The Right to Education and Life-Long Learning

The federal Liberal Party made a commitment in its 2019 election platform to “…continu[e] to increase Canada’s international development assistance every year towards 2030, reflecting our commitment to realizing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.”

More than a year into the pandemic, governments around the world are still scrambling to deal with the health emergency and its economic repercussions. Developing countries have been especially hard hit.

The climate emergency disproportionately affects the disempowered and most marginalized across the world – the poor, the old, the very young, and women in particular. Protecting the vulnerable is a matter of justice.

Climate justice is a human-centred approach to responding to the challenges of climate change that embraces human rights, equity, and fairness.

The Global Partnership for Education (GPE), set up in 2002, to “galvanize and coordinate a global effort to deliver a good quality education to all girls and boys, prioritizing the poorest and most vulnerable.” www.globalpartnership.org/about-us  The GPE includes sixty developing countries, donor governments, such as Canada, international organizations, civil society groups, and the private sector. 

GRAN's Mining Justice campaign is undertaken in support of women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa experiencing human rights abuses in mining communities.   

Widespread well-documented human rights abuses have been associated with the activities of many Canadian mining companies abroad. These companies must be held accountable for their actions in the communities in which they operate.

Not surprisingly, women are disproportionately affected by human rights abuses in mining communities, including:

Child, Early and Forced Marriage (CEFM) is a human rights violation which has devastating consequences for women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa and around the world.  It perpetuates the gender inequality that grandmothers in sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere experience throughout their lives.  It increases the spread of HIV/AIDS and creates barriers to education, economic security, healthcare and safety – challenges identified by African grandmothers for themselves and their grandchildren.