This project is a collaborative initiative between six scientific journals with influence in the international field: the Asian Journal of Distance Education, Distances et savoirs, the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Network, ICDE’s Open Praxis, and EURODL.

At the beginning of 2007, there was a joint call for papers by the journals on the topic of Distance Education and the Right to Education, based on the UN Declaration of Human Rights. This theme could be approached from multiple points of view; pedagogical, sociological, economic, political, legal.

A scientific committee was formed to oversee the process: 

• Svein Odvar Haaland, Open Praxis
• Terry Anderson, IRRODL
• John Bourne, Journal of Asynchronous Learning Network
• Carl Holmberg, Open Praxis
• Ramesh C SHARMA, Asian Journal of Distance Education
• Alan Tait, EURODL
• Martine Vidal, Distances et savoirs
• Monique Grandbastien, Distances et savoirs
• Pierre Moeglin, Distances et savoirs

The abstracts selected by each journal were published in their original language on a common website, with open access; they will also be published in printed version in 2009. Authors benefitted from broad international dissemination, and their work was presented to a UNESCO international conference on distance education and the universal question of the right to education in October 2008, organised in conjunction with the European Distance and E-learning Network (EDEN) Research Workshop in Paris.

http://www.distanceandaccesstoeducation.org