Safe Schools Declaration

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The Safe Schools Declaration is an inter-governmental political commitment that was opened for endorsement by countries at an international conference held in Oslo, Norway, on 28–29 May 2015.[1][2][3][4][5][6] The Declaration provides countries the opportunity to express political support for the protection of students, teachers, and schools during times of armed conflict; the importance of the continuation of education during armed conflict; and the implementation of the Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use during Armed Conflict.[5][7][8]

As of February, 2022, 114 states have endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration, which remains open for additional countries to join.[9][10][11] The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway is the depositary of endorsements.[12][13]

On March 28–29, 2017, the ministries of foreign affairs and defense of Argentina co-hosted the Second International Safe Schools Conference in Buenos Aires.[14]

In May 2017, the United Nations Secretary General, António Guterres, urged all Member States to endorse the Safe Schools Declaration.

On May 28–29, 2019, the Third International Safe Schools Conference was hosted in Palma De Mallorca, Spain.[15]

On October 25-27, 2021, the Fourth International Conference on the Safe Schools Declaration was hosted in Abuja, Nigeria, and also virtually.[16]

The Declaration has begun to influence countries' military policies for protecting schools from military use.[17]

Drafting[]

The Safe Schools Declaration was developed through consultations with states led by the ministries of foreign affairs of Norway and Argentina between January and May 2015.[11][18]

Representatives from more than 60 countries attended the conference launching the Safe Schools Declaration in 2015, along with the Norwegian Foreign Minister Børge Brende, Norwegian Defence Minister Ine Marie Eriksen Søreide, and Ziauddin Yousafzai the father of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai.[5][8][19]

Representatives from more than 80 countries attended the second Safe Schools Conference in Buenos Aires in 2017.[20]

Contents and Commitments[]

"The impact of armed conflict on education presents urgent humanitarian, development and wider social challenges. Worldwide, schools and universities have been bombed, shelled and burned, and children, students, teachers and academics have been killed, maimed, abducted or arbitrarily detained. Educational facilities have been used by parties to armed conflict as, inter alia, bases, barracks or detention centres. Such actions expose students and education personnel to harm, deny large numbers of children and students their right to education and so deprive communities of the foundations on which to build their future. In many countries, armed conflict continues to destroy not just school infrastructure, but the hopes and ambitions of a whole generation of children."
– Opening paragraph of Safe Schools Declaration[7]

The Safe Schools Declaration describes the immediate and long-term consequences of attacks on students, teachers, schools, and universities, and the military use of schools and universities, during times of armed conflict. It contrasts this with the positive and protective role that education can have during armed conflict.[7]

By joining the Declaration, states formally endorse the Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use during Armed Conflict and commit to “bring them into domestic policy and operational frameworks as far as possible and appropriate.”[7]

The Declaration also contains a number of other commitments aimed at strengthening the prevention of, and response to, attacks on education during armed conflict, including by: collecting reliable data on attacks and military use of schools and universities; providing assistance to victims of attacks; investigating allegations of violations of national and international law and prosecuting perpetrators where appropriate; developing and promoting “conflict sensitive” approaches to education; seeking to continue education during armed conflict; and supporting the work of the United Nations on the children and armed conflict agenda.[7]

Lastly, the Declaration is a framework for collaboration and exchange, as endorsing states also agree to meet on a regular basis to review implementation of the Declaration and use of the Guidelines.[7]

Endorsements[]

As of February 2022, the following 114 countries have endorsed the Declaration:[9][10]

  1.  Afghanistan
  2.  Albania
  3.  Algeria
  4.  Angola
  5.  Argentina
  6.  Armenia
  7.  Andorra
  8.  Antigua and Barbuda
  9.  Austria
  10.  Belgium
  11.  Benin
  12.  Bolivia
  13.  Bosnia
  14.  Botswana
  15.  Brazil
  16.  Bulgaria
  17.  Burkina Faso
  18.  Cameroon
  19.  Canada
  20.  Central African Republic
  21.  Chad
  22.  Chile
  23.  Costa Rica
  24.  Cote d'Ivoire
  25.  Croatia
  26.  Cyprus
  27.  Czech Republic
  28.  Democratic Republic of Congo
  29.  Denmark
  30.  Djibouti
  31.  Dominican Republic
  32.  Ecuador
  33.  El Salvador
  34.  Equatorial Guinea
  35.  Estonia
  36.  Fiji
  37.  Finland
  38.  France
  39.  Gambia
  40.  Georgia
  41.  Germany
  42.  Ghana
  43.  Greece
  44.  Guatemala
  45.  Haiti
  46.  Honduras
  47.  Iceland
  48.  Iraq
  49.  Ireland
  50.  Italy
  51.  Jamaica
  52.  Jordan
  53.  Kazakhstan
  54.  Kenya
  55.  Lebanon
  56.  Liberia
  57.  Liechtenstein
  58.  Luxembourg
  59.  Macedonia
  60.  Madagascar
  61.  Malawi
  62.  Malaysia
  63.  Maldives
  64.  Mali
  65.  Malta
  66.  Marshall Islands
  67.  Mexico
  68.  Moldova
  69.  Monaco
  70.  Montenegro
  71.  Morocco
  72.  Mozambique
  73.  Namibia
  74.  New Zealand
  75.  Netherlands
  76.  Nicaragua
  77.  Niger
  78.  Nigeria
  79.  Norway
  80.  Palau
  81.  Palestine
  82.  Panama
  83.  Paraguay
  84.  Peru
  85.  Poland
  86.  Portugal
  87.  Qatar
  88.  Romania
  89.  Samoa
  90.  San Marino
  91.  Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  92.  Senegal
  93.  Serbia
  94.  Seychelles
  95.  Sierra Leone
  96.  Slovakia
  97.  Slovenia
  98.  Somalia
  99.  South Africa
  100.  South Sudan
  101.  Spain
  102.  Sudan
  103.  Sweden
  104.   Switzerland
  105.  Timor-Leste
  106.  Togo
  107.  Tunisia
  108.  Ukraine
  109.  United Kingdom
  110.  Uruguay
  111.  Vanuatu
  112.  Vietnam
  113.  Yemen
  114.  Zambia

