CEDAW/C/GC/36 serious consequences for access to education, causing loss of time for classroom instruction and high dropout rates. 50. The Committee recommends that, in situations of conflict and natural disaster States parties implement the following measures to minimize their impact on girls’ and women’s access to education and to protect their rights to education and safety: (a) Enact legislation, revise military practice and policy and introduce training to prohibit national armed forces and armed groups from using or occupying schools, school grounds or other educational facilities and institutions in a manner that violates international humanitarian law and/or the right to education under international human rights law; (b) Institute measures to protect female students and teachers from physical and sexual abuse by State and non-State actors occupying educational institutions; (c) Assess and address the impact of armed conflict on girls’ and women’s access to education; (d) Bearing in mind Security Council resolution 1325 (2000) on women and peace and security and subsequent resolutions on women and peace and security, demonstrate a proactive commitment to take the measures necessary t o prevent targeted attacks on educational institutions and to protect women and girls; (e) Ensure the meaningful participation of women in monitoring attacks and in developing preventive, protective and peacebuilding measures, and ensure the participation of women, including those from disadvantaged groups, in their development; (f) Devise effective, coordinated, reconstructive and rapid responses, including both legal and non-legal accountability measures to hold perpetrators accountable; (g) Systematically investigate and prosecute, in accordance with international standards, those individuals responsible for ordering, taking part in or bearing command responsibility for the range of violations of international human rights, humanitarian and criminal law that constitute attacks on education; (h) Ensure that, when schools are destroyed or used as shelters during natural disasters, girls’ and women’s access to schooling is not unduly curtailed; (i) Give priority to the rehabilitation of schools affected by natural disasters, especially those serving disadvantaged girls and women; (j) Ensure that all new school buildings adhere to prescribed building codes which incorporate disaster resilience, and carry out regular audits on existing schools. Cultural barriers 51. Even where there is adequate provision of education and accessibility is not a constraining factor, the persistence of patriarchal systems and cultural norms and practices based on those systems and the traditional roles associated with gir ls and women, can become powerful barriers to the enjoyment by girls and women of their right to education. 17-19774 13/23