A/75/385 Several ISIL massacres have targeted other religious minorities in Syria, including Christians, Druze, Ismailis and many others.95 More broadly, minority religious communities have suffered gravely over the course of Syria’s civil war: the Christian community is estimated to have decreased from 360,000 before 2012 to 25,000 today. 96 Education (SDG-4) 39. As well as being a goal itself ensuring access for all to a quality education underpins a range of fundamental development targets - “inclusion and equity in and through education is the cornerstone of a transformative education agenda”. 97 Reports received by the Special Rapporteur assert that religious and belief minorities face discrimination in access to all levels of education and vocational training. Reports also continue to emphasize that women and girls often face multidimensional discrimination in the context of education. The number of women and girls deprived of their right to education based on their religion or belief is unknown, however, of the millions of girls worldwide who do not go to school, three-quarters belong to minority groups. 98 In Egypt, Muslim women who choose not to wear the veil have reported that this choice has led to harassment in education settings because the absence of the veil either (i) incorrectly signals that they are Christian or atheist or (ii) defies stereotypes about the appropriate behaviour of Muslim women.99 The legal prohibition of the wearing of certain forms of religious dress in public places, particularly in Western Europe, 100 also jeopardizes access to education for women and girls who choose to wear a veil as an expression of their religious, cultural, personal identity or beliefs. The Human Rights Committee has found that such bans can effectively bar students from pursuing their education and constitute a form of intersectional discrimination against Muslim women who chose to cover their hair or faces.101 40. In Iran, members of the Baha’í community have been barred from access to higher education or have been routinely expelled from universities in Iran since the 1980s 102; and members of the El Yasin minority in Iran have reportedly been expelled from educational institutions on the basis of their beliefs.103 Muslim children in East Jerusalem reportedly face a grave shortage of adequate school infrastructure and are subjected to invasive security barriers and checkpoints simply to attend school as a result of their ethnic and religious identities.104 In India, it is reported that the discriminatory attitudes and practices of school authorities towards children from socially marginalized religious or belief communities generate hostile environments for students belonging to Muslim or ‘tribal’ communities, many of which identify as religious or belief minorities which often leads to irregular attendance and lower educational outcomes among such children.105 In Ireland, children who are members of religious or belief minorities struggle to access education that is not based 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/CoISyria/A_HRC_40_70.pdf https://christianpersecutionreview.org.uk/report/. http://uis.unesco.org/sites/default/files/documents/education-2030-incheon-framework-for-actionimplementation-of-sdg4-2016-en_2.pdf at 7. https://www.humanrights.dk/sites/humanrights.dk/files/media/document/_%2019_0292222%20freedom_of_religion_or_belief_gender_equality_and_the_sustainable_development_%20fd%2 0487747_1_1.PDF at p 43. https://www.equalrightstrust.org/ertdocumentbank/Egypt_EN_online.pdf at p 183. Restrictions on Islamic clothing, including the hijab, burqa, niqab and burkini, exist in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Latvia, with further restrictions at a local level in Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain and Switzerland. See Yakar v France, CCPR/C/123/D/2747/2016; Hebbadj v France, CCPR/C/123/D/2807/2016; CEDAW/C/BEL/CO/7 paras. 18-19 (Belgium) and CEDAW/C/TUR/CO/6 paras. 16-17 (Turkey). https://www.bic.org/news/scores-bahai-students-barred-higher-education-iran. Submission by El Yasin. https://www.ochaopt.org/content/right-education-deeply-impacted-ongoing-interference-schools; https://www.ochaopt.org/content/rise-incidents-disrupting-schooling-across-west-bank. https://minorityrights.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/MRG_Rep_India_Jun17-2.pdf at 5. 11