Reactions[]

The Secretary-General of the United Nations António Guterres has called upon all countries to endorse the Safe Schools Declaration.[21]

Virginia Gamba, the Special Representative to the UN Secretary-General has said that all countries should endorse the Safe Schools Declaration, as "It has made an essential contribution towards promoting tangible measures to prevent attacks on education."[22]

Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Gordon Brown stated that "every country must now support" the Declaration.[23] The United Kingdom has not endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration.[24] In a letter from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (02/03/16), James Dudddridge (then the Minister for Africa, the Overseas Territories, and the Caribbean) stated that:

“While we welcome the spirit of the Safe Schools Declaration, we are concerned that the accompanying Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military use during Armed Conflict do not mirror the exact language of International Humanitarian Law, which risk complicating the application of International Humanitarian Law”.[25] This has been mirrored in a statement from a representative of the United Kingdom's Foreign and Commonwealth Office.[26]

Leila Zerrougui, the former Special Representative to the Secretary-General of the United Nations said that she would "strongly advocate on behalf of children in conflict situations to persuade as many other Member States as we can to throw their support behind the initiative."[27]

Jan Egeland, Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council noted at the Safe Schools conference that "10 years from now we will look back on this day. Those who endorsed will say ‘we should really have done this earlier’. Those who did not endorse will say ‘why did we not endorse it?'" [28]

References[]

  1. ^ "Oslo meet pledges to protect schools in war". The Local No. 2015-05-29.
  2. ^ Joe Humphreys (2015-05-20). "State urged to sign up to Safe Schools Declaration". Irish Times.
  3. ^ Ulrike Scheffer (2015-05-17). "Deklaration zum Schutz von Schulen: Menschenrechtler empört über Deutschland". Der Taggespiegel.
  4. ^ Maria Fluxa (2015-05-29). "28 millones de niños sin educación por culpa de la guerra". El Mundo.
  5. ^ a b c "Rapport fra konferansen om beskyttelse av utdanning i konfliktsituasjoner". Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 2015-10-05.
  6. ^ Sean Coughlan (2015-05-29). "Campaign to stop attacks on schools". BBC News.
  7. ^ a b c d e f "Safe Schools Declaration" (PDF). Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 2015-05-29.
  8. ^ a b Roger Hamilton-Martin (2015-07-02). "Countries Commit to Protecting Education During Conflict". Inter Press Service News Agency.
  9. ^ a b "States that have endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration". Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
  10. ^ a b "Safe Schools Declaration Endorsements". Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack. Retrieved 2015-10-13.
  11. ^ a b Børge Brende (2015). "Introduction by the Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Børge Brende" (PDF). Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
  12. ^ "Endorsement of the Safe Schools Declaration". Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
  13. ^ "Letter for Endorsing the Safe Schools Declaration" (PDF). Retrieved 2015-10-12.
  14. ^ "Second International Conference on Safe Schools". Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
  15. ^ Spain Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2019). "Spain Hosts the Third International Conference of Safe Schools" (PDF).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. ^ International, Education (9 September 2020). "9 September: International Day to Protect Education from Attack". Education International. Retrieved 2021-04-22.
  17. ^ Sheppard, Bede (August 2019). "Keeping schools safe from the battlefield: Why global legal and policy efforts to deter the military use of schools matter". International Review of the Red Cross. 101 (911): 665–684. doi:10.1017/S1816383119000584. ISSN 1816-3831. S2CID 213677956.
  18. ^ "Guidelines for Protecting Schools from Military Use:Next steps". Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack.
  19. ^ "Broad support for protecting education from attack". Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 2015-05-29.
  20. ^ "Over 80 states gather to discuss Safe Schools Declaration at Buenos Aires conference". Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack. 2017-03-30.
  21. ^ United Nations Secretary-General (2017-05-10). "Report of the Secretary-General on the protection of civilians in armed conflict". UN Document S/2017/414.
  22. ^ Virginia Gamba (2017-10-13). "Statement by Virginia Gamba, Security Council Arria Meeting on Attacks on Schools".
  23. ^ Gordon Brown (2015-04-02). "Enough! The Attacks on Schools Must End". Huffington Post.
  24. ^ "When will the UK stand up to save education from bullets and bombs? | Martin Bell". TheGuardian.com. 6 May 2016.
  25. ^ Letter from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, dated 2 March 2016.
  26. ^ Gurney-Read, Josie (27 May 2016). "Education under fire: Why urgent action is needed". The Telegraph.
  27. ^ "Statement of Leila Zerrougui delivered at "Side-Event" of Human Rights Council: Protecting Education from Attack". Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict. 2015-06-24.
  28. ^ Hanne Eide Andersen (2015-05-29). "We urge all governments to endorse the Safe Schools Declaration". Norwegian Refugee Council.

See also[]

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