(2017) 1 African Human Rights Yearbook 35 sustainable development are relatively better protected than boys. It is, however, beyond the scope of this article to delve into the meaning of the right to development and the right to a satisfactory environment as provided for under the African Charter, as well as its implications for the climate change responsibilities of States, and more research should be done in this regard. Still, it remains unfortunate that the African Children’s Rights Charter is silent on this important aspect of the wellbeing of children. A slightly round-about way to argue for this right under the African Children’s Rights Charter is to rely on the principle of the best interest of the child, noting that clearly the negative consequences of climate change, particularly for children, are such that States have duties arising from this principle to ensure that children are protected against these consequences. 3.3 Access to education The right to education is one of the rights which has become one of the most uncontroversial rights in the human rights repertoire. As such, it is extensively provided for and protected in the African Children’s Rights Charter, in the African Charter and the African Women’s Rights Protocol. The African Children’s Rights Charter provides in article 11 that every child has the right to education, and that this places a duty on the state in subsection (3) to (a) provide free and compulsory basic education; (b) progressively make secondary education free; (d) take measures to encourage regular attendance at schools and the reduction in drop-out rates; (e) take special measures in respect of female children to ensure equal access to education. Read as a whole, this section thus provides most of the elements which are needed in respect of children’s right to education, also including a focus on girls’ education. By providing that primary education must be free and compulsory, the African Children’s Rights Charter provides a distinct disincentive to parents to remove young children from school. Since it is free, their ability to access school is not dependent on having the means to do so, and being compulsory implies that there must be some kind of sanction against parents who remove their children from school. Unfortunately, similar safeguards do not exist with regard to secondary education, and while the provision for progressively making secondary education free is laudable, financial means are only one of the reasons why parents may choose to take their adolescent children out of school. Other reasons also account for parents’ taking their children out of school, including that they may work for a source of income for the family, that they may take over the running of the household and resource sourcing or, in the case of girls, that they may be married to lessen the burden on the family’s resources. However, these areas that are left open by article 11(3)(b) are to some extent remedied by the provisions of (d) and (e). If read together, (d) and (e) provide for a whole range of creative actions which states should take to ensure that girl children stay in school. Article 12 of the African Women’s Rights Protocol provides similarly for the elimination