WUNRN
Consider for Education of Girls in
Countries of Armed Conflict.
THE HIDDEN CRISIS: ARMED CONFLICT
& EDUCATION
Direct Link to Full 431-Page UNESCO
Report:
__________________________________________________________________
UN News Centre
"Rape and other
sexual violence have been widely used as a war tactic in many countries and
insecurity and fear associated with sexual violence keep young girls in
particular out of school."
1 March 2011 – Armed conflict
is robbing 28 million children of an education by exposing them to widespread
rape and other sexual violence, targeted attacks on schools and other human
rights abuses, according to a United Nations report issued today.
The number accounts for 42 per cent of the primary school age children globally not enrolled in school and living in poor countries affected by conflict, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) warned in its 2011 Global Monitoring Report, which also set out a comprehensive agenda for change – including tougher action against human rights violations, an overhaul of global aid priorities and strengthened rights for displaced people.
“Armed
conflict remains a major roadblock to human development in many parts of the
world, yet its impact on education is widely neglected,” UNESCO’s
Director-General, Irina Bokova, said,
noting that the report – The hidden crisis: Armed conflict and education
– documents the scale of this hidden crisis, identifies its root causes and
offers solid proposals for change.
The
world is not on track to achieve the six Education for All goals that over 160
countries signed up to at the World Education Forum in 2000 in Dakar, Senegal,
with the aim of achieving 100 per cent child enrolment in primary schools by
2015, the report stresses – the report itself is the prime instrument to assess
global progress towards achieving the six goals.
The
report added that the number of children out of school stood at 67 million in
2008 – the most recent year in which the data was compiled – and is falling too
slowly to meet the target, which will be missed by a wide margin, especially in
regions riven by conflict.
Rape
and other sexual violence have been widely used as a war tactic in many
countries and insecurity and fear associated with sexual violence keep young
girls in particular out of school. Although the international courts set up
after the wars in the former Yugoslavia and genocide in Rwanda have firmly
established rape and other sexual violence as war crimes, these acts remain
widely deployed weapons of war.
Of
the rapes reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), one third
involve children, with 13 per cent against children under ten, the report
states. It calls for the end to a culture of impunity surrounding sexual
violence, stronger monitoring of human rights violations affecting education,
and creation of an International Commission on Rape and Sexual Violence backed
by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Unreported
rape in conflict-affected areas in eastern DRC may be ten to 20 times the reported
level, and the report warns that sexual violence has a devastating impact on
education, impairing learning potential, creating a climate of fear that keeps
girls at home, and leading to family breakdown that deprives children of a
nurturing environment.
“Children
and education are not just getting caught in the cross-fire, they are
increasingly the targets of violent conflict,” the report’s director, Kevin
Watkins, said. “The failure of governments to protect human rights is causing
children deep harm – and taking away their only chance of an education. It is
time for the international community to bring to account the perpetrators of
heinous crimes like systematic rape, and to back UN resolutions with decisive
action.”
The
report is endorsed by four Nobel Peace Prize laureates: Oscar Arias Sánchez of
Costa Rica, Shirin Ebadi of
The
reports note that 35 countries were affected by armed conflict from 1999 to
2008. Children and schools are on the front line of these conflicts, with
classrooms, teachers and pupils seen as legitimate targets. In
Insurgents
in north-western
Armed
conflict is also diverting public funds from education into military spending,
the report warns. Many of the poorest countries spend significantly more on
arms than on basic education. If 21 of these countries were to cut military
spending by just ten per cent, they could put 9.5 million more children in
school.
Military
spending is also diverting the resources of aid donor countries – it would take
just six days of military spending by rich countries to close the $16 billion
Education for All external financing gap.
Donors’
security agendas have led them to focus on a small group of countries while
neglecting many of the world’s poorest countries. Aid for basic education has
increased more than fivefold in
The
report also warns that education failures are fuelling conflict. In many
conflict-affected countries, over 60 per cent of the population is aged under
25, but education systems are not providing youth with the skills needed to
escape poverty, unemployment and the economic despair that often contributes to
violent conflict.