CEDAW/C/GC/36 A. Introduction 1. Education plays a pivotal transformative and empowering role in promoting human rights values and is recognized as the pathway to gender equality and women’s empowerment.1 It is also an essential tool for personal development as well as for developing an empowered workforce and citizenry that can contribute to civic responsibility and national development. Consequently, in endorsing the United Nations Millennium Declaration in September 2000, Member States resolved to ‘ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, would be able to complete a full course of primary schooling and that girls and boys would have equal access to all levels of education.2 2. Despite important progress, this goal has not been achieved. Although the education of girls and women is considered to be one of the most effective investments for sustainable and inclusive development, in 2012, 32 million girls of primary school age around the world were out-of-school, representing 53% of all out of school children as were 31.6 million adolescent girls (50.2%) of lower secondary school age. 3 Even where educational opportunities are available, inequalities persist, preventing women and girls from fully taking advantage of such opportunities. As a result, in September 2013, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) reported 4 that 773.5 million adults (15+ years) in the world were illiterate and, of these, 61.3% were women while for youth (15 to 24 years) the figure was 125.2 million with females representing 61.3% of that population. Generally, girls and women are disproportionately discriminated against during the schooling process in access, retention, completion, treatment, learning outcomes as well as in career choices resulting in disadvantage beyond schooling and the school environment. 3. The need to ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning is a priority in Goal 4 of the post 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)5, adopted by 189 of 192 world leaders, and intended to transform the world by 2030. Two critical education targets to be met are to: (a) ensure that all girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education leading to relevant and effective learning outcomes; and, (b) eliminate gender disparities in education and ensure equal access to all levels of education and vocational training for the vulnerable, including persons with disabilities, indigenous peoples and children in vulnerable situations. The Education 2030 Framework for Action, agreed by the global education community in November 2015 to accompany the SDG agenda, therefore, acknowledges that ‘gender equality is inextricably linked to the right to education for all’ and that achieving this ‘requires a rights-based approach. This approach ensures that both female and male learners not only gain access to and complete education cycles, but are empowered equally in and through education’. 4. However, certain factors disproportionately prevent girls and women from claiming and enjoying their basic human right to education. These factors include: barriers to access for disadvantaged and marginalised girls and women exacerbated by poverty and economic crises, gender stereotyping in curricula, textbooks and teaching processes, violence against girls and women in and out of school and structural and ideological restrictions to their engagement in male dominated academic and vocational fields. 5. The gap between the legal recognition of girls’ and women’s right to education remains critical and its effective implementation calls for further guidance and action on Article 10 of the Convention which is elaborated in this GR. The development of this GR and its recommendations are grounded in existing CEDAW jurisprudence based on concluding observations and existing GRs as well as information from submissions received, oral presentations by States parties and a wide range of stakeholders, including non- 1 2 3 4 5 2 UN Chronicle. The Magazine of the UN.Vol.1 No.4, 2013. A/B5/L2 55/2, http://www.un.org/millennium/declaration/ares552e.htm UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) and UNICEF. 2015. Fixing the Broken Promise of Education for All: Findings from the Global Initiative in Out-of-School Children. Ibid, Fact Sheet. September 2013, No.26.http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Documents/fs262013-literacy-en.pdf A/RES/70/1