Ei-iE

The Second World Congress of Education International, meeting in Washington D.C., U.S.A., from 25 to 29 July 1998:

1. Is indignant about the situation of women in Afghanistan. It is outraged that NGOs have been forced out of the country, leaving Afghan women in a dreadful situation.

2. Condemns without reservation the political regime imposed by the Taleban, an obscurantist and anti-democratic regime that no culture or religion could justify.

3. Offers unfailing support to Afghan women, including girls, who do not have the right to speak, nor the right to health or to work, nor access to education, and who are obliged to live as if invisible.

4. Salutes particularly the courage and self-sacrifice of Afghan women teachers who, at the risk of their own lives, secretly maintain education service premises for girls.

5. Calls on all international bodies, democratic countries and NGOs:

a. not to recognise an "apartheid" regime based on gender;

b. to do everything possible in order to make humanitarian assistance accessible, without any discrimination to all Afghan women.

6. Urges all its member organisations to exert any direct or indirect pressure to enforce respect for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Afghanistan, and in particular, to assert women's rights and the right to education for all.