This paper introduces a series of case studies looking at education for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). It examines the international human rights law framework for guaranteeing education to IDPs, focusing on issues such as non-discrimination and documentation that are particularly likely to arise in this context.

A short articlet on the barriers internally displaced persons are likely to face with regard to education.

A short article on natural disasters and internally displaced persons’ rights. Includes a section on access to education.

Brief about education and disability in Burundi in post-conflict recovery.

This paper argues that education for internally displaced persons is essential, both as a human right enshrined in international law and as a component of the peace-building process.

Key resource

As highlighted by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), refugee education is today in crisis. With millions of people who are currently refugees mainly hosted in low- and middle income countries as well as in least developed countries, the challenges are important. In view of Education 2030 – Sustainable Development Goal 4 and the recent massive influx of refugees UNESCO seeks to draw attention to the fact that, in order to guarantee the right to education for all, it is critical that all those in a refugee-like situation enjoy equal access to an education of good quality.

This Working Paper aims to provide an overview of the international legal framework protecting the right to education of refugees worldwide, including the obligations of States, as well as the main current issues. It also shows that, despite the existence of a strong applicable framework to guarantee the right to education of refugees worldwide, the challenges and obstacles encountered in this context may dramatically prevent its enjoyment. The paper also emphasizes that, even though ensuring the right to education is fundamental in all phases of the situation, there is a particular need to draw attention to the stabilisation phase. This phase relates to a structural context involving host states’ educational policies and legal frameworks as well as matters related to the adaptation and integration. With a view to effectively protecting the right to education for refugees and seeking sustainable policy solutions, the main features of the right to education – availability, accessibility, acceptability and adaptability – may offer a relevant framework for States to adopt and implement solid legal and policy national frameworks prohibiting discrimination or exclusion based on any ground and protecting fundamental rights. Therefore, sustainable policy responses based on effective implementation of States’ legal obligations will ensure the fulfilment of refugees’ right to education, responding to the ambition of an inclusive and equitable quality education by 2030.

A human rights analysis of schools reopening in England on 1 June 2020 after their closure due to the Covid-19. An Advisory Note to Independent SAGE.

This study examines the relationship between institutional autonomy and the security of higher education institutions from violent and coercive attacks. The paper includes a review of the limited literature available, as well as a series of examples illustrating different forms of attacks. These include arrests related to classroom content in Zimbabwe, sectarian divisions in Iraq, impunity for murders of academics in Pakistan, and physical intimidation on campuses in Tunisia. The study suggests that institutional autonomy plays a direct and indirect protective function. It directly helps protect systems of higher education from government interference, making it more difficult for states to act as perpetrators. It also indirectly helps preserve higher education against actual and perceived politicization and ideological manipulation, which in turn might help insulate it from attacks by nonstate parties. The study suggests a framework for examining questions of autonomy and security which in turn suggests a need to develop strategies aimed at increasing autonomy and security simultaneously. This necessarily requires approaches aimed at encouraging states to fulfill their obligations not to engage in or to be complicit in attacks (negative obligations) and obligations to protect higher education from attack and to deter future attacks by holding perpetrators accountable (positive obligations). The study concludes with brief recommendations on how different stakeholders might work to encourage greater understanding and implementation of these obligations, including further research, expert roundtables and information-sharing, development of guidelines and related advocacy campaigns.

While data on attacks on education has become more widely available thanks to better awareness and efforts by national and international organizations and monitoring bodies, critical data gaps remain. Reporting systems may be absent, weak, or disconnected from effective responses to attacks on education. Monitors, as well as victims and witnesses, may face threats to their safety, or insecurity may prevent monitors from accessing areas where attacks occur. As such, many attacks and incidents of military use go unreported, undermining efforts to calculate their prevalence.

Even when reporting mechanisms exist, data is not often disaggregated by gender, age, location, type of attack, or perpetrator. Violations such as child recruitment and sexual violence by armed forces or armed groups at, or en route to, school often go underreported. The impacts of attacks on education and military use – such as school days lost, drop-outs, and school closures – remain difficult to calculate due to such gaps. And even when data collection occurs regularly, its analysis and reporting do not always occur at regular intervals. 

The following pages comprise a comprehensive Toolkit for Collecting and Analyzing Data on Attacks on Education which addresses the abovementioned gaps in data collection; promotes inter-sectoral collaboration on data collection, analysis, and reporting; and strengthens and harmonizes definitions and concepts related to attacks on education.

FRANÇAIS

The Latin American Campaign for the Right to Education (CLADE, by its Spanish acronym) is a pluralistic network of civil society organizations with a presence in 18 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, which promotes social mobilization and political advocacy to defend the human right to education. This collection of articles, essays and statements reflect on the vital role of public education in the region and the fault lines exposed by the pandemic, considering both the challenges public education in Latin America faces and possible solutions, alternatives and ways forward.

 

 

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