Editing Women's rights (section)

=== Right to education ===
{{Further|Right to education|Female education|Sex differences in education}}
[[File:First Iranian women university.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|First group of women who entered university in Iran]]
The right to [[education]] is a universal entitlement to education.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.un.org/en/events/womensday/2011/pdfs/Infonote_Women_and_the_right_to_education.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=29 June 2017 |archive-date=12 February 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180212215301/https://www.un.org/en/events/womensday/2011/pdfs/Infonote_Women_and_the_right_to_education.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> The [[Convention Against Discrimination in Education]] prohibits discrimination in education, with discrimination being defined as "any distinction, exclusion, limitation or preference which, being based on race, colour, ''sex'', language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, economic condition or birth, has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing equality of treatment in education".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php-URL_ID=12949&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html|title=Convention against Discrimination in Education|publisher=UNESCO|access-date=8 October 2015}}</ref>
The [[International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights]] states at Article 3 that "The States Parties to the present Covenant undertake to ensure the equal right of men and women to the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights set forth in the present Covenant", with Article 13 recognizing "the right of everyone to education".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/CESCR.aspx|title=International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights|work=ohchr.org|access-date=8 October 2015}}</ref>

Access to education for women remains limited in some parts of the world. Almost two-thirds of the world's illiterate adults are women.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/oct/20/two-thirds-of-worlds-illiterate-adults-are-women-report-finds|title=Two-thirds of world's illiterate adults are women, report finds|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|first=Liz|last=Ford|date=20 October 2015}}</ref>

While women's right to access to academic education is recognized as very important, it is increasingly recognized that academic education must be supplemented with education on [[human rights]], [[non-discrimination]], [[ethics]] and [[gender equality]], in order for social advancement to be possible. This was pointed out by [[Zeid bin Ra'ad]], the current [[United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights]], who stressed the importance of human rights education for all children: "What good was it to humanity that [[Josef Mengele]] had advanced degrees in medicine and anthropology, given that he was capable of committing the most inhuman crimes? Eight of the 15 people who planned [[The Holocaust]] at Wannsee in 1942 held PhDs. They shone academically, and yet they were profoundly toxic to the world. [[Radovan Karadžić]] was a trained psychiatrist. [[Pol Pot]] studied radio electronics in Paris. Does this matter, when neither of them showed the smallest shred of ethics and understanding?"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=15482&LangID=E|title=Keynote speech by Mr. Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights at the Conference on "Education for Peace" Palais des Nations, Geneva, 14 January 2015|work=ohchr.org|access-date=8 October 2015}}</ref> There has been increased attention given in recent decades to the raising of student awareness to the importance of gender equality.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://teachunicef.org/explore/topic/gender-equality |title=Gender Equality |publisher=TeachUNICEF |access-date=18 July 2016 |archive-date=4 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150704203904/http://teachunicef.org/explore/topic/gender-equality |url-status=dead }}</ref>