Human Rights Council, Forum on Minority Issues, Geneva 15-16 December 2008
I am honoured to represent the CEDAW Committee at this first Forum on Minority
Issues focusing on the right to education as a human right. During the morning it was pointed
out that gender issues are dealt with very briefly and I hope that during our deliberations we
will strengthen the inclusion of gender perspective in the final recommendations.
The question before us is the following: What is a proper inclusion of a gender
perspective with respect to minorities and their right to education?
The CEDAW Convention provides solid guidance as a gender specific human rights
treaty. It provides a consistent human right framework for the protection of all women and
girls including women and girls belonging to minorities against all forms of discrimination in all
fields of life including the area of education.
In order to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women and achieve
substantive equality between women and men, the elimination of discrimination against
women and girls in the field of education is essential.
The CEDAW Convention contains a specific Article 10 that addresses
discrimination against women and girls in the area of education. Article 10 requires all - 185
- State parties to take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against
women in order to ensure to them equal rights with men in the field of education.
Minority women and girls, in fact, suffer from multiple forms of discrimination,
intersectional discrimination, and compounded discrimination.
The CEDAW Committee addresses multiple discrimination against minority women and in
its concluding observations often recommends that States:
conduct regular and comprehensive studies on discrimination against
minority women in the field of education;
provide information and data on the situation of minority women in the field
of education;
provide statistics disaggregated by sex and race or ethnicity ; This
requirement should be included in draft recommendation no 11;
pay special attention to the needs of women belonging to ethnic minorities
by ensuring that they have equal access to education;
take all appropriate measures, including temporary special measures in
accordance with art. 4, paragraph 1 of the CEDAW Convention and the
Committee's General Recommendation N. 25 on temporary special