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

A/HRC/RES/54/19View 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 2023.

What other versions does this mandate have?

2 versions · 2021–2023

2023A/HRC/RES/54/19Realization of the equal enjoyment of the right to education by every girlLatestCompare with previous version
2021A/HRC/RES/47/5Realization of 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).

Who cites this mandate in the budget?

1 entity

Extracted automatically from each entity’s budget submission.

What subjects does this mandate have?

7 topics

Anti-Discrimination Measures Climate Change Educational Policy Gender Equality Girls Right to Education Women's Rights

What does this mandate say?

27 operative paragraphs

Reaffirms that the right to education, enshrined in international human rights law, can help to enable the realization of many other human rights, in particular for girls;

Recognizes that the realization of the equal enjoyment of the right to education by every girl is crucial to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, in particular Goals 4 and 5, by promoting tolerance, increasing all girls’ agency and autonomy and empowering their full, equal and meaningful participation in society;

Also recognizes the critical role of access to at least 12 years of safe, free inclusive and quality education, including informal education, for all girls which increases girls’ agency, autonomy and empowerment and can contribute to their involvement in addressing climate change and other environmental issues;

Welcomes the education and gender equality focus in the twenty-eighth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, to be held in the United Arab Emirates from 30 November to 12 December 2023, in particular with the inclusion of thematic days on gender equality and youth, children, education and skills;

Urges all States:

To strengthen and intensify their efforts to take deliberate, concrete and targeted steps for every girl to fully realize the equal enjoyment of the right to education, to eliminate legal, administrative, financial, structural, physical, communication, social and cultural barriers that hinder girls’ equal enjoyment of the right to education and to appropriately ensure non-discrimination in the admission of any child at all levels of education, in particular when designing policy measures, programmes and resource allocations;

To review, repeal and eliminate, as appropriate, laws, policies and practices that negatively affect the right to education of every girl, in accordance with international human rights obligations, including discriminatory laws, policies, practices or customs, barriers resulting from traditions or the misuse of religion, financial barriers, violence, including sexual violence and harassment on the way to and from school and in the school environment, including online, the worst forms of child labour, early pregnancy, harmful practices, such as female genital mutilation, gender stereotypes, child, early and forced marriage and barriers to menstrual hygiene management;

To recognize that discriminatory gender norms deny girls the enjoyment of their right to education, prevent them from fulfilling their leadership potential as agents of change and undermine opportunities to tackle climate change, environmental degradation and loss of biodiversity;

To ensure that all girls, including married and/or pregnant adolescents and young mothers, as well as single mothers, can continue and complete their education before, during and after climate-related disasters, and in this regard to design, implement and, where applicable, revise educational policies to allow them to remain in and return to school, providing them with access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, as well as social services and financial and psychosocial support;

To strengthen efforts to address climate change and environmental degradation in and through education, by building resilient school systems that equip all learners with the knowledge, skills and agency to adapt to the challenges of a changing climate and act as agents of change for their future, including by promoting science, technology, engineering and mathematics subjects for all girls;

To ensure that educational institutions teach all children the basic foundational skills of literacy, numeracy and lifelong learning, to allow them to progress, and equip them with the skills, qualifications and support to transition from education into work, in particular by supporting girls and adolescents to have equal access to good quality employment, including within the fields of environment and science;

Calls upon States:

To promote the progressive realization of girls’ right to education by providing them with equal access to at least 12 years of safe, quality and inclusive education, by implementing appropriate measures, as applicable, including in situations of crisis and unusually severe weather or climate conditions that cause devastating impacts on communities and ecosystems, including the use of schools as shelters, and during extreme weather events, such as floods, cyclones, typhoons or earthquakes;

To strengthen and intensify their efforts to prevent and eliminate all forms of school-related gender-based violence and harassment against girls, including in crisis situations and extreme weather or climate conditions, and to hold accountable those responsible for such acts;

To promote and protect the rights of women and girls, including married and/or pregnant adolescents and young mothers, as well as single mothers, to equal access to quality education through an enhanced emphasis on free and quality primary and secondary education and by providing targeted support for girls as they reach adolescence, when gender-specific barriers start to multiply and increase the risk of girls dropping out of school;

Also calls upon States, as part of efforts to support the realization of the equal enjoyment of the right to education by all, to integrate education sector resilience objectives into national climate plans and policies and to develop an inclusive action plan for equal access for women and girls to more sustainable and resilient education systems;

Encourages States to consider investments in smart learning and teaching methods, including offline educational tools, which could sustain the educational and learning process, especially during and after extreme weather events, such as cyclones, flash floods and typhoons;

Also encourages States to assist in efforts to build capacity, through training and financial support for developing countries, towards alleviating the impact of climate change and environmental degradation on the equal enjoyment of the right to education by every girl;

Further encourages States to strengthen the collection and use of more and better data, including on the impacts of climate change, to support girls’ access to skills development and technical and vocational education and training, and integrate climate and environmental education into curricula and vocational education and across subjects to enable them to become future leaders and decision makers, including in countries transitioning to sustainable economies and to tackle gender-based discrimination against girls, which can prevent this;

Encourages States to support the global initiative of the Greening Education Partnership in its aims to harness the role of quality education in tackling climate change and environmental degradation and build inclusive resilient education systems, which is an important contribution in the realization of the equal enjoyment of the right to education by all;

Also encourages States to increase financing, investments and international cooperation to provide equal opportunities for all girls to complete at least 12 years of free, equitable, inclusive and quality education and be equipped with the knowledge, skills and agency for climate action, including by scaling up and strengthening national, regional and international initiatives, as appropriate, such as the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative, the Out-of-School Children Initiative, the Global Partnership for Education, Education Cannot Wait and the United Nations Population Fund-United Nations Children’s Fund Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage, and to explore additional innovative mechanisms based on models combining public and private resources, while taking appropriate action to ensure that all education providers are qualified and adequately trained, and to give due respect to human rights, including the right to education;

Encourages States and the international community to scale up the emergency response to crises in the education sector to ensure that children and youth are safe and learning, if they are displaced from school, and can return to school when conditions allow, including by ensuring that Education Cannot Wait and the Global Partnership for Education are obtaining the necessary funding to respond to natural disasters and emergencies;

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

Requests States to engage with relevant national human rights institutions, civil society, women’s rights organizations, organizations of persons with disabilities, local communities, the private sector and other stakeholders in developing strategies to harness the power of education to tackle climate change, environmental degradation and loss of biodiversity, by empowering women, youth, families and religious, cultural and education leaders, as well as community leaders, including members of racial and ethnic minorities, persons with influence and authority within communities and all other concerned civil society groups;

Encourages the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and relevant special procedures of the Human Rights Council 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 United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in consultation with States, United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, in particular the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Health Organization, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), Education Cannot Wait, the special procedures of the Human Rights Council, the treaty bodies, civil society organizations and other stakeholders, to prepare a report on how climate change can have an impact on the realization of the equal enjoyment of the right to education by every girl, highlighting how the realization of the equal enjoyment of the right to education by every girl can contribute to the climate change agenda and making recommendations, for submission to the Human Rights Council at its fifty-seventh session;

Decides to remain seized of the matter.

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