, how old we are, etc.

We all get these freedoms just by being alive.

What makes literacy a human right?

So is literacy a human right? To answer that, let’s think about what it means to be illiterate.

Maybe back in the Renaissance times, a person could lead a full life without knowing how to read. But ever since Gutenberg created the printing press (around 600 years ago in 1440), people have not been able to fully function in society without knowing how to read.

Reading allows people to understand what is going on in the world. In John Steinbeck’s novella, The Pearl, the main character finds a valuable pearl, but ends up penniless— screwed by people he trusts—because he doesn’t know how to read. Reading gives people the information they need to advocate for themselves.

We need to be able to read to stay healthy, for example to read medication instructions.

We need to read for economic independence. Every job starts with some sort of written contract and any employee who can’t read it can become a victim. It’s hard to imagine a job that doesn’t include some sort of employee manual or machine label.

We need to read to know our legal rights. Reading allows us to access the laws that make life fair. Illiteracy makes people vulnerable for exploitation.

Simply put, reading allows for independence and dignity. If you can’t read, you are at the mercy of unscrupulous others.

Literacy must be learned

Literacy is necessary for a fair and equitable life. But does that make literacy a human right?

Absolutely, the right to literacy is inalienable (absolute, undeniable).

But literacy is not innate (inborn, built-in).

Literacy is a skill. It must be learned. And though all humans have the capacity for reading, not everyone has the same level of literacy.

Systems create literacy

It’s easy to agree with the idea that all people born with the right to freedom of speech. Are they born with the right to literacy? People aren’t born with literacy. But if they’re born with the right to literacy, that means a couple of things have be set up to make that happen :

• literacy training systems (i.e. schools, tools) must be set up
• literacy training must be free
• literacy instruction must be effective
• people need to show up at that training
• people make an effort, over a sustained period of time, to learn reading skills

To be literate, a person has to put in some effort

The right to reading might be automatic. But reading itself is not automatic. Learning to read is work. Hard work. It doesn’t happen automatically. It requires active, sustained practice.

Effort matters for literacy. It takes active work to process letters, sounds, words, and meaning. Focus is necessary. Memorization and stick-to-it-ive-ness is needed. What if a person just doesn’t agree to all that work? They are giving up their opportunity to learn. Are they giving up their human right?

So, is literacy a human right?

Organizations like UNESCO recognize literacy as a human right. I think they don’t mean people are born with the skill of literacy. What they are saying is that everyone has the right to the schools, tools, and instruction that make literacy possible.

As a society, we can’t penalize people for being illiterate. But we can punish the systems, organizations, governments, and religions that prevent people from accessing the training, lessons, books, interventions, and teachers that allow them to become literate.