The Regional Forum on the Protection of the Right to Education during Insecurity and Armed Conflict in the Middle East and North Africa Region was organized from 19-21 January 2014 in  Jordan as one of the main activities of a joint project between the United Nations Training and Documentation Centre for South-west Asia and the Arab Region (OHCHR-Doha Centre) and Protect Education in Insecurity and Conflict (PEIC) – a program of Education Above All Foundation.

The  report final provides information on the forum: its objectives, its findings and recommendations.

The report, Education Denied: Israel’s Systematic Violation of Palestinian Children’s Right to Education, was prepared for the July 2011 High-Level Segment of UN-ECOSOC in Geneva, Switzerland and reviews the implementation of the education-related Millennium Development Goals (MDG) of the United Nations Development Agenda in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt).

The report informs that the the achievement of the MDG on education is  proving unattainable as a result of illegal policies enacted as part of Israel’s longstanding occupation. By denying Palestinian children full access to high-quality primary education, Israel, the Occupying Power, is failing to comply with its binding obligations under international law.

Through this report, PCHR asks that the international community take all appropriate measures to end Israel's repeated violations of international law which inhibit basic human rights, including education, and development goals in the oPt.

This Factsheet was prepared by the Center for Economic and Social Rights (CESR) and the Egyptian Center for Economic and Social Rights (ECESR) in light of Egypt’s appearance before the Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review in 2014.

In its last Universal Periodic Review in 2010, Egypt accepted six recommendations related to eradicating illiteracy, particularly in rural areas, and one on enhancing the quality of its education system. Despite some overall improvements since then, stark disparities in educational achievement remain. Decreasing public investment in education disadvantages students who cannot afford to attend private schools and exacerbates the problem of unequal access to education.

Parallel Report submitted by the Coalition Marocaine pour l'Education pour Tous, Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and others to the Pre-sessional Working Group of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights on the occasion of the consideration of the List of Issues related to the Periodic Reports of Morocco. This report highlights the issue of privatisation in education in Morocco.

The right to education in international human rights law is contained in number of international treaties. The most comprehensive coverage of the right is found within the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) under articles 13 and 14. The primary level of education is an essential and integral phase in the development of a child, without the right to education children are unable to realize other rights. This research assesses the functionality of the Egyptian primary education system and its compliance with the international human rights standards of education, specifically the utilizing the 4-A schematic. The indicators included in the 4-A system are defined and analyzed in accordance to the primary level of education. A brief modern history of the Egyptian education system is provided in order to understand current trends. The issues facing the Ministry of Education â are centralization, aid for education and social and economic gaps â and their analysis provides greater insight into the compliance of the state. The final section of this research measures and analyzes the Egyptian system with the international standards in direct correlation to the human rights indicators that comprise the 4-A schematic. There are pockets of defacto discrimination, mostly social-economic that exists within the Egyptian primary education system and by international standards these facets of discrimination should take the highest priority for reform for the Ministry of Education. Other elements detracting from the provision of the right to education includes the quality of education in Egypt and equality. Stronger educational policies that are sharply focused, with targets for implementation being set; comprehensive legislation; and greater levels of awareness and civic engagement are needed in order to protect the right to education at the primary education level.

The conflict has had a brutal impact on education in Yemen; 34% of children in the country have not gone to school since the conflict began in March 2015. As of October 2015 1.8 million children were not in school. In some cases parents and children are deterred from going to school because of fear of airstrikes, while in others, schools have been rendered unusable due to the conflict either because they have been damaged or destroyed. Amnesty International investigated five strikes that took place between August and October 2015 in Hodeidah, Hajjah, and Sana’a governorates, which appear to have directly targeted schools. These strikes killed five and injured at least 14 civilians, including four children. They have severely disrupted the education of the some 6,550 children who regularly attended the schools.

This report documents how violence, threats and intimidation carried out by parties to the conflict in Afghanisatn directly harmed or impacted health and education personnel, reduced the availability of healthcare,and limited children’s access to essential health and education services. Schools and hospitals were damaged or destroyed by targeted attacks and crossfire, with many remaining closed due to insecurity, threats or military use.

The findings of this report are based on data collected from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2015 by the Human Rights Unit of UNAMA and UNICEF. The report focuses on attacks and incidents directly linked to the conflict – excluding criminal attacks affecting schools and hospitals and attacks carried out by private actors.

Data from a case study commissioned by UNICEF on crossfire is also included. All data is analysed through the framework of applicable international humanitarian law, international human rights law, international criminal law and national legislation, as well as United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1612, 1882, 1998, and 2143. 

This important new report documents the major obstacles that prevent Syrian refugee children from getting formal education in Turkey, which is hosting more than 2 million refugees from the Syrian conflict that began in 2011. The government adopted an important policy in September 2014 that formally grants Syrian children access to public schools, but key obstacles including a language barrier, social integration issues, economic hardship, and lack of information about the policy, remain one year later.

Read more about the report, here.

This report looks at the challenges facing two countries on the front-line of the global refugee crisis – Lebanon and Turkey. Between them, these countries have some 732,000 children out of school aged 5-17. In both cases the level of need vastly outstrips the resources available. There are not enough teachers, schools or classrooms – and the education infrastructure that does exist is deteriorating. Refugee children face additional challenges in adapting to a new curriculum. Compounding these challenges, refugee poverty, insecurity and vulnerability create barriers of their own. While this report focuses on financing to deliver on the London Conference pledge, host governments also need to strengthen the reforms needed to deliver education to vulnerable refugees.

The Arab Charter on Human Rights was adopted on 22 May 2004 by the Council of the League of Arab States. It reaffirms the principles of the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the provisions of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and therefore, the right to education.

Article 41 guarantees the right to education and obliges States Parties to eradicate illiteracy. It provides for free compulsory primary education. It defines the aims of education and refers to human rights education. It also guarantees on-going education and adult education.

Article 40 is specifically on the right to education of persons with disabilities.

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