CEDAW/C/GC/36 between the right to education and the enjoyment of other rights enshrined in the Convention. 19. The target users of the present general recommendation include: all State officials tasked with the formulation and implementation of legal and policy decisions pertaining to public and private education at all levels; academia and researche rs; student, teacher and parent associations; government agencies and non-governmental organizations engaged in girls’ and women’s education; traditional and faith -based organizations; the media; and corporate organizations and trade unions. V. Addressing gender-based discrimination in education 20. The Convention is the international bill of rights for women and serves as binding international law for the 189 States that have ratified it as at June 2017. Article 10 addresses women’s and girls’ legal right to education; States parties are to take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in order to ensure them equal rights with men in the field of education and thereby to eliminate discrimination against women in education throughout the life cycle and at all levels of education. To meet the criterion of non-discrimination, education must be accessible, in both law and practice, to all girls and women, including those belonging to disadvantaged and marginalized groups, without discrimination on any prohibited ground. 21. Article 1 of the Convention defines discrimination as any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other field. States parties are required therefore to ensur e not only that education is recognized as a human right but also that appropriate conditions are created for that right to be fully and freely enjoyed and exercised by girls and women. 22. In specifying situations and requirements by which States parties must ensure the realization of the right for men and women, and their enjoyment of that right, on an equal basis, article 2 of the Convention reaffirms both negative and positive obligations. Its core is the prohibition of discrimination, which implies that States parties must refrain from interfering, directly or indirectly, with the full enjoyment by girls and women of their right to education — the obligation to respect. Similarly, States parties must take positive steps to meet their obligation to fulfil, by ensuring rights to, within and through education for the full development of the potential of girls and women on an equal basis with men. 23. The gains in numerical equality that girls and women have made in the field of education in some regions of the world conceal the continuing discrimination that they face in spite of the existence of formal legal and policy frameworks intended to promote de facto equality. The protections of equality contained in formal instruments are effective only if those instruments are enforced, in line with provisions set out in articles 1 and 2 of the Convention. 24. The Committee recommends that States parties institute the following measures to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of girls and women to, within and through education: (a) Enhance compliance with article 10 of the Convention and raise awareness in society of the importance of education as a fundamental human right and the basis for the empowerment of women; 17-19774 5/23