CEDAW/C/GC/36 12. Non-binding political commitments and global strategies reiterate governments’ responsibilities in recognizing education as a catalyst for accelerating national development and social transformation. They call on states to take strategic action in confronting inequalities and inadequacies in the access of girls and women to education and training. They include: the 1994 Cairo International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD); the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action; the Education for All goals, established at Jomtien (Thailand) in 1990 and reaffirmed in 2000 in Dakar (Senegal); the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) established in 2000; and, more recently, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted in 2015, which includes goals and targets aimed at the elimination of all forms of discrimination against all women and girls. D. Scope of the General Recommendation: the tripartite human rights framework 13. Education that empowers girls and women equips them with capacities to claim and exercise broader socio-economic, cultural and political rights, on an equal basis with boys and men in their societies. To achieve gender equality all aspects of the education system – laws and policies, educational content, pedagogies and learning environments - should be gender sensitive, responsive to the needs of girls and women and transformative for both females and males. 14. This GR is grounded in a human rights framework for education which focuses on three dimensions: The first is the right of access to education. The second, rights within education and, the third, rights through education. This tripartite framework largely reflects the rights elaborated in the 4As framework of accessibility, availability, affordability and adaptability10referred to in subsequent paragraphs. 15. The right of access to education involves participation and is reflected in the extent to which girls/boys, women/men are equally represented; and the extent to which there is adequate infrastructure at the various levels to accommodate the respective age cohorts. Indicators of attendance, retention and transition from one level to another are concerns related to the right of access to education. 16. Rights within education go beyond numerical equality and aims at promoting substantive gender equality in education. It therefore concerns equality of treatment and opportunity as well as the nature of gender relations between female and male students and teachers in educational settings. This dimension of equality is particularly important given that it is society that shapes and reproduces gender-based inequalities through social institutions, and educational institutions are critical players in this regard. Instead of challenging entrenched discriminatory gender norms and practices, schooling, in many societies, reinforces gender stereotypes and maintains the gender order of society expressed through the reproduction of the female/male, subordination/domination hierarchies and the reproductive/productive, private/public dichotomies. 17. Rights through education define ways in which schooling shapes rights and gender equality in aspects of life outside the sphere of education. The absence of this right is particularly evident when education, which should be transformational, fails to significantly advance the position of women in the social, cultural, political and economic fields thereby denying their full enjoyment of rights in these arenas. A central concern is whether certification carries the same value and social currency for women as for men. Global trends disclose that, in many instances, even where the educational attainment of males is lower than that of females, males occupy better positions in these arenas. 18. This GR aims at ensuring that regional disparities, and within-country inequalities, based on multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination that prevent girls and women from enjoying rights to, within and through education are addressed and ultimately eliminated. Hence, the GR expands article 10 of the CEDAW Convention and links it with all other 10 4 See E/CN.4/1999/49.