Katarina Tomasevski, the leading global expert on the right to education, died on Wednesday 4th October. She was best known for her formidable work as the first United Nations Special Rapporteur on Education, a position she held from 1998 to 2004.

Katarina was born on 8th February 1953 in Yugoslavia. Brought up mostly by her grandparents she studied at the Law School of the University of Zagreb where she excelled, winning the Rector's Prize in 1972, 1973 and 1975 and editing the students' journal Pravnik (Lawyer). From there she moved to the remarkably different environment of Harvard Law School, where she began her fascination with international law, writing her thesis on "Economic Boycotts and International Law". Rather than stay in the West Katarina chose to return to the University of Zagreb for her doctoral thesis on Terrorism and Contemporary International Law.

Katarina was an activist lawyer with indefatigable energy. From 1979-1989 she worked with the International Council of Defence for Children International (DCI), coordinating the first international survey of imprisoned children, which encompassed 32 countries in all regions. She also played a key role in preparing background studies and briefing papers to assist the drafting of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child. She was one of the first lawyers to work on HIV/AIDS, for example as the Legal Officer of the WHO Global Programme on AIDS (WHO/GPA, Geneva) in the late 1980s and as a leading member of the Global AIDS Policy Coalition with the Harvard School of Public Health in the 1990s.

Katarina was always committed to developing the capacity of lawyers across Africa, Asia and Latin America, for example as a leading member of the International Third World Legal Studies Association. Particularly she was committed to promoting the role of women, for example through the Women in the Law Project of the International Human Rights Law Group. She was on the Board of countless human rights organisations, from The Gambia to Malaysia, and on the editorial board of leading journals, such as the Human Rights Law Journal. A prolific writer herself, she completed 25 books on various aspects of education and human rights. She was also a consultant to agencies ranging from ActionAid to Article 19, from UNICEF to Save the Children and the Overseas Development Institute.

Teaching human rights was Katarina's great passion. Amongst many other locations she taught at the London School of Economics (LSE), the Centre for Africa Studies of Edinburgh University, the United Nations University (Tokyo), the Institute for Social Studies (the Hague), the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights (Serbia), the Inter American Human Rights Institute (Costa Rica), the Centre for Human rights at the University of Pretoria (South Africa). Most recently she was Professor of International Law and International Relations at the University of Lund teaching and a visiting professor at the law school of the University of Peking. There can be few people who have taught in so many locations with such inexhaustible conviction. She lived in 18 countries over her lifetime.

It was no surprise when Katarina was appointed as the first United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education in 1998. Her annual reports to the Commission on Human Rights became important landmarks. Her country missions and investigations of alleged human rights violations, challenged governments from the People's Republic of China to the United States of America. Perhaps most famously she challenged the World Bank for its role in the denial of free education (especially for supporting the euphemistically termed "cost-sharing"). The power of the World Bank in setting education policies around the world angered her greatly. She would repeatedly ask the simple but very pointed question. "Why is a bank in charge of education?"

In 1999 Katarina set up the Right to Education Project which functions as a public access resource centre and research network dealing with the human rights dimensions of education. This is an immense voluntary effort with a website (www.right-to-education.org) which has become an indispensable reference point for anyone working on international education.

Over the past three years Katarina compiled a remarkable Global Education Report called "Fee or Free" which provides country-by-country evidence on where children have to pay to go to school. This immense undertaking was finally published last month. She classified the countless different types of fees charged for accessing education in each country of the world. All the fees she documented are in direct contradiction to the fundamental right to education that is guaranteed in numerous international treaties and most national constitutions. This work leaves an incredible legacy for activists around the world. Indeed, she was also working on an Activist Guide on the Right to Education with ActionAid and Amnesty International, which will be published next year.

Katarina knew for at least a year that she was going to die. She did not tell many people about her disease, not liking to talk about herself and her health. But after three years of struggling with organ failure she decided she has had enough of examination and medication. She did not want to end up as a "patient". Instead, she would keep going. She completed her epic publication last month and remained incredibly active to the end. She was an inspiration to everyone who knew her and will continue to be so for education and human rights activists around the world for many years to come.

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