United Nations – Leila Zerrougui, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, said protecting schools from attacks and military use was essential to ensuring access to education for children in Africa.
A statement issued on Tuesday said Zerrougui made this known while briefing African Union’s Peace and Security Council during the third annual Open Session On Children and Armed Conflict in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
She said world leaders should use the upcoming World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) scheduled for May 23 to May 24 in Istanbul, Turkey, to generate new commitments to ensure that conflicts did not mean the end of learning for millions of children.
She added that “schools in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan, have been looted, pillaged, damaged and destroyed during military operations, putting the future of an entire generation at risk.
“Attacks against schools and military use have become a common aspect of today’s conflicts, with long-term consequences, especially on fragile education systems.”
The special representative emphasised the heavy burden placed on communities and post-conflict societies to rebuild schools and bring back skilled teachers, noting that “the AU and its member states can and must make a difference by including measures to end and prevent attacks against schools in domestic legislation.
“They can also include the criminalisation of these acts, and must hold perpetrators accountable.”
She urged member states to endorse the Safe School Declaration, developed in 2015 through an inter-governmental political process.
Zerrougui also urged them to commit to implement the “Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use during Armed Conflict” adopted in December 2014.
The Declaration, she said, had already been endorsed by 15 African countries.
She recalled that the international community had firmly put the protection of schools on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and urged governments to take action to realise that collective commitment. (NAN)