Argentina: Enforcing a Legal Victory for Universal Access to Education

Abstract

The constitution of the City of Buenos Aires (the City) establishes a duty for the City government to provide all children between the ages of 45 days and five years with access to early education. Yet thousands have been denied this right. In 2006 a civil society organization, the Civil Association for Equality and Justice, known by its Spanish acronym ACIJ, used public litigation to pressure the City to meet its obligations. Five years later ACIJ and the City established an agreement that set out ambitious targets regarding opening up access to early education, work plans for infrastructure development, and budget obligations. Implementation of the agreement has been slow, but not without achievement.

This case study explores the progress of this case, drawing on interviews conducted with key stakeholders in 2014.1 The main focus of this analysis is to reflect on ACIJ strategy in order to extract lessons for civil society organizations (CSOs) involved in public litigation.

Keywords: civil society, strategic litigation, Argentina, budget work, budget advocacy