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Strategic objective B.4.
Develop non-discriminatory education and training
Actions to be taken
83. By Governments, educational authorities and other educational and academic institutions:
- Elaborate recommendations and develop curricula, textbooks and teaching aids free of gender-based stereotypes for all levels of education, including teacher training, in association with all concerned – publishers, teachers, public authorities and parents’ associations;
- Develop training programmes and materials for teachers and educators that raise awareness about the status, role and contribution of women and men in the family, as defined in paragraph 29 above, and society; in this context, promote equality, cooperation, mutual respect and shared responsibilities between girls and boys from pre-school level onward and develop, in particular, educational modules to ensure that boys have the skills necessary to take care of their own domestic needs and to share responsibility for their household and for the care of dependants;
Beijing Declaration (1995)
The responsibility of governments and other educational constructors and administrators are for non-discrimination in both education and training. These are among the more important things in society to get right. Consider the consequences of failing to fully and properly educate one’s own public.
The recommendations and contents of the educational materials should reduce or eliminate the stereotypes of men and women at all levels of education including in the materials used to teach and train educators.
There are, certainly, forces in society wanting to keep them at a low level. But, at the same time, the overwhelming curve in many developed societies is to shift into the less discriminatory, stereotypical, and restrictive, of either any gender in fact.
The educational materials will include aspects of dual-responsible families, speaking of in the home, looking at the contributions of men and women to the family. This is heartwarming, necessary, and part of a long shift of the tacit conversation around families.
The co-responsibility and mutual respect of boys and girls is important for the long-term healthy developmental attitudinal trends of the boys and girls who become teenagers and then men & women.
The shift in the representation and the conversation is one aspect of broadening the horizons of the tasks and responsibilities in the home. It is not a minor thing. In fact, the additional set of hands in the home, even though women still do more in the house, expands the possibilities of many women who, in spite of the progress in work and education, continue to do the bulk of the housework as a statistical aggregate.
The care of dependants follows this trend as well. If a more just and equitable world is to develop, which may manifest in surprising and pleasant ways, then the work on boys and the men for the benefit of all is important, especially as this pertains to opening time and energy resources for girls and women to pursue their dreams. It is not better-worse as the axis but restrictive versus opened forms of feeling, thinking, and acting in the world.
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- The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the Preamble, Article 16, and Article 25(2).
- Convention Against Discrimination in Education (1960) in Article 1.
- The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1966) in Article 3, Article 7, and Article 13.
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966).
- Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (1979).
- Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984).
- The Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (1993).
- Beijing Declaration(1995).
- United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000).
- Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children (2000).
- The Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa or the “Maputo Protocol” (2003).
- Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence or the Istanbul Convention (2011) Article 38 and Article 39.
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Photo by Nathan Anderson on Unsplash