Africa: Pregnant Girls, Young Mothers Denied School
Education, Humanitarian Plans Should Include All Students
(Nairobi) – Tens of thousands of pregnant girls and adolescent mothers are denied their right to education across Africa, despite progress in some countries, Human Rights Watch said today to mark the African Union’s Day of the African Child. The 2019 theme focuses on
children’s rights in humanitarian action in Africa .
“A shocking number of girls across Africa become mothers before they’ve grown up themselves, including those caught in humanitarian crises,” said
Elin Martínez , children’s rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Many adolescent mothers don’t return to school because their schools exclude them, or their families don’t let them continue their education.”
In June, the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) will hear
a case against Sierra Leone challenging the country’s discriminatory ban against pregnant girls. The
ban has been in place since the Ebola outbreak in 2015, when teenage pregnancies
surged because of widespread sexual violence against girls, Amnesty International reported.
All children, including pregnant girls and young mothers, have a right to continue or resume education during humanitarian crises, or to participate in accelerated education programs if they have been out of school for a long period.
In these crisis-affected countries, neither national education sector plans nor UN-led humanitarian plans include the education needs of girls who are pregnant or have children, Human Rights Watch said. This means interventions to help children continue or resume education during times of crisis fail to address the educational needs of pregnant girls and young mothers. The humanitarian needs analysis typically focuses exclusively on the health and nutritional needs of mothers and their children.
“I did return to school because I want to continue with my studies, but it is not easy,” said Olivia B., a 24-year-old college student from Kananga, in Congo’s Kasai region, who was
raped by a militiaman while fleeing an attack on her school. “Students are teasing me. I don’t feel well at school... They criticize me… I feel afraid and ashamed ... No teachers, professors, or anyone else has intervened to help me. There is no program or anything else to support me.”
The failure to ensure that pregnant girls and adolescent mothers are supported to go to school in humanitarian settings not only limits access to education, but also exposes already vulnerable children to more violence, hardship, and poverty, Human Rights Watch said.
Humanitarian education programs should be inclusive, and ensure that temporary and permanent school environments and infrastructure accommodate girls’ needs. African governments should adopt legal protections for pregnant girls, and ensure that their national education plans, including education in emergencies or crisis response plans, include measures to enable pregnant girls and adolescent mothers to continue their education.
In addition to their fundamental obligation to guarantee the right to education, free from discrimination, governments should adopt measures to
ensure education is not interrupted during humanitarian crises. Under the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, African governments have a
specific obligation to take all possible measures to protect children affected by conflict, especially to mitigate the disproportionate effects of conflict on girls, and to take measures to ensure girls are not exposed to sexual violence, or forced into marriage.
“Education is crucial for all children, and especially so for girls whose childhood and education have been disrupted by pregnancy,” Martinez said. “All African governments, humanitarian and development agencies, and donors should ensure that pregnant girls and adolescent parents have the support they need to stay in school.”