Dear Readers, While some students may get a break from school in the summer, Human Rights Watch keeps working. We’ve been advocating all summer long to ensure that when students go back to school, whether in-person or virtually, they do so as safely as possible. This tireless work is only possible with your unyielding support. Thank you, Muhsin Nuri. Here are some examples of our recent impact on students around the world–just in time for Back to School: #StudentsNotProducts Campaign Safeguards the Online WorldThrough the generosity of our supporters, Human Rights Watch uncovered the surveillance of children by an overwhelming majority of the government-authorized online learning products we analyzed during the Covid-19 pandemic. In a blockbuster investigation of 49 governments and 290 companies around the world, HRW found that most of these online learning products monitored or had the capacity to monitor children, secretly and without the consent of students or their parents. Since the release of this bombshell report and the accompanying #StudentsNotProducts campaign to demand protections for children online, six countries have opened investigations into their online learning recommendations, and several companies have already removed surveillance tracking from their products or recalled their products altogether. Together, we must aim to ensure that safeguards are in place so that children are not compelled to give up their privacy and other rights in order to learn.
Driving Access to Education for Ukrainian ChildrenAfter HRW released a dispatch in March urging major European telecommunication providers to give fleeing Ukrainian children free access to online educational content, a Bulgarian telecommunications provider, Yettel, adopted our proposal. Today, they are providing free online textbooks to Ukrainian refugee children. If more European telecommunication providers follow Yettel’s example by offering children free access to familiar online textbooks in their own language, they could provide immediate educational relief for millions of children who have fled the war in Ukraine. Thanks to your support, we’ll keep the pressure on governments to help students continue learning—even in the worst conditions.
Removing Barriers to Education for Students who are Pregnant or MothersEvery year, thousands of girls across Africa who are pregnant or are mothers are pushed out of school. But being pregnant shouldn’t affect girls’ right to education. And now–thanks in part to your support–in Tanzania it won’t. Following years of research and advocacy by Human Rights Watch and other organizations, Tanzania lifted its discriminatory ban on schooling for pregnant girls and young mothers in November 2021. We provided indisputable evidence on how the ban is harmful to students in our 2017 report, numerous appeals to the World Bank—which is a major education donor to Tanzania—and most recently, in an October 2021 report. With your support, we’ve made incredible progress, but there’s far more work to be done. In Kenya, for instance, policies exist to help young mothers stay in school and get their education–a human right that is fundamental to improving life outcomes–but they are not being adequately enforced. More policymakers need to take this issue seriously and help prevent teenage pregnancies, strengthen sexuality education and increase protections for girls who are pregnant or are young mothers in African countries. Human Rights Watch will continue to urge the African Union to encourage countries to adopt and enforce laws and human rights compliant policies that support girls to stay in school and to return to school after pregnancy, so that they can succeed. Thank you for your continued support. You help make the right to education the vital part of young lives that it should be. Sincerely, Hye Jung Han Researcher and Advocate, Children's Rights Division Human Rights Watch |
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