School Doors Closed for Millions

(London, June 10, 2016) – Discriminatory laws and policies and a lack of political will to carry out basic human rights obligations by countries around the globe are keeping millions of children and adolescents out of school, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Senior government education officials, global policymakers, and funding agencies will meet in Norway on June 13-16, 2016, to adopt measures to improve access to quality education globally. The report, “The Education Deficit: Failures to Protect and Fulfill the Right to Education in Global Development Agendas,” says that governments around the world made a commitment two decades ago to remove barriers to education for their children. But Human Rights Watch found that discriminatory laws and practices, high fees, violence, and other factors keep children and adolescents out of school in many countries. The report is based on Human Rights Watch research in more than 40 countries, covering nearly two decades. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, has reported that 124 million children and adolescents are out of school.
Human Rights Watch multimedia publications on education:
Studying Under Fire: Attacks on Schools, Military Use of Schools During the Armed Conflict in Eastern Ukraine
“They Set the Classrooms on Fire” Attacks on Education in Northeast Nigeria
“When I Picture My future, I See Nothing” Barriers to Education For Syrian Refugee Children in Turkey
“Complicit in Exclusion” South Africa’s Failure to Guarantee an Inclusive Education for Children with Disabilities
We Are Dominican Arbitrary Deprivation of Nationality in the Dominican Republic
The Mediterranean Migration Crisis Why People Flee, What the EU Should Do 
Precious Metal, Cheap Labour: Child Labor and Corporate Responsibility in Ghana’s Artisanal Gold Mines 
Exploitation in the name of Education: Uneven Progress in Ending Forced Child Beginning in Senegal 
Not Safe at Home: Violence and Discrimination against LGBT People in Jamaica 
No Way Out: Child Marriage and Human Rights Abuses in Tanzania 
'Treated Worse than Animals': Abuses against Women and Girls with Psychosocial or Intellectual Disabilities in Institutions in India 
They Say We’re Dirty” Denying an Education to India’s Marginalized 
“Those Terrible Weeks in their Camp” Boko Haram Violence against Women and Girls in Northeast Nigeria 
Tobacco’s Hidden Children: Hazardous Child Labor in United States Tobacco Farming 
'This Old Man Can Feed Us, You Will Marry Him' Child and Forced Marriage in South Sudan 
Barely Surviving: Detention, Abuse, and Neglect of Migrant Children in Indonesia 
Toxic Toil: Child Labor and Mercury Exposure in Tanzania’s Small-Scale Gold Mines 
Safe No More: Students and Schools Under Attack in Syria 
No Place for Children: Child Recruitment, Forced Marriage, and Attacks on Schools in Somalia 
Classrooms in the Crosshairs: Military Use of Schools in Yemen’s Capital