A/HRC/32/37 His intervention underlined the need to address the concerns raised by growing privatization in education. 6. On 16 June, the Special Rapporteur spoke at the Human Rights Council panel on the theme “Realizing the equal enjoyment of the right to education by every girl”. He emphasized the need to ensure the quality of education and safe school environments. He urged States to ratify international human rights conventions, combat gender stereotypes and take positive actions in favour of girls. On 18 June, the Special Rapporteur held an interactive dialogue hosted by a Geneva-based non-governmental organization, Platform on the Right to Education, at an event organized to discuss continued engagement in his work and his latest report to the Council. 7. From 22 to 27 June, the Special Rapporteur participated in the nineteenth Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers, hosted by the Bahamas. On 23 June, he spoke at the regional ministerial caucus, addressing key issues relating to the right to education. He also addressed the teachers’ forum organized during the Conference, emphasizing the need to safeguard education from forces of privatization, especially its negative repercussions on the teaching profession. 8. From 21 to 24 July, the Special Rapporteur participated in the seventh World Congress of Education International, held in Ottawa, and underlined the need for a dynamic global response to safeguard education from it commercialization and preserve education as a social good and the importance of the resolution adopted by the World Congress on privatization in and commercialization of education. 9. On 28 July, the Special Rapporteur participated in a webinar on the challenges posed by public-private partnerships in realizing the right to education, convened by the Oxford Human Rights Hub and the Open Society Foundation. The webinar served as a global expert consultation on issues relevant to the Special Rapporteur’s report to the General Assembly. 10. On 18 and 19 August, the Special Rapporteur participated in a forum on the development of Xinjiang, China. In the opening address, he underlined the importance of the forum in the context of the post-2015 sustainable development agenda, of developing skills, of international development cooperation and of adopting an integrated approach to education. 11. On 21 August, the Special Rapporteur gave an opening address at an international symposium on the grassland silk road and world civilization organized by the Inner Mongolia Academy of Social Sciences and held in Huhhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region of China. He highlighted the importance of the symposium in providing a better appreciation for the richness of intangible heritage. 12. On 26 August, the Special Rapporteur spoke about the right to education to members and students of the Indian Law Institute, in New Delhi. On 5 September, he gave a public lecture on contemporary issues and challenges relating to the right to education for emerging and developing countries at the Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities, also in New Delhi. 13. On 8 September, the Special Rapporteur participated in a high-level panel, organized to mark International Literacy Day, held at the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris. He spoke of literacy as a right and about the relationship between that right and lifelong learning, and focused on its implications and conceptual issues in view of the sustainable development agenda to be adopted by the General Assembly. 14. From 30 September to 2 October, the Special Rapporteur was in Moscow to address the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia, where he gave a lecture on the right to 4