A/HRC/35/11 together with measures for disadvantaged groups, and ensure that they do not lead to the maintenance of unequal or separate standards.78 V. 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development 56. The Millennium Development Goals helped to mobilize political will and investment to improve girls’ access to education. From 2000 to 2015, the gender gap in literacy narrowed sharply and there was a significant increase in primary school attendance worldwide, accompanied by greater parity between girls and boys. 79 Nonetheless, despite the increase of the number of girls finishing primary education, the gender gap in lower secondary education remained wide and prevalent in nearly 60 per cent of countries, with girls living in poverty and/or in rural areas most adversely affected. 80 57. The tendency to focus on global and national averages lessens attention to uneven progress in education between and within countries. The failure to track the situation of girls in the most vulnerable or marginalized situations, making their reality invisible, and overall lack of data disaggregation were significant shortcomings of the Goals, in combination with a weak accountability framework.81 58. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development marks a historic opportunity to build on the achievements of the Millennium Development Goals, draw lessons from their limitations and effectuate genuine transformation towards the full realization of human rights. With a paradigm shift from charity and needs to empowerment and rights, the 2030 Agenda should accelerate the full realization of every girl’s right to education worldwide. 59. The 2030 Goals are universal and integrated, with a pledge to leave no one behind that is central to the realization of every girl’s right to education, as it includes the elimination of all forms of discrimination and the reduction of inequalities faced by girls everywhere. 82 The global education community reaffirmed the importance of gender in education in the Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action. 83 In addition to the principles of universality, equality and non-discrimination, the implementation of the Goals should be guided by the principles of indivisibility of the rights of the child; the best interests of the child; the survival and development of the child; and respect for the views of the child.84 60. Although the Sustainable Development Goals and their targets are indivisible and mutually reinforcing, Goals 4 and 5 on quality education and gender equality, respectively, are particularly relevant and inextricably linked in the context of girls’ enjoyment of the right to education. In implementing Goal 4, which addresses inequities and quality of education, States should go beyond eliminating gender disparities and strive to ensure gender equality in education, in line with the commitments made under Goal 5 and in the Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action. The targets under other goals are also closely connected to ensuring girls’ equal right to education, including those related to poverty, health, water and sanitation, reduction of inequalities, ending violence against children and promoting peaceful and inclusive societies. 61. Whereas the monitoring of the targets of the Millennium Development Goals, including on education, focused on aggregate progress, the Sustainable Development Goals are universally applicable and call for the collection of reliable disaggregated data, not only by gender, but also by other grounds of discrimination. This will help to identify girls 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, general comment No. 13 (1999), para. 32. United Nations Statistics Division and UN-Women, “Millennium Development Goals Gender Chart 2015”. UNESCO, Global Education Monitoring Report 2016, pp. 17-19. See A/HRC/34/27, para. 15. Ibid., para. 66. See also UNESCO and others, Education 2030: Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action — Towards inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all (2015). Convention on the Rights of the Child, arts. 2, 3, 6 and 12. 13