A/HRC/35/11 L. Conflict and situations of instability 47. Conflict and situations of instability, including the impacts of natural disasters and widespread criminal violence, are accompanied by the collapse of a State’s public and services provision infrastructure, and its political, economic and social structures. Such situations frequently lead to an exacerbation of pre-existing patterns of discrimination, deepen gender inequalities and expose girls in particular to heightened risks of abuse, exploitation and violations of their rights, including their right to education. 48. Girls’ education is compromised when schools are targeted, looted and/or destroyed, closed owing to insecurity or occupied for military purposes or as shelters. 64 Grave rights violations following the “normalization of gender-based violence” deter and prevent girls from attending school and may include targeted attacks, forced exclusion, forcible recruitment, abduction, sexual slavery, harassment and threats against girls by armed groups and criminal gangs. 65 In such insecure contexts, girls are particularly prone to harmful practices and being kept at home to assume domestic responsibilities or to partake in exploitative forms of income generation. Defence for Children International noted that, in many contexts, day-to-day survival prevailed over investment in the long-term future of girls. 49. Some global initiatives have sought to address those challenges and protect the right to education in situations of instability. Education Above All foundation promotes innovative approaches, including addressing data challenges concerning attacks on education.66 50. International human rights, including the right to education, continue to apply in the context of armed conflict and occupation, in addition to rights guaranteed under international humanitarian law, refugee law and international criminal law. 67 The Security Council has adopted a number of resolutions on children and armed conflict and on women, peace and security, which include calls on parties to conflicts to refrain from actions that impede children’s access to education and to prevent the military use of schools. 68 51. States should prioritize the protection of schools from attacks and ensure that girls are protected against violence on their way to/from and in school. States should provide girls with appropriate remedies when their rights are violated so as to enable them to have equal access to education as boys,69 including repairing damaged educational institutions and facilitating access to girls; outreach, repatriation and remedial programmes, including specialized education services for victims of gender-based violence and reintegration programmes for girls who have not been attending school; 70 and increased funding and resource allocation for girls’ education at all levels and in every situation. 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 See for example, A/HRC/27/60, para. 87. Ibid., para. 42; OHCHR, “Attacks against girls seeking access to education”, p. 11; Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, Protect schools and hospitals: End attacks on education and healthcare, Guidance Note on Security Council resolution 1998 (New York, 2014), p. 4. Education Above All Foundation (http://educationaboveall.org/). See, inter alia, Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (Fourth Convention), arts. 24, 50 and 94; Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of International Armed Conflicts (Protocol I), arts. 48, 52 and 78; Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II), art. 4 (3). For example, Security Council resolutions 1325 (2000), 1998 (2011) and 2143 (2014). Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, general recommendation No. 34 (2016), para. 43 (e). OHCHR, “Attacks against girls seeking access to education”, pp. 13-14. 11