Our global consultations have highlighted that privatization in and of education has specific negative consequences for women and girls...Choice may indeed exist for the relatively affluent and mobilized but this is counterbalanced by the seeming structural exclusion by private schools of the very poor, girls and marginalized groups...These are troubling trends which have specific gendered impacts, and we believe that...these impacts should be addressed within the context of CEDAW’s upcoming General Recommendation on the right to education for women and girls...the submitting organizations conclude that in order for women and girls to be able to realize their right to education, as well as their rights to non-discrimination and equality more broadly, it is imperative that education be seen as a public good, and not as a commodity... Evidence from a range of countries shows that more boys are enrolled in schools than girls, a problem that is exacerbated in the context of privatization…