A/HRC/35/10
poverty, severe discrimination and
(A/HRC/29/40/Add.2, paras. 69 -70).
B.
both
sexual
and
labour
exploitation
Education
20.
Intersectional discrimination affects the ability of women and girls to enjoy their
right to education. The lack of access to quality education has a detrimental impact on their
autonomy, opportunities and choices later in life, including with regard to employment and
income, and health (see also A/HRC/35/11).
21.
The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the
Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Committee on the Rights of
the Child have drawn attention to the lack of access to education, prevalence of high school
dropout rates and/or low enrolment rates among specific groups of girls, such as migrant
and refugee girls, or on the basis of their sex and ethnicity, religion or work and descent in
Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, China, Croatia, Czechia, Germany, India, Peru, Serbia,
Spain and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.11 The Working Group on the issue
of discrimination against women in law and in practice found that, in Peru, the school
dropout rate among indigenous girls aged between 12 and 16 years was 89.1 per cent
(A/HRC/29/40/Add.2, para. 68). A survey conducted on discrimination against and the
living conditions of Roma women in 11 Member States of the European Union showed that
only 23 per cent of them remained in school after the age of 16, compared to 32 per cent of
Roma men.12
22.
High school dropout and low enrolment rates among women and girls affected by
intersectional discrimination are closely linked to a combination of related multiple barriers
that may include lack of access to gender-sensitive and intercultural education, lack of
financial resources, lack of access to health services, including sexual and reproductive
health services, unpaid care work, and the high prevalence of sexual and other types of
violence (see A/HRC/35/11).
23.
Discriminatory attitudes based on race, ethnicity, work and descent, gender or
religion held by education personnel and fellow students may also prevent girls from
having access to and remaining in school. Educational curriculum and teaching materials
may reflect stereotypes and biases based on gender, race, ethnicity, work and descent,
religion or other reason, and thus aggravate discrimination and lead to violence against
women and girls in education.
24.
Educational policies that support the exclusion of specific groups intersect with
gender-related barriers and may compound discrimination experienced by girls. The
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, the Human Rights Committee, the
Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural
Rights in their concluding observations (CERD/C/DEU/CO/19-22, para. 13;
CERD/C/MKD/CO/8-10,
para.
17(a);
CERD/C/CZE/CO/10-11,
para.
17;
CERD/C/SRB/CO/1, para. 15; CERD/C/SVK/CO/6-8, para. 11 and 16;
11
12
6
CEDAW/C/HRV/CO/4-5, para. 36; CEDAW/C/CHN/CO/7-8, para. 34; CEDAW/C/PER/CO/7-8,
paras. 29 and 30; CEDAW/C/BIH/CO/4-5, para. 31; CEDAW/C/CZE/CO/5; CEDAW/C/DEU/CO/6;
CEDAW/C/SCG/CO/1; CEDAW/C/BIH/CO/3; Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifty-fifth
Session, Supplement No. 38 (A/55/38); Official Records of the General Assembly, Fifty-ninth Session,
Supplement No. 38 (A/59/38); E/C.12/ALB/CO/2-3; CRC/C/15/Add.185; and CRC/C/15/Add.118.
European Agency for Fundamental Rights, “Discrimination against and living conditions of Roma
women in 11 EU Member States”, Roma survey: Data in Focus, October 2014, p. 13.
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