Human Rights and Social Justice through Open Educational Resources and Lifelong Learning

A landmark in the realization of UNESCO’s Sustainability Goals, Education for All (SDG4), was passed when the organization’s Recommendation of Open Educational Resources (OER) was uniformly adopted in 2019. Now it is time to transfer from the consciousness of OER to their mainstream realization at all levels, micro, meso, and macro, including all stakeholders, such as governments, institutions, academics, teachers, administrators, librarians, students, learners, and the civil service. The OER Recommendation includes five areas: building capacity and utilizing OER; developing supportive policies; ensuring effectiveness; promoting the creation of sustainable OER models; promoting and facilitating international collaboration; monitoring and evaluation. OER are valued as a catalyst for innovation and the achievement of UNESCO’s SDG 4, education for all, lifelong learning, social justice, and human rights. The OER Recommendation will be a catalyst for the realization of several other SDGs. Because access to quality OER concerns human rights and social justice, this Recommendation is vital. In 2020, the effects of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic clearly demonstrated the importance of opening up education and the access to internationally recognized, qualified learning resources. This article describes and discusses how the promise of resilient, sustainable quality open education can be fulfilled in the new normal and the next normal.