The Independent Commission for Human Rights rights through tribunals and other public institutions. The Convention also indicates that States parties have obligations to work towards modifying any social and cultural patterns of individual conduct in order to eliminate “prejudices and customary and all other practices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the sexes or on stereotyped roles for men and women.” There needs to be family education, which includes recognizing maternity as an important social function and acknowledging the common responsibility of men and women in the upbringing and development of their children. This latter point is based on the understanding that the interest of the children is a “primordial consideration in all cases.” Action is also to be taken in addressing the trafficking and exploitation of women, the discrimination against them in political and public life as well as education and health care. States Parties are also required to consider the special problems of rural women as well as the pivotal roles they rural women play in the economic survival of their families. This refers to their access to health care, information, family planning services, social security programs, training, self-help groups and cooperatives, agricultural loans and marketing facilitations. There are also to be guarantees for women in terms of equal treatment in land and agrarian reform and resettlement schemes. States Parties are also to grant women equal rights with men to acquire, change or retain their nationality and the nationality of their children. Consideration also must be made in terms of education, from ensuring women have equal opportunity to attend educational institutions to reducing the female student drop-out rate, organizing programs for girls and women who left school prematurely, and efforts to bridge the educational gap between men and women. There are also to be guarantees regarding access to information on family health and family planning and well-being. Necessary steps also must be taken to guarantee women’s rights to work on equal terms with men and have the same job and occupation opportunities. The Convention also has articles covering women’s the right to promotion, job security, vocational training, equal pay and equal treatment in respect of work of equal value. Consideration is additionally given to the right to social security, particularly in cases of retirement, unemployment, illness, and old age and other incapacities to work, including the right to paid leave and prohibition of dismissal from work on the grounds of pregnancy or maternity leave or even marital status. There must be an introduction of paid maternity leave, and 14