The report provides a thorough analysis of why girls have limited access to education. Despite a firm legal framework, the implementation of the right to education remains problematic, especially for girls. Three main causes are indicated, including gender inequality in cultural practices, poverty and safety risks for girls. The report aims to give a better understanding of the challenges girls face in their struggle to get access to education. The situation in Pakistan serves as an example showing the complex problems surrounding the implementation of the right to education for girls. With 5.1 million children, the country has the second highest number of boys and girls who are not able to access education after Nigeria. In rural areas, widespread gender inequality remains, and the hurdles described above all apply. Furthermore, the conflict between the Pakistani Government and the Taliban often brings girls, teachers and school buildings in the direct line of fire.

The report concludes by highlighting what still needs to be done to improve the situation of access to education for girls globally and in Pakistan. By meeting these challenges worldwide, a true change can be achieved, enabling all girls to take school for granted because no-one is excluded.

This report begins by examining some of the explicit and implicit causes of attacks on girls’ education during peacetime and in situations of crisis, including settings of armed conflict, political instability and widespread criminal violence. It looks at the impact of attacks against girls accessing education on their rights to and within educational systems as well as the broader consequences of these attacks on the promotion and protection of human rights through education by focusing on the linkages between education and a host of other civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. The applicable international legal and policy framework is then outlined and the situation of girls accessing education within settings of crisis, political instability and conflict is analysed in greater detail. The final section of the report provides several recommendations to States and other stakeholders aimed at preventing and redressing violations of girls’ rights to, within and through education.

 

This Report provides an overview of what countries are doing to ensure the right to education for girls and women. Based on the national reports of forty countries from different regions, the Report is organized in a series of country factsheets. Each factsheet contains key statistics on the situation of girls in education in each reporting country, followed by information on each country’s status of ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (1979) and the Convention against Discrimination in Education (1960) as well as information on their constitutional and legislative provisions in this field. They illustrate how countries have made noteworthy advances in addressing gender inequalities and in eliminating discriminatory attitudes towards girls and women in the field of education.

The Report is based on national reports submitted for the Eighth Consultation on the monitoring of the implementation of the Convention against Discrimination in Education (1960) and the Recommendation against Discrimination in Education (1960).