Esther Major 125 The first section looks at how girls who are enrolled in schools and are pregnant or suspected of being pregnant are tested and punished by school authorities. The second section analyses the practice of subjecting women and girls to “virginity” testing for the purposes of admission to schools and colleges, in order to sit exams, or to qualify for bursaries. The analysis concludes by setting out the actions that states must take to fulfil their obligation to prevent, eradicate, punish and redress acts of torture and other ill-treatment in relation to girl students and prospective/ aspiring students. It also looks at measures that other stakeholders can take in order to contribute to a positive change and ensure accountability for violations of girls’ fundamental human rights in educational settings. While this article will focus on gender-based human rights violations, it is crucial to recognise that other factors also determine whether and how a person experiences such violations in edu­ cational settings, and that each violation must be assessed using an intersectional lens. A childs race, class, disability and their real or perceived gender non-conformity and sexual orientation can have a very real impact on their experience of school. In particular, such factors affect the risk of physical punishment or sexual abuse that they may face at the hands of adults in positions of authority. Couple any of these aspects of their identity with belonging to a marginalized group, such as Roma, and a child’s chances of having an education on an equal basis with others are even more remote. Indeed, research shows that Roma children are even more likely to face humil­ iating treatment and punishments from teachers and bullying from classmates and their parents, with little chance of redress.7 Tests motivated by discrimination and negative stereotypes The arguments put forward by proponents of pregnancy and “virginity” testing are invariably ridden with negative stereotypes and steeped in archaic ideas of what the role of women and girls in society should be. They frequently infer that pregnant girls are a negative influence on others, and often imply that pregnant girls are of low moral character, physically weak, sick, and less able to manage studies. Policies that are developed and implemented on the basis of such arguments reflect these harmful notions.8 By employing policies of exclusion and other punishments on the basis of pregnancy, a state confers all responsibility on girls for their early pregnancy. It denies the states’ potential role in failing to ensure girls’ right to be protected from sexual violence, or to guarantee their rights to information about and access to sexual and reproductive health information, services and goods, including the option of safe and legal abortion services.9 This means that the state effectively 7 Amnesty International, Segregation, bullying and fear: The stunted education of Romani children in Europe, 2015, available at https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/04/ the-stunted-education-of-romani-children-in-europe/. 8 Amnesty International, Shamed and Blamed: Pregnant girls’ rights at risk in Sierra Leone (Index: AFR 51/2695/2015), interview with 18-year old-girl, Sierra Leone, 2015, see section titled The governments flawed justifications for the ban at page 17, and the section titled Stigma and negative stereotypes about pregnant girls being unable to study or pass exams at page 38 respectively, available at https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/ afr51/2695/2015/en/; also, the argument that the pregnant girl at the centre of the case T-348/07 in Colombia was too weak and delicate to take the same classes as her peers was one consistently put forward by the school staff. See Sentencia T-348/07, Corte Constitucional de la Republica de Colombia, available at http://www. corteconstitucional.gov.co/relatoria/2007/T-348-07.htm. 9 Guidance as to state obligations in relation to sexual and reproductive health can be found in the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Right’s General Comment No. 22, E/C.12/GC/22, available at: http://tbinternet. ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=E%2fC.12%2fGC%2f22&Lang=en.