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Summary: Report from working group 1 of the 2008 Day of General Discussion on the Right to Education in Emergencies.
The first working group, which was chaired by Danius Puras, member of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, focused on the implementation of article 28 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child on access to education in the context of emergencies. The working group discussed how to prioritise education as an emergency measure. Education in emergencies has to be understood as an essential protection tool and must be included in humanitarian response from the onset of the emergency through to the development phase, allowing for the continuation of children’s eduation and building their future capacities. Cream Wright, UNICEF, and Allison Andersen of INEE, gave an introduction to the topic. In her opening comments, Allison Andersen said that the right to education in emergencies is essential for providing children with the skills they need to pursue peace. She highlighted that the Global Minimum Standards for Education in Emergencies should be referred to from the onset of an emergency through to the recovery context. She also emphasised the importance of protecting teachers and aid workers with the example of Afghanistan, where 262 schools have been closed in four southern provinces. Other recommendations they made included: to invest in teacher training, disaggregate statistics on education in emergencies, highlight the situation of adolescents, urge States to report on how they will guarantee the right to education in emergencies, include children in emergency preparedness plans, and to strengthen monitoring and reporting mechanisms. Summary of interventions from the floor: Dr. Hatem Kotrane, member of the Committee on the Rights of the Child In future, measures for justiciability of this right should be established, such as in the proposed complaints mechanism for the CRC. The right to education in emergencies cannot wait and must be part of the laws which need to be ensured for children. It is urgent that we remove all obstacles to this. International Financial Institutions must also make this one of their priorities for action. Bruce Abramson, human rights lawyer, made a suggestion for good practice: that a gender analysis should be made in all work on the right to education in emergencies. It is essential to look for statistical differences and examine sex stereotypes, discrimination, prejudices or simply barriers which have a differential impact, and how these can be removed or changed. Of the 19 submissions to this year’s day of general discussion, none of them marginalised girls, nine marginalised boys and seven excluded them altogether. One had a whole page on girl’s education, but nothing on boys. The word girls appears 26 times in one paper, whereas boys appears 0 times. Information should be disaggregated by country as global figures on children out of education distorts the picture, for example, in Venezuela 43 per cent of girls are in secondary school, but only 30 per cent of boys a 13 point gap to the detriment of boys. Recommendations: The Committee on the Rights of the Child must urge all actors to conduct a gender analysis both in the situation they are responding to and in their own organisation, for example in the organisation’s publications, are boys and girls equally represented in photos of children studying in schools? In past years, the Committee has given increased attention to disparities disadvantaging boys; it should continue to do this in the context of revised reporting guidelines, general comments, concluding observations etc. International Save the Children Alliance Of the 72 million children out of school globally, 37 million are in countries in conflict and other emergency situations. In the case of humanitarian aid, actors identify a hierarchy of rights, such as the right to life, health and sanitation, but rights are universal and inalienable. There is a nine billion per annum funding gap: countries in emergency situations receive only one quarter of the basic education aid and just 1.7 per cent of humanitarian aid went to education in 2007. Countries in chronic crises rely on humanitarian aid to fund education. The Education for All Fast Track initiative has, until now, excluded countries in crisis because it rewarded those who could produce plans to a good standard, which countries in emergency situations are unable to do. This has changed this week through the creation of a new interim status. Education must be included as part of humanitarian response from the outset. Governments should be urged to support the global cluster for education and help ensure a better transition of countries from emergencies through to development. UNAIDS Child Helpline International (CHI) gave some examples from Nepal and the Philippines of how we can make education a priority and how it can serve as a tool for protection. During the people’s war in Nepal in 1996, CHI cooperated with allies to achieve this. In this case, CHI created child-friendly safe schools through the campaign ‘schools are zones of peace’, which proved important to return to a state of normalcy. Agencies cannot act alone, there is a need to work with the government and NGOs on the ground. In the Philippines, CHI worked with others to provide