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Executive Summary
In the context of recent debates between Europe and Latin America promoted by the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (EuroLat), digital education has been reaffirmed as a strategic priority for development, inclusion, and bi-regional cooperation.
However, field evidence shows that without a human rights-based approach, the digitalization of education may deepen existing inequalities rather than reduce them.
Limited, costly, and unstable access to the Internet, combined with the lack of devices and digital skills, is excluding the most vulnerable populations from their right to education.
For the European Union, this represents a critical challenge of coherence between its values, international commitments, and cooperation investments.
1. Context: Digital education in the EU–Latin America agenda
Digital education has become a central pillar of cooperation between the European Union and Latin America, in line with initiatives such as Global Gateway and programmes like Erasmus+.
In spaces such as EuroLat, connectivity and digital transformation are presented as key tools to:
• strengthen social inclusion
• improve educational quality
• promote sustainable development
• consolidate democracy
However, this approach is based on an assumption that requires reconsideration: that digitalization alone generates inclusion.
2. Structural challenge: inequality in access and use
According to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), nearly one-third of the population in Latin America lacks regular access to the Internet. In rural areas, this figure can exceed 50%.
Additional critical factors include:
• high connectivity costs, particularly mobile datalimited access to adequate devices
• unstable or low-quality connectivity
• gaps in digital literacy
• gender and territorial inequalities
Evidence collected by RIDHE during the first months of 2026 confirms that, in many contexts, connecting to the Internet means choosing between education and basic needs.
Under these conditions, transferring education to digital environments without structural inclusion measures does not eliminate inequality.
It shifts and deepens it.
3. Impact: exclusion from the right to education
UNESCO estimated that more than 160 million students in Latin America and the Caribbean were affected by school closures during the pandemic, many of whom were unable to access digital education.
Today, although hybrid models remain, structural access conditions have not significantly improved.
This results in:
• exclusion of students without connectivity
• widening socio-economic gaps
• fragmentation of education systems
• limited access to future opportunities
The digital divide has become a structural barrier to the right to education.
4. Risk to the coherence of EU cooperation
The European Union has taken global leadership in promoting a human rights-based approach in its external action.
However, a growing risk persists:
that investments in digital education are not reaching the most excluded populations.
When digitalization is implemented without addressing affordability, territorial inequalities, and local capacities, the result is not inclusion.
It is segmentation.
This may lead to:
• widening of the digital divide
• reduced impact of cooperation
• loss of political legitimacy
• contradiction with human rights principles.
5. Recommendations for EU action
RIDHE proposes integrating a human rights-based approach into digital education through the following actions:
5.1 Ensure affordability
Develop subsidy mechanisms, differentiated tariffs, and community-based models to guarantee sustainable Internet access.
5.2 Adopt a territorial approach
Prioritize rural areas, excluded communities, and people in situations of forced mobility.
5.3 Invest in local capacities
Strengthen digital literacy, teacher training, and community-based technology management.
5.4 Integrate a gender perspective
Reduce digital gaps that disproportionately affect women and girls.
5.5 Support community-based models
Promote community networks as sustainable and inclusive connectivity solutions.
6. Conclusion: a strategic decision for the EU
Digital education represents a key opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Europe and Latin America.
But without a human rights approach, this opportunity may become a driver of structural exclusion.
The evidence is clear:
the digital divide is not a future challenge.
It is a present inequality.
For the European Union, the question is not whether to invest in digital education.
The question is how to do so without reproducing the inequalities it seeks to address.
The International Network of Human Rights Europe (RIDHE) works to promote and defend human rights, focusing on education, digital inclusion, forced mobility, and the protection of human rights defenders, bridging Europe and Latin America.
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