Access to Education

As a key institution in the daily lives of teen girls, with the potential to improve young women’s social and economic prospects, the education system is a critical contact point and potential support for teen girls.¹ As the “only formal institution to have meaningful contact with nearly every young person in Canada,” schools are in a unique position to advance the girls’ equality rights.²

General recommendation No. 25, on article 4, paragraph 1, of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women emphasizes that substantive equality — not just the equality of opportunity, but the equality of results — must be the goal.³

JFG promotes equality for teenage girls who live in poverty. How we understand and define young women’s equality is critical to our advocacy. The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women emphasizes that a formal, legalistic conception of equality will not suffice in pursuit of women’s equality.⁴ The notion of “substantive equality” emphasizes equality of results over equality of opportunity as the international and domestic standard for realizing women and girls’ human rights in Canada.⁵ In other words, it’s not good enough to simply offer opportunities, we must ensure that girls get necessary resources and support to be successful. To achieve substantive equality, we must level the playing field by employing temporary special measures, such as gender-specific supports and services.⁶ Young women need girl-specific programs and services to realize a full spectrum of human rights, including the right to education.⁷

Justice for Girls provides dynamic rights education workshops in schools across British Columbia to empower teenage girls with critical knowledge about their legal rights. Our workshops cover essential topics such as:

• Consent and the laws surrounding it
• Healthy relationships
• Setting boundaries
• Gender-based violence
• Youth advocacy

Designed with and for girls, these sessions create space for dialogue, learning, and connection—grounded in a human rights framework that reflects girls’ lived experiences. By increasing awareness and confidence, we support girls to navigate systemic barriers, protect their rights, and advocate for themselves and others in their communities.

Justice for Girls provides specialized training and professional development for teachers, school staff, and education students to improve girls’ access to and success in education. Our sessions highlight the systemic barriers many girls face—including poverty, racism, and male violence—and offer practical, rights-based approaches to support girls’ safety, inclusion, and empowerment in schools. Grounded in both lived experience and human rights law, our training challenges educators to recognize the unique realities of teenage girls and build classroom practices and policies that uphold their dignity, autonomy, and right to learn.