Every girl deserves an education—make sure she can get one! (2024)

Education is a human right. It is both a right in itself and also a pathway to the enjoyment ofother rights. Education is also an inalienable right for every child, and every child deserves theopportunity to receive one.

The education of young people is critical in ensuring youth—and society at large—can enjoy alltheir human rights. This is especially true for girl children. Educating girls has dramatic effectsnot only on the girl herself, but also on her broader society.

Educating girls reduces maternal mortality, reduces levels of malnutrition, reduces adolescentpregnancy, delays and prevents early marriage, and improves economic stability. At the sametime, girl children, globally, are less likely to be enrolled in school than boy children and aremore vulnerable to violence and discrimination in school.

That’s why this 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based violence, Amnesty International andother organizations around the world are working to make education safe for all!

Equal access to a safe education is a critical right for all children, but for girl children this right isoften denied. This 16 Days, we’ll be highlighting the critical role of education for girls, and howyou can help ensure all girls can access their rights to equal, safe education.

Take Sierra Leone, for example, where every child has the right to an education… unless, thatis, you’re a girl—then it depends on your pregnancy status.

This April, the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology in Sierra Leone issued astatement banning pregnant girls from mainstream education. As a result, thousands of pregnant girlsare excluded from mainstream schools and barred from sitting in upcoming exams.

The ban on visibly pregnant girls attending mainstream schools and sitting exams violates theirright to education and to non-discrimination. Education is being treated as a privilege that canbe taken away as punishment, rather than as a right of all children, regardless of theirpregnancy status. The policy is also blatantly discriminatory, and is founded in, and reinforces,negative stereotypes about girls.

Even more concerning is that the ban is enforced in humiliating and degrading ways thatstigmatize and traumatize girls and threatens their physical integrity and privacy. One 18-year-old girl told Amnesty International how all girls were checked by teachers before they wereallowed to sit an exam:

“They touched our breasts and stomachs to see if we were pregnant. Some girls were made totake urine tests. One of the teachers was wearing gloves when she was checking us. I felt reallyembarrassed when this happened to me. Many girls left as they were scared the teacherswould find out they are pregnant. About 12 pregnant girls did not sit their exams.”

Punishing pregnant girls by denying them education is discriminatory and unlawful, and it putsalready vulnerable girls at increased risk; it’s even more disturbing when considering that manyadolescent pregnancies result from rights violations including failure to protect girls from sexualviolence. What’s more, sex education in schools in Sierra Leone is limited and was removedfrom the curricula after the war over a decade ago, meaning that the government is first failingin its human rights obligations to provide adequate sexual and reproductive health educationand then punishing girls for that failure.

We hope you’ll join us in calling on the government of Sierra Leone to guarantee girls’ humanrights to non-discrimination and education by immediately lifting the ban.

Join us this 16 Day of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence; follow our blog series and learnhow you can ensure all girls have the right to education.