Statement for language, education and the empowerment of minority women and girls Madam Chair, I am Tin Mar Oo from Myanmar and I would like to represent the Rohingya minority. Madam Chair, the right to education is core to the very idea of human rights. Education is not only fundamental rights of human but also a mean to the full and effective realization of other human rights. Education is also the main tool for the women and girl empowerment. According to the Myanmar Demographic and Health Survey 2015- 2016, the literacy rate of female population in ethnic minorities areas is less than half of the majority Burman areas. Especially female literacy rate of ethnic Rakhine state is only 2.8 which is the second lowest and the ethnic chin state has the lowest female literacy rate which is 1.5. Civil war and lack of security in the minorities areas are the main reasons for low literacy rate of minority women. Moreover, among the minorities like Rohingya, parents are more willing to support the sons for higher education than the daughters. Ethnic women who couldn’t join the formal education are unable to use official Burmese language and it also hinder them to engage the further education and economic development. Dear Madam Chair, can you imagine how difficult the lives of ethnic minority women of Myanmar? It is very important to have equal access to education for both men and women in ethnic areas of Myanmar. Women education is fundamental to reduce poverty and development in the ethnic regions. For this reason, I would like to make the following recommendation to t Myanmar government. 1.Myanmar government should put more effort to stop the civil wars and to build peace in the ethnic minorities areas so as to make sure the safety environment for education. 2. Myanmar government should provide the education in both minority languages and official language in ethnic areas. 3. Myanmar government should support the gender equality and women empowerment programs and also assign more funding on the education and gender programs in ethnic areas.