The right to education is recognized in many national, regional and international laws:

Signatories to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) must "recognize the right of the child to education," including "primary education compulsory and available free to all, secondary educaðtion available and accessible to every child," and "higher education accessible to all on the basis of capacity'" (Article 28).

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) similarly recognizes "the right of everyone to education," stating that "education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and sense of its dignity" (Article I3).

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) prohibits disðcnmination in education: "States parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in order to ensure to them equal rights within the field of education" (Article 10).

Obstacles to education may prevent women from exercising other human rights:

• Political participation and voting : Illiterate wornen may be unable to understand the process and/or what the political parties stand for; illiterate women are far less likely to be candidates for office or to be active in political parties, especially at high levels.
• Health Care: Illiterate wornen may be less able to learn about where to access health care
• Employment: Illiterate women may be unable to apply for skilled jobs: they cannot read information about potential positions or fill out a job application.
• Legal capacity and property ownership and right to contract: Illiterate women cannot read contracts or the papers needed to buy or sell property or to manage a business.
• Nondiscrimination and equality: In many societies, disabled, migrant and racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately represented among the poor unemployed and illiterate; thus a lack of educaðtional opportunities for women and girls perpetuates inequalities and discrimination in these groups.

The Beijing Platform for Action and Education

The Beijing Platform for Action, a statement of intentions on the part of govemment representatives at the Fourth World Conference for Women in Beijing,1995, recognized education as a basic human right and an essential tool for achieving more equal relations between women and men. It recommended investing in formal and non-formal education and training for girls and women as one of the best means of achieving economic growth and development that is both sustained and sustainable. The Platform for Action proposes these strategic objectives:

• Ensure equal access to education
• Ensure the completion of primary education by at least 80% of children, with special emphasis on girls, by the year 2000
• Close the gender gap in primary and secondary education by the year 2005 and achieve universal primary education in all countries before the year 2015 ? Reduce the female illiteracy rate, especially among rural. migrant refugee, internally displaced and disabled women to at least half the 1990 level
• Eradicate illiteracy among women worldwide
• Improve women's access to vocational training, science and technology and continuing education
• Develop non-discriminatory education and training by developing and using curriculums, textbooks and teaching aids free of sex-stereotyping for all levels of education
• Allocate sufficient resources for and monitor the implementaton of educational reforms
• Maintain or increase funding levels for education in structural adjustment and economic recovery programmes
• Promote lifelong education and training for girls and women, and create flexible educational proðgrammes to meet their needs.

Exercise lll : Defining women's human right to education

Objective:
- To develop a law to protect women's human right to education.
- To assess the protection of women's education included in CEDAW
Time: 60 minutes
Materials: Chart paper and markers; copies of Article 10, CEDAW

Write, Read, Discuss:

Step I: Divide the participants into small groups to write their own law that would protect women's human right to education. The law should be as speciflic as possible. Should this be international law? National or local law? All three?

Step 2: Distribute and read the provisions in Article 10 of CEDAW which relates to education,

Step 3: Ask the groups to compare their new law to Article I0 of CEDAW

• How are they the same ?
• Would they now change their law?
• If so, how?
• What changes or additions would they recommend

Step 4: Ask Groups to present their laws. Discuss: ?

In what ways would the government need to change? How can women influence this change?

In what ways could the government support and enforce your law?

In what ways do religion, culture, tradition, custom and habit currently limit the rights contained in your law? In what way would these things need to change? How can you influence that change?

In what ways do religion, culture, tradition, custom and habit currently support and enforce your law?

In what ways do you and/or your family limit the rights contained in your law?

In what ways would you and/or your family need to change? Are such changes possible?

Step 5: Discuss what it would really take for these new laws and/or CEDAW to become a reality in this community. Strategize actions that individuals and groups might take to make this happen. List the strategies that the majority can agree upon.