Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2013 / gm2015 / Centre for Human Rights / LLM / Unrestricted

Over the years, a net increase in enrolment rates in primary schools has been observed worldwide. Nevertheless, in West Africa, girls still lag behind in terms of basic education. Although many other African societies face educational challenges in terms of realising girls’ right to education, educational challenges are far greater for women and girls in West Africa. This region is considered to have the highest illiteracy level in the world, and the level of illiteracy is even higher for females. As a result, a gap persists between the number of boys and girls in primary schools. The reasons why this gap persist is because cultural limitations and poverty still undermine the realisation of girls’ right to basic education in this part of the world. Girls’ right to primary education is undermined through patriarchy; negative cultural perceptions associated with girls’ education, child labour or child marriages, to mention but a few. Not only are educational disparities visible in terms of gender, but educational disparities are also visible between urban and rural areas. By taking into account such differences, and in order to best achieve universal basic education in West Africa, the use of multiple strategies is advised. It requires primarily the enforcement of legal measures in order to improve girls’ enrolment and retention rates. Simultaneously, it requires economic solutions which can help the poor to send girls to school, with in addition strategies which focus on the role that institutions can play; whether these institutions are governments, traditional or religious institutions. Evidently, with these strategies, the role played by other actors such as citizens and non-governmental organisations, in ensuring girls’ right to basic education cannot be underestimated. / Dissertation (MPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / gm2014 / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

No description available.

Les enfants constituent la valeur primordiale dans les mécanismes de reproduction de la société. C’est pourquoi les groupes ont cherché à s’emparer du «choix» des acteurs sociaux avant qu’ils n’accèdent à la capacité de décision. Pourtant du fait de la progression de la subjectivation et des droits individuels, les mariages d’enfants constituent de plus en plus un problème social dans les mondes sociaux à la fois traditionnels et modernes, notamment en Turquie. L’objectif de cette thèse a pour objet d’apporter un regard critique mais compréhensif sur les mariages d’enfants de sexe féminin en Turquie, d’en comprendre les causes et conséquences et de révéler les expériences des femmes s’étant mariées avant l’âge mineur (18 ans) et de voir comment elles perçoivent la question du mariage d’enfants. Deuxièmement, nous avons cherché à analyser les articles parus à ce propos, dans la presse écrite turque et les messages Twitter afin de constater comment les médias choisissent de refléter ce problème et de comprendre si le discours adopté au cours de ces articles de presse et messages Twitter correspondent au discours adopté par les femmes en question. La thèse mobilise deux types de sources : un travail sur le terrain et une analyse d’un corpus de journaux. Dans une première étape, des entretiens face-à-face, semi-structurés ont été réalisés avec des femmes s’étant mariées avant l’âge de 18 ans. Dans une seconde étape, des articles parus dans la presse écrite et les messages sur Twitter ont été étudiés. Finalement, les données obtenues lors de ces deux recherches ont été comparées. Cette thèse, inspirée par la théorie du féministe est composée de cinq chapitres principaux qui déclinent une démonstration révélant la complexité d’un phénomène où les acteurs sociaux dévoilent une multiplicité de représentations et de trajectoires. / Children are the most important value and future of a society. However, today, one of the important societal problems in Turkey as well as in the problem of marriage of underage girls. The aim of this thesis is firstly to look critically at the marriages of underage girls in Turkey to find out its reasons and results and reveal the experiences of women who married before age of 18 and how these women perceive the child marriage problem. Secondly, it is aimed to analyze related news in Turkish print media and across Twitter posts and to find out how the media reflects this problem and if these news reports and Twitter posts’ discourses correspond to the discourses of the women in question. The thesis consists of two types of field research. In the first stage of the research, a face-to-face, semi-structured interview is conducted with the women who married before their age of 18. In the second research, related news reports in Turkish print media and posts on Twitter are examined. Finally, the findings of two types of research are compared. This thesis, which is based on feminist framework theoretically, consists of five main chapters. In this study, the relation between the way that these underage married women identified themselves and statements of media are investigated. In this regard, the study aims to make a contribution to the literature in terms of discussing the problem from the sociological perspective and it is hoped to make contribution to the solution of the problem to decrease the number of underage married girls in Turkey.