emergency preparedness training in schools. Individual, Jamaica UNICEF, Liberia Yanghee Lee, Chair, Committee on the Rights of the Child Save the Children UNICEF - Timor Leste Vernor Muñoz, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education Cote d’Ivoire What technical support can States expect in terms of international support? Moushira Khattab, member of the Committee on the Rights of the Child Agnes Aidoo, member of the Committee on the Rights of the Child Cream Wright, UNICEF Danius Puras, member of the Committee on the Rights of the Child Usman Ali, 15, UK Julia Sloth-Nielsen, representing a group of NGOs from Africa Ragne Birte Lund, Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs National protection systems, legislative frameworks, education etc must also be strengthened. Another ‘p’ should be added to predict, prepare and prevent: participation. Participation influences how society views children, and, though it has been said many times, it must be emphasised that children are not part of the problem, but part of the solution. In many conflict situations, we are not reaching peace agreements but ceasefires, the right to education must also be taken into account in this situation. However, education in itself is narrow – education must be included in a broader child rights framework. Moushira Khattab, CRC member UNHCR Bruce Abramson, human rights lawyer Most of the papers focus on the practical functional value of education to society. When you frame the right to education in terms of benefits to the community, money is more forthcoming, for example, parents need help to take care of children, so they can deal with deaths, finding food etc. This has to be spelt out to the donors. The papers frame education in a broad, idealistic way which include everything. You have to be concrete and set priorities, for example, at the earlier stages, soccer balls could be provided – this is a form of learning and enables social interaction. In ordinary English, the word ‘child’ does not include adolescents, only in the child rights world. When fundraising for education is framed in terms of adolescents and the critical importance of having teenagers occupied is spelt out, the need for this is recognised. Article 4 applies to States’ duty within their own jurisdiction, not to other countries, but States must cooperate with other countries to get money when they don’t have it. On the subject of gender, in the preparation of the UN Study on Violence against Children, a policy decision was made not to treat girls or boys as a vulnerable group as there are multiple sub-categories within each. Marc Perron-Clinic for the defense of human rights, Université du Québec à Montréal Children’s Law Centre, Northern Ireland UNICEF, Nicaragua Agnes Aidoo, member of the Committee on the Rights of the Child UNICEF, Pakistan World Vision Overall recommendations While CRIN has endeavoured to write a fair and accurate report on proceedings, please email [email protected] with suggestions or corrections.
States have an obligation to ensure that children enjoy a minimum standard of education in emergency situations; saying they do not have sufficient resources is not good enough. Education in emergencies must be a non-derrogable right. This could be the first contribution to today’s outcome - to make clear that States must provide the necessary evidence that they have been complying with this responsibility in all circumstances.
Save the Children is leading the education in emergencies cluster with UNICEF. State actors have the primary obligation to guarantee children’s right to education in emergencies, but the international community also has a responsibility.
Education is a protection tool. HIV vulnerability increases in emergencies due to the absence of parents, increased risk behaviour, deterioration of services and higher rates of violence. Education plays an important preventive role in the short and long-term and means children and young people are more likely to seek life skills and less likely to engage in survival sex. It serves two purposes: improved well-being and health and to promote the right to health. Education must be a cross-cutting theme and be provided in a non-discriminatory fashion.
How can States Parties be monitored to provide early childhood education in an holistic way? This must be a consideration in the three Ps (predict, prepare and prevent) and must be part of emergency planning.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child should provide practical examples of how to protect the right to education in emergencies. There should be social support systems linked to livelihoods for 12-18 year olds - who have no other social infrastructure - to protect them and help build and change systems in the post-crisis situation.
Articles 28 and 29 should be adapted to emergency situations from the outset. People sometimes forget what is meant by this, thinking that they should do this somewhere down the line.
Only 11 peace treaties since 1989 make any reference to education. The Committee should make a recommendation to include education in peace agreements.
Fighting impunity is essential. The International Criminal Court considers it a war crime to attack educational facilities. At the local level, children are instrumentalised and burn down their own schools, those involving children in war crimes must be sanctioned.
