Schools should be safe sanctuaries
For the last four years, EI has engaged in multiple cohesive initiatives to protect teachers, students and education in a context of worldwide targeted attacks against education.
In Colombia, 27 teacher unionists were killed in 2010 leaving bereaved families and also hundreds of students without teachers. In Afghanistan, 613 attacks on schools were recorded in 2009. In Thailand’s three southernmost provinces, 63 students and 24 teachers and education workers were killed or injured in 2008 and 2009. In the Central African Republic, the UN just unveiled a report about the continued recruitment of schoolchildren by armed groups and incidence of sexual violence on girls.
The facts are different, the regions are diverse but the bottom line remains: increasingly in conflict countries and fragile States, teachers and students are putting their lives at risk simply by turning up for lessons – because rebels, armed forces and repressive regimes consider schools, universities, students and teachers as legitimate targets.
Since 2008, EI has increased its engagement in multiple initiatives, sometimes in partnership with UN agencies UNESCO and UNICEF and with other civil society organizations. Every three years, EI reports on the situation of teacher rights to the UNESCO-ILO Committee of Experts on the Application of the Recommendations on the Status of Teachers (CEART). In 2009, the EI report to UNESCO and ILO highlighted the increasing number of attacks against teachers and academics. This EI report found that teaching professionals and intellectuals are extremely vulnerable to attack.
EI Declaration ‘Schools shall be safe sanctuaries’
In 2009, EI also adopted the Declaration ‘Schools shall be safe sanctuaries’ calling on the international community to step up efforts to prevent violations of the right to education and ensure the safety and security of learners, teachers and academics everywhere. The seven articles of the EI Declaration are:1. Reaffirm the commitment to the principle of the right to education in safety; 2. Take practical measures to ensure protection; 3. End impunity for attacks; 4. Strengthen monitoring of attacks; 5. Prioritise action and share expertise on resilience and recovery; 6. Make education an agent for peace; 7. Support campaigns of solidarity.
Teacher unions in Colombia, Australia and Canada, among others, have included the EI Declaration in their working programme. EI urges all stakeholders to do so.
Global Coalition on Protecting Education from Attack (GCPEA)
EI contributed significantly to the UNESCO global studies “Education under Attack” (May 2007 and February 2010). EI then participated in an international expert seminar sponsored by UNESCO, which brought together experts in education in emergencies, international human rights law and child protection. Participants called for improved prevention, response and research into the nature, scope, motives and impact of attacks. The seminar led to the formation of a new inter-disciplinary Global Coalition for Protecting Education from Attack (GCPEA). Since the inception of GCPEA in February 2010, EI has been a member of the Steering Committee, along with representatives from UNESCO, UNICEF, Human Rights Watch, Save the Children, the Council for Assisting Refugee Academics (CARA) and Education Above All.
The GCPEA coalition aims to improve knowledge and awareness of attacks on education among key actors; cultivate public support for education in safe and secure learning environments; toughen provisions on protecting education workers; strengthen international standards; improve existing monitoring and reporting systems and end impunity through accountability.
“It is time for the international community to take action to stop this growing problem,” says EI Deputy General Secretary, Jan Eastman, who represents EI on the GCPEA. “These attacks violate the most basic human rights of students and teachers – the right to life and the right to quality education in safety and security. Both of these basic rights are denied not only by violent military and political attacks but also by the threat of attack and the fear that spreads with them.”
It is the responsibility of every government and the whole international community to ensure that students, girls and boys, teachers, education workers and academics, schools and universities are protected –all levels of education and all learning institutions--, that the perpetrators of attacks are held accountable. Education must be a force for peace and development everywhere. EI’s Declaration calls for this.
GMR 2011 on Education and armed conflict
UNESCO’s latest Global Monitoring Report which analyses trends towards the achievement of the Education for All goalsexamines the devastating effects of armed conflict on education with 42% of out-of-school children living in conflict-affected countries.
The Report sets out an agenda for protecting the right to education during conflict, strengthening provision for children, youth and adults, securing education provisions in humanitarian relief and rebuilding education systems in countries emerging from conflict. Because the GMR focuses on countries in armed conflict, it fails to report on the subtle attacks involving State actors targeting mostly the higher education sector but not only. EI members report that these attacks on mostly unionized teachers promoting academic freedom, more inclusive curriculum and language of instruction, or reporting corruption in education are insidious and also occur in non conflict situations.
The GMR also explores the role of inappropriate education policies in creating conditions for violent conflict. Drawing on experience from a range of countries, it sets out solutions to make education a force for peace, social cohesion and dignity.
EI has developed a reading guide to the Report, to help teacher unions use the GMR findings to protect education, teachers and children from attack.
World Congress
Executive Board
EI organises seminars to raise awareness on specific issues in the area of health and safety depending on the region, such as violence in school in the Europe region and HIV/AIDS prevention programme in the Africa region. EI also coordinates training programmes with the WHO in the Asia-Pacific region on effective school health programmes.
Since January 2006, EI initiated a EFAIDS (Education For All and HIV/AIDS Prevention) Programme with its partners the WHO (World Health Organisation) and EDC (Education Development Center). It combines the efforts of teachers’ unions in advocating for Education For All (EFA) at national level with their commitment to HIV/AIDS prevention in schools locally. The Programme is essentially a fusion of two previously separate initiatives, namely the HIV/AIDS Prevention Programme and the EFA Programme. For more information about this programme, please visit its website: http://www.ei-ie.org/efaids
At the world level, EI joins other Global Union Federations in the “Ban Asbestos” campaign.
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