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Education and Legal Literacy
- The Feminist Press
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90 E ducation and Legal Literacy Silvia Pimentel, Brazil For more than twenty years the CEDAW Convention has been part of my life. I lectured on it as a professor of law, I used it as an activist and since 2005 I monitor its implementation as a CEDAW Committee member. This essay will focus on the meaning and scope of Article 10 of the Convention providing for the right to education. I will also consider women’s literacy, women’s equality, and their equality in education as challenges for the field of education and provide key information on these issues in Latin America and the Caribbean. Finally, I will discuss women’s legal literacy, highlighting the experiences of Brazilian women’s groups in legal capacity-building projects to empower women’s community leadership and to train law professionals in national and international women’s human rights law and mechanisms. The Meaning and Scope of Article 10 of the CEDAW Convention Article 10 provides that States Parties are obliged to take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women to ensure equal rights between women and men in education. It establishes in particular the obligation of States Parties to ensure equal access to studies and the achievement of diplomas at all levels and in all sectors of education, in rural as well as urban areas; the elimination of stereotypes in textbooks and teaching methods; equal opportunities for scholarships and grants; equal access to continuing education and literacy programs; and the reduction of female student dropout rates and the organization of programs for girls and women who have left school prematurely. It also establishes the right of women and men to have the same opportunities to participate actively in sports and physical education, as well as to have equal access to information that contributes to the health and well-being of families, including advice on family planning. In a number of general recommendations, the Committee has further substantiated the obligations of States under Article 10. These general recommendations also link women’s right to education with States Parties ’ obligations under other articles of the Convention, thus emphasizing the central role education plays for the implementation of the rights con- education and legal literacy l 91 tained therein. In both General Recommendations Nos. 5 (1988) and 25 (2004) on Article 4 (1) the Committee strongly recommended the application of temporary special measures to accelerate the full integration of girls and women into education on an equal basis with men. In General Recommendations Nos. 3 (1987) on Article 5 (a) and 19 (1992) on violence against women as a form of discrimination that seriously inhibits women’s ability to enjoy rights and freedom on a basis of equality with men, the Committee urged States Parties to pursue the elimination of all stereotyped concepts of male and female roles through education and public information programs. It concluded that traditional attitudes by which women are seen as subordinate to men “perpetuate widespread practices involving violence or coercion . . . [that] help to maintain women in subordinate roles,” thus contributing to their lower educational levels and expressly affirmed that information programs “will help eliminate prejudices and current practices that hinder the full operation of the principle of the social equality of women.”1 General Recommendations Nos. 14 and 15 (1990) emphasized how specific health issues affecting women such as female genital mutilation (FGM) and HIV/AIDS must be linked with the right to education and the right to equal access to health care (Article 12), recommending that States Parties introduce “appropriate educational and training programs and seminars based on research findings about the problems arising from female circumcision [FGM]” and also “take measures to enhance [women’s] role . . . as educators in the prevention of infection with HIV.” In General Recommendation No. 21 (1994) on equality in marriage and family relations (Article 16), the Committee emphasized the importance for women to have access to information and education in order to decide freely and responsibly on the number of their children, highlighting how deeply women’s capacity for bearing children and traditional responsibility for raising them affect their right of equal access to education , employment, and other activities related to their personal development . The Committee also underlined women’s fundamental need for access to sex education and inspired by the findings of the World Health Organization (WHO), it affirmed the negative effects on girls’ health, education and economic autonomy, when they marry and have children. The theme of family planning and...