Realizing the Equal Enjoyment of the Right to Education by Every Girl

A/HRC/RES/32/20View PDF

Who created this mandate?

A Resolution of the Human Rights Council, under agenda item 3Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, published in 2016.

What other versions does this mandate have?

2 versions · 2016–2017

This is an older version — the most recent is A/HRC/RES/35/22

2017A/HRC/RES/35/22Realizing the equal enjoyment of the right to education by every girlLatestCompare with previous version
2016A/HRC/RES/32/20Realizing the equal enjoyment of the right to education by every girl

Versions are identified automatically by matching titles within the same organ (~97% accuracy on a manual audit).

What subjects does this mandate have?

9 topics

Anti-Discrimination Measures Coordination Within UN System Educational Financing Educational Policy Gender Equality Girls Report Preparation Right to Education Women's Rights

What does this mandate say?

22 operative paragraphs

Welcomes the convening, at its twenty-ninth session, of a panel discussion on realizing the equal enjoyment of the right to education by every girl with a view to sharing lessons learned and best practices, and the summary report of the discussion prepared by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights;

Urges all States to strengthen and intensify their efforts to realize progressively the equal enjoyment of the right to education by every girl, such as by taking the necessary and appropriate measures:

To eliminate discrimination against girls in education and to remove all obstacles that hinder the right to education of every girl, including discriminatory laws and policies, customs, traditions or religious considerations, financial barriers, violence, including sexual violence in the school environment, the worst forms of child labour, and harmful practices, such as female genital mutilation, gender stereotypes, child early and forced marriage and early pregnancy;

To ensure that educational institutions are safe and free of violence and abuse;

To address the rate of dropout from school among girls and help to ensure that every girl completes a full course of high-quality primary and secondary education and training and has equal access to all levels of education with the proper support and reasonable accommodation of the individual’s requirements and without discrimination of any kind;

To make a place available for every girl in a primary and secondary school within a reasonable distance of her home;

To take steps so that every girl, regardless of her circumstances, can travel to and from and attend school in an inclusive, accessible, safe and secure environment, including by providing security services and adopting policies designated to eliminate all forms of school violence and facilitating safe and secure school transportation services, when necessary and as appropriate;

To provide equal access to education for girls from marginalized or excluded groups, girls with disabilities, indigenous girls, girls who are members of ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities and girls living in rural areas;

To provide adequate support for disadvantaged girls and their families to ensure access to schools and to prevent girls from being removed from schools for economic reasons;

To provide every primary and secondary school with professionally trained and qualified teachers, including female teachers, capable of providing effective individualized support in an environment that is child friendly and that maximizes academic and social development consistent with the goal of full inclusion, and to develop an overall non-discriminatory, inclusive, accessible and culturally sensitive, safe, supportive and secure environment conducive to providing a quality education, including human rights education, to every girl, to allow the fullest development of her abilities and enable her to be a proactive actor in society;

To provide every primary and secondary school with full access to separate, adequate and safe water and sanitation services, properly equipped with hygiene kits, that contribute to the enrolment and retention of girls in schools, and to protect girls from being physically threatened or assaulted while using sanitation facilities;

To ensure that every girl who completes primary and secondary education has the basic skills to participate effectively in society, including financial literacy;

To eliminate gender-based stereotypes from all educational processes, practices and teaching materials, and to raise awareness with regard to the importance of the progressive realization of the equal enjoyment of the right to education by every girl;

To prioritize education in State budgets, to build education systems, and to develop laws and policies founded on the principles of equality and the rights of the child;

To support access to education for girls in emergency situations, migrant, internally displaced and refugee girls and those in humanitarian crises, including in armed-conflict and post-armed-conflict situations;

Encourages States to increase investments and international cooperation to allow all girls to complete free, equitable, inclusive and quality early childhood, primary and secondary education, including by scaling-up and strengthening initiatives, such as the Global Partnership for Education, and to explore additional innovative mechanisms based on models combining public and private resources, while ensuring that all education providers give due respect to the right to education;

Encourages international cooperation to complement the efforts of States in matters relating to education, in particular with a view to eliminating discrimination in education, and supports the efforts of the United Nations system in this regard;

Urges States to support the efforts of developing countries, in particular least developed countries, to realize progressively the right to education, including the progressive realization of the equal enjoyment of the right to education by every girl through appropriate resources, including financial and technical resources, in support of country-led national education plans;

Reaffirms the importance of enhancing the dialogue between the United Nations Children’s Fund, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the Special Rapporteur on the right to education and other partners that pursue the goals of girls’ education, with a view to integrating further the right to education of girls into the operational activities of the United Nations system;

Encourages the High Commissioner and the relevant special procedure mandate holders to give the required attention to realizing the equal enjoyment of the right to education by every girl in carrying out their mandates and in their reporting, and to work collectively towards its realization through practical and efficient steps;

Requests the High Commissioner, in close cooperation with all relevant stakeholders, including States, the United Nations Children’s Fund, other relevant United Nations bodies and agencies, relevant special procedure mandate holders, regional organizations and human rights bodies, national human rights institutions and civil society, including children themselves, to prepare a report on the realization of the equal enjoyment of the right to education by every girl, and on the obstacles limiting the effective access of girls to education, and to make recommendations on appropriate measures to eliminate gender disparities in education by 2030, taking into account Goal 4 of the Sustainable Development Goals, and to submit the report to the Council for its consideration at its thirty-fifth session;

Decides to remain seized of the matter.

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