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Make education safe for all: big campaign

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The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign, Rutgers, 25 November, 10 DecemberThe 16 Days campaign 2016: From Peace in The Home to Peace in The World: Make Education Safe For All!

The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign’s 2016 Take Action Kit (TAK) is now available online.

This year marks the 25th year of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign,  which runs from 25 November to 10 December. It was initiated in 1991 and coordinated by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership.

Given the insecurity and lack of women and girls face with regard to safety in relation to education, and informed by the results of a global survey, the theme of the 16 Days Campaign is “From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World: Make Education Safe for All”.

This theme recognises that structural discrimination and inequality is perpetuated in a cycle of violence that does not end even when girls and young women are in the process of gaining an education.

Gender-based violence with respect to the right to education is a consistent threat in public spaces, schools, and homes and is contrary to the universal human right to education – and it is we find ourselves obliged to focus on the precarious situation of education for girls and boys, young women and men this year through the 16 Days Campaign.

Education is a public good and fundamental human right recognised in Article 26 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and upheld in various international and regional human rights conventions and treaties.

The right to education is subject to political, economic, and social shifts and upheavals, consistently leaving women, girls, people with disabilities, LGBTQI people, migrants, and indigenous people particularly vulnerable and liable to being denied this crucial right.

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 4 on education makes it clear that education will lead to skills and knowledge for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship, as well as gender equality, a culture of peace and non-violence, and appreciation for cultural diversity.

The current reality of access to the right to education is clear.

Girls and young women face entrenched structural discrimination and violence.

Children and young people of all genders can face further disadvantage due to disability, race or ethnic origin, economic difficulties and the obligations thrust upon them by families and by the situation many find themselves in, whether in times of violent conflict, after an environmental disaster, or during relative peacetime.

Girls and young women face gender-based discrimination in the possibility of early marriage – or forced marriage can cut short their education.

They face the threat of different forms of school-related gender-based violence (SRGBV), including sexual violence and abuse on the way to or within education settings.

And they face discrimination in the availability of essential infrastructure such as adequate and safely accessible sanitary facilities.

Consequently, many families choose to keep girls and young women from school and actively prevent them from continuing their education.

Responses and commitments by national governments and the international community compound the problems.

They are failing to deal with unsafe and unsanitary educational environments, failings caused by a lack of proper budgeting or attention by policy makers, the lack of classroom space or lavatories for girls, or policies that support or condone cultural values and taboos on girls in the school setting (whether this is about getting an education or being assaulted on campus).

They seem to support inadequate curricula that are not gender-sensitive and continue to be framed within stereotypical patriarchal notions of gender and limited resource provision for the delivery of, or access to education.

With this global theme, the 16 Days Campaign is asking you to join in advancing the right to education and challenging violence, discrimination, and inequity in education at the intersection of gender, race or ethnicity, religion, real or perceived sexual orientation, socio-economic status, and other social identifiers.

Start thinking about what spaces and access to education look like in your community, country, or region and use the Guide to the 16 Days Campaign to help you get underway.

Find out more about this year’s campaign, “From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World: Make Education Safe for All!” and more by reading the TAK.

The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Campaign also invites you to join its Twitter Teach-ins that will – also – be happening between 25 November and 10 December 2016.

The teach-ins will explore the multiple effects and causes of gender-based violence (GBV) and how it affects the right to education for all, especially those of diverse and often marginalised identities.

For info about how to do this, click here.

Follow the events being held for the 16 Days on their facebook page.

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