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UN Human Rights Briefing on Afghanistan girls' education
At the bi-weekly Geneva press briefing on Tuesday, UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Marta Hurtado made the following comments on Afghanistan girls' education.
“This week girls in Afghanistan should have been starting another year in secondary school with hope and aspiration. But for the past year, girls have not been allowed to attend Grades 6 to 12. We urge the de facto authorities to open schools to girls at all levels, as well as to universities,” she said.
“The denial of a secondary school education, and then of access to university, is manifestly discriminatory, profoundly distressing for girls and women, along with their families and communities, and deeply damaging to the country as a whole,” Hurtado said.
“The decision to deny girls and women their right to an education exposes them to violence, poverty and exploitation,” she said.
Disempowering half of Afghanistan’s population is counterproductive and unjust. Structural discrimination such as this is also deeply damaging for the country’s prospects of future recovery and development.
Education is a fundamental human right. As a State party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and to the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, Afghanistan is obliged to ensure that everyone has access to an education.
“The de facto authorities have pledged that all women and girls will be allowed to go to school. Our Office urges that they honour this promise, without delay,” she said.
ENDS
For more information and media requests, please contact:
Ravina Shamdasani - + 41 22 917 9169 / ravina.shamdasani@un.org or
Liz Throssell + 41 22 917 9296 / elizabeth.throssell@un.org or
Jeremy Laurence + +41 22 917 9383 / jeremy.laurence@un.org or
Marta Hurtado - + 41 22 917 9466 / marta.hurtadogomez@un.org
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- Exterior shot: Wide shot entrance of Palais des Nations
- Wide shot: Briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Marta Hurtado, Spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR): “This week girls in Afghanistan should have been starting another year in secondary school with hope and aspiration. But for the past year, girls have not been allowed to attend Grades 6 to 12. We urge the de facto authorities to open schools to girls at all levels, as well as to universities.”
- Cut aways: participants briefing room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Marta Hurtado, Spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR): “The denial of a secondary school education, and then of access to university, is manifestly discriminatory, profoundly distressing for girls and women, along with their families and communities, and deeply damaging to the country as a whole.”
- Cut aways: participants briefing room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Marta Hurtado, Spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR): “The decision to deny girls and women their right to an education exposes them to violence, poverty and exploitation.”
- Cut aways: participants briefing room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) – Marta Hurtado, Spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR): “The de facto authorities have pledged that all women and girls will be allowed to go to school. Our Office urges that they honour this promise, without delay.”
- Wide shot: Briefing room
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