Books Are a Vital Human Right

The Guardian Unlimited writes about literacy in Africa.

From the story:

Literacy - being able to read and write - is widely regarded as a basic human right. Reading also enables people to exercise other rights; to participate in decisions that affect them; to access vital information. And of course it's integral to the right to education.

But without material to read, the right to literacy means nothing in practice. The consequence of this is that many people in Africa, having learnt to read in school or adult literacy classes, actually lose the ability to read once they leave the classroom. Worse still, the shortage of books and learning materials in African schools means that many children will actually leave primary education illiterate.

But despite the central importance of books to securing human rights they are often dismissed as frivolous luxuries.