Membro della presidenza del PSE. Vicepresidente dell'Internazionale Socialista.
Presidente onoraria dell'Internazionale Socialista donne
Presidente onoraria dell'Internazionale Socialista donne
Women’s and girls’ empowerment through education
SPEECH BY PIA LOCATELLY
SIW HONORARY PRESDIENT
Let me start with a quick glance ti the global scenario and with four quotes:
The data come from the
EDUCATION FOR ALL GLOBAL MONITORING REPORT 2015 of UNESCO
The present panorama:
-At the primary level, 69% of the countries with data were expected to have reached gender parity by 2015. Progress is slower in secondary education, with 48% projected to be at gender parity in 2015.
-Progress in tackling severe gender disparity has been made. Between 1999 and 2012, the number of countries with fewer than 90 girls enrolled in primary school for every 100 boys fell from 33 to 16.
-Amongst out-of-school children, girls are more likely than boys never to enrol in school (48% compared to 37%), while boys are more likely to leave school (26% compared with 20%). Once enrolled, girls are more likely to reach the upper grades.
-In sub-Saharan Africa, the poorest girls remain the most likely to never attend primary school. In Guinea and Niger in 2010, over 70% of the poorest girls had never attended primary school, compared with less than 20% of the richest boys.
I reported these figures as amost of us were convinced that the situation was improving much quicker than we thought. It is still difficult and parity in education it is still far away.
THE FOUR QUOTES (they are strong messages)
“There is a fundamental moral case for empowering women: women represent one half of the global population and it is self-evident that they must have equal access to health, education, earning power and political representation” – Global Gender Gap report 2016
“Change your life today. Don’t gamble on the future, act now, without delay”- Simone de Beauvoir
“I raise up my voice—not so I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard…we cannot succeed when half of us are held back.” ―Malala Yousafzai
“Progress on gender equality in education is so slow it is unlikely to be achieved before 2040” – Human Rights Council, Annual Discussion- 2010
And yet we have so many instruments to build this progress:
Many international legal instruments such as the International Bill of Human Rights, the International Convenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Right, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and many regional legal instruments such as the Arab Charter on Human Rights, the Charter of the organization of the America States, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child set forth the universal right to education.
Not to speak of The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) which I consider our Bible together with the Beijing Platform of Action.
The Cedaw also sets forth in Article 10, States’ obligation 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”.
This Convention aims at eliminating discrimination in the field of education, particularly in vocational training and higher education, as well as stereotyped educational choices.
– Article 10 of CEDAW relies on five core principles:
1) Elimination of all forms of discrimination to ensure that women and girls receive equal opportunity with men and boys to the same quality and type of education and have the same potential to benefit from such education;
2) Education is not limited to primary and secondary education: all levels of education are included from pre-school through to the tertiary level in academic and technical-vocational fields;
3) Education must be available, accessible, acceptable, and adaptable to women and girls in urban as well as in rural areas and to all disadvantaged groups;
4) Primary measures, including the elimination of stereotypical concepts of the roles of men and women in society, must be supported with a number of related, complementary measures;
5) Promoting the right of women and girls to education facilitates enjoyment of rights in their personal and family life as well as in their political and public life.[1]
Education is also a matter of HUMAN RIGHTS: it is said in the Beijing Platform of Action which reaffirms that “education is a human right and an essential tool for achieving the goals of equality, development and peace.
The Platform for Action set as strategic objectives
-to “ensure equal access to education”;
-to eradicate illiteracy among women;
-to improve women’s access to vocational training, science and technology, and continuing education”;
-to “develop non-discriminatory education and training;
-to allocate sufficient resources for and monitor the implementation of educational reform;
-to promote life-long education and training for girls and women”
Nevertheless, millions of women and girls are still illiterate; and the majority of out-of-school children are girls with no autonomy and no effective possibility of individual self-determination.
Cedaw, Beijing…and now we have other important tools: the 17 Sustainalbe Development Goals.
Among them Sustainable Development Goals No.5 (stand-alone Goal on gender equality) and No. 4 (including focus on quality education) jointly indicate the way forward; and the instrumental role that education plays to give effective prominence to women’s empowerment and its realization.
SDG n° 5: Gender equality: Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
SDG n° 4: Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning
In particular SDG No. 4 requires that by 2030:
-“All girls and boys complete free, equitable and quality primary and secondary education;
–eliminate gender disparities in education;
-all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development;
–Build and upgrade education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive and provide safe, nonviolent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all;
– substantially increase the supply of qualified teachers.
SO UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’s aim is to provide guidance and to spell out how to ensure/secure that girls and women become “agents of change” – yet, a pending issue….
But what do we do in my part of the world? I mean in Italy and in Europe:
– We all are aware that only through and within education, meaning focus on leadership skills and human rights permeating the educational sector in all its activities, one can access and enjoy other human rights because the right to education has a multipler effect, particularly those relating to active participation (including in public life), employment, and personal development.