We must bear in mind that access to and content of education are closely related. Inadequate content can lead to exclusion. Children should not receive any kind of education, but education for peace and tolerance. The CRC can ensure education that is based on General Comment 1 which sets out the aims of the type of education we should be encouraging. Analysis and dissemination of successful practices should also be encouraged.
What type of effective measure can States in conflict take to deal with armed groups who block access to education?
Access to and quality of education cannot be separated. We must use quality to attract those who will not go to school. We must have a focal point in the State Ministry of Education in countries prone to natural disasters. This must be adequately resourced and mandated and should also prepare a national plan of action and raise awareness of the right of education.
As a preventive measure, creative emergency-type educational measures should be set out as part of the country’s educational plan in disadvantaged, poor areas which may be prone to emergencies.
It is not just about the content of education, but also the outcome. Vocational education and home-based education are also important: we need to show consequences for those who hold a population hostage and block their right to education.
Mental health is often on the waiting list as something to deal with later. It should be integrated into school settings: education is broader than literacy and numeracy, it is about teaching children to deal with life challenges in a healthy way. There has been a paradigm shift in the health sector from fighting pathology to recognising resilience and protective factors. Many children living in the most adverse situations should, considering all factors, grow into adults with mental health problems, and yet 80 per cent grow up as healthy adults because one protective factor can neutralise 20 risk factors. This should inspire us to find creative solutions.
Children who come from emergency situations to the UK and who can’t speak English often don’t have interpreting services or an education maintenance allowance. Why can’t these children get the same benefits as children in the UK? I would like to urge the Committee to ask all developed countries to support children from developing countries.
There are a number of us who believe there is a difficulty in formulating a general comment on this issue. There are a number of unclear areas in article 29, for example, what is the role of parents, etc. We need a more general normative framework on rights in emergencies generally, of which education in emergencies is a part.
Some donors earmark and attach strings to their funding, others are more flexible. We should urge governments to be as flexible as posible. Another mechanism which has been established is the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) which the UN should be able to access instantly.
We must protect children from manipulation. It is easy for armed groups and other political or religious groups to brainwash children in emergency situations.
Education must be safe. This is the same as quality education. One obstacle to education in the camps is exploitation. Access to education is not just about formal education, it must be made up of a broad range of activities and linked to other programmes such as family livelihoods.
Suggestions for how to get governments to finance the right to education in emergencies.
Birth registration is essential to guaranteeing the right to education in emergencies and a central system should be set up to deal with this. The Committee on the Rights of the Child has noted this in a number of its Concluding Observations, for example to the Dominican Republic.
The Belfast peace agreement is one of the few peace agreements which mentions children’s right to education. This right must also be guaranteed in constitutions and bills of rights which flow from peace agreements. Peace agreements represent a short but important window of opportunity to reform education systems and ensure they are CRC compliant. Ring-fenced money is needed for this. There is a need for strong legal and advocacy services. Teaching should include history relating to the conflict as well as child rights and peace education. Children’s voices must be heard in peace processes and budgets must be equality proofed as part of the peace process and in post-post conflict situations.
Nicaragua is a country where emergency situations are the norm, so we must work out solutions with this in mind. Capacity building and clusters are crucial to this. We have a saying that goes: ‘the lack of coordination is often more disastrous than the natural disaster itself’.
All teachers in Africa, Central America, and other places prone to natural disasters should be given appropriate training. Awareness raising about rights is not enough: children’s Rights are human rights and they are not foreign to anyone. Policies of the World Bank and other multi-lateral donors need to be rights-based.
Pakistan is one of the pilot countries for UN reform. Emergency preparedness and response plans exist at the national and provincial level. It is important to be prepared ahead of time, for example, dispatching the ‘school in a box’ kits takes two or three months to get to the field.
According to UNICEF and UNESCO, there are 150 million children in the world with disabilities. The rate of children with disabilities is particularly high in countries prone to emergencies. Disability issues must be mainstreamed in all aspects of emergency response to ensure children with disabilities benefit from protection, psycho-social support, etc. School buildings must be made accessible and negative attitudes to disability countered.