-From the Beijing Platform of Action onwards, we have stressed this multiplier effect of the right to education; and education has been recognized also as key to women’s access to health, adequate living standards, participation and empowerment.
-To keep pace with our reality, adequate budgetary resources for all levels of education result more necessary today than ever. Very recently (January 2017), the Italian Minister on Education has launched an investment Plan of over 800 million Euros, to be allocated in ten areas of the educational sector, in light of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, including SDG No. 5.
-Over the years, the Italian Government has adopted many measures, to ensuring effective equal opportunities in access to education and training for women and girls, such as: refreshing courses for the school personnel on gender and equal opportunities (for several years being part of the National Plan of training courses for teachers); promoting the specific role that teachers play with regard to gender and equal opportunities; supporting innovative strategies in secondary and high schools, to orientate a larger number of female students towards business, as well as scientific and technological subjects; providing lifelong learning for adult women, etc..
Italy has also promoted a project on a Code of Self-regulation for School-books Publishers, to ensure equal representation in schoolbooks, elimination of stereotypes, gender sensitive approach… Because these are the problems we face, not so much disparity between girls and boys in enerolment in primary, secondary, tertiary education.
More generally, the Ministry of Education’s relevant action has been built, also together with Department for Equal Opportunities, through various measures. The task of “integrating a gender perspective in all educational activities with a tangible growth in terms of equity and efficiency” is recognized in the school system; and the training of teachers is key to “gender-sensitive teaching.
Furthermore, the Extraordinary Action Plan against Sexual and Gender-based Violence aims at “promoting the appropriate training of school personnel against gender-based violence and discrimination”. The Decree prioritizes skills’ enhancement related to: respect for diversity and gender equality; and the elimination of gender stereotypes.
Along these lines, specific attention to gender and education is paid in the fields of foreign policy and development cooperation.
European Union level
Since the 1970s, the European Union has been working on women’s empowerment. In light of Article 21 of the Nice Charter, the recent Strategic Engagement Framework on Gender Equality (2016-2019) indicates the work ahead, especially in five priority areas,
In this regard, the European Commission acknowledges that “More and more Member States are addressing gender equality challenges through national strategies or action plans for equality between women and men. These vary in focus and ambition, but all cover
-policies on gender-based violence and gender equality in the labor market.
-Education and training,
-gender stereotypes
reconciliation of work and family life.
The EU also notes with concern that “today’s younger generation is not immune to gender stereotypes and disparities. Gender in-equalities in education persist – in terms of study subject preferences, performance and patterns of participation (..) As a result, inequality in occupations is taking new forms rather than diminishing and, despite their investment in education, young women are still twice as likely as young men to be economically inactive. Women also represent the biggest untapped source of entrepreneurial potential, representing only 29 % of entrepreneurs”.
To minimize the impact of the above obstacles, “gender equality will continue to be promoted through the integration of a gender equality perspective into every aspect of EU intervention (preparation, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies, legal measures and spending programs), i.e. gender mainstreaming.
Along the above lines, with regard to the external dimension action of the EU, that is foreign policiy, the EU has committed to promoting gender equality and women’s human rights though the following actions:
-Promoting gender equality, women’s rights, empowerment and participation of women and girls
–Step up the implementation of obligations and commitments to women’s rights made in CEDAW, under the Beijing Platform for Action, in the Cairo Declaration on Population & Development and in the post-2015 development agenda; ….
.- promoting women’s and girls’ economic, social and cultural rights and their voice and participation in social and political fora;
-promote and strengthen gender equality and women’s empowerment, including through a new strategy on equal opportunities for women and men and increase accountability, in coherence with the overall EU gender equality policy.”
Conclusion
At the outset of the new Millennium, we were used to state that Threats and Challenges have inevitably impacted on the globe and that Change is necessary. This is even more true today, at least in the change of pace.
According to UN sources, only few countries have achieved equality between girls and boys, at all levels of education. Yet, too many girls and women (right-holders) keep experiencing violence, including when going to school and, overall, disadvantage, inequality and multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination. The situation of many girls that reach adulthood without having been able to complete secondary education, and sometimes having not even completed primary education, is very well-known.
As mentioned earlier, right to education embodies a multiplier effect in realizing other human rights. To this end, education must be inclusive and accessible to all, in law and practice (this is the duty of States – duty-bearers).
It is high time to consider the implementation of UNSDG No. 5 as a conditio sine qua non to improve people’s life – not only of women. To this end, UNSDG No. 4 plays an instrumental role and must be ensured/secured, in every corner of the world.
Attività Parlamentare
Donne
Diritti Umani
Diritti Civili
Attività Internazionale
