Almost 50 million children living in conflict-affected
countries around the world are being denied the chance of going to school, Children living in countries at war have
come under direct attack, have been used as human shields, killed,
maimed or recruited to fight. Rape, forced marriage and abduction
have become standard tactics in conflicts from Syria to Yemen, and from the
Democratic Republic of the Congo to Nigeria, South Sudan, Myanmar, Cameroon, Afghanistan,
Eastern Ukraine, Iraq, Central African Republic, Palestine, Mali, Burkina
Faso and Niger.
When a conflict or natural disaster erupts, education is
generally the first service interrupted and the last resumed. Governments are
often overwhelmed by the needs and relief aid traditionally focuses on populations’
basic requirements – food, water, shelter and protection – with only 2 percent
of humanitarian funding allocated to education.
Children don't just have the right to survive, they
have the right to thrive and grow up in a healthy environment, we’re
really losing any kind of progress and their right to education, which is the
biggest and best hope for making their lives better and addressing the
challenges they face.
This is what makes it so crucial – for these children, for
their communities and for our entire world – to invest significantly more
efforts and resources in education in emergencies and protracted crises.
One particularly damaging, but often ignored, effect of
conflict on education is the proliferation of attacks on schools as children,
teachers or school buildings become the targets of attacks. Parents fear
sending their children to school. Girls are particularly vulnerable to sexual
violence.
Meanwhile, children that are taken out of school are more
exposed to violence, trafficking, child labour, child marriage and recruitment
by armed groups. They are deprived from their basic right to education and the
chance to fulfil their true potential. And they will find it difficult to come
back to a traditional curriculum when schools reopen. Their situation triggers
despair and sometimes anger. It pushes some families to risk their lives
crossing borders and seas and fuels tensions in host communities.
Children are especially vulnerable to the effects of war,
and frequently represent at least half of the population in a conflict area.
They suffer fear and insecurity, and disruption to every aspect of their lives.
Children who have been displaced are at an increased risk of sexual and
physical violence, disease and malnutrition, and separation from family
members. As displaced persons or refugees they may experience severe poverty,
abuse, exploitation, and psychosocial distress.
Children without parental care in conflict areas are highly
vulnerable to abduction or other forms of recruitment by armed forces and
groups. Such children may be used to fight, provide labour or be sexually
exploited. Involvement in conflict may result in malnutrition, abuse, addiction
to drugs, injury, psychosocial distress or death. While children associated
with armed forces and groups make up a small minority of the total number of
children affected by war, they are extremely vulnerable and in need of
particular protection and care.
Opportunities to help children who have been associated with
fighting forces may begin with their escape, capture or formal demobilization.
Some may be able immediately to reunite with family members, but others may
need interim care during tracing. While children may be readily accepted by
their family and community, others risk rejection. Family mediation and
community sensitization is needed to support family reunification and community
integration. Ongoing monitoring, family support services, and placement
planning is necessary where children are not reunited with one or both parents
or where family and community acceptance is uncertain.
Community action to protect and support war affected
children should be inclusive and not limited to children formally associated
with armed forces or any one group of children. National efforts should focus
on the reestablishment of essential services, particularly in the areas of
security, health and education.
The impact of education on resilience, peace and development
has been clearly established. Only education has the power to break the cycles
of poverty, violence and injustice, and provide crisis-affected children with
the strength, tools and hope they need to build a brighter future for
themselves and their community. They will become tomorrow’s leaders, doctors,
teachers, architects, artists and engineers. They will enjoy better health for
themselves and their families and make stronger contributions to their society.
The truth of the matter is that education is an imperative
for crisis-hit families as they are struggling to keep their children safe and
rebuild their lives, and is paramount to peace and development. World leaders
should protect education by criminalizing attacks, prohibiting the use of
schools by armed groups, and working with schools and communities to preserve
schools as centres for learning – especially in a conflict, classrooms should
be a place of safety and security, not battlegrounds where children suffer the
most appalling crimes. Children who are targeted in this way will be paying an
innocent price for the rest of their lives #EndConflicts #ChildrenHaveEducationRights
#PeaceandReconciliation #PrayforOurChildrenInConflicts #Humanity
Children living in countries at war have come under direct
attack, been killed, maimed or recruited to fight, and used as human shields.
And world leaders are still failing to hold perpetrators to account for their
actions.
Children don't just have the right to survive, they
have the right to thrive and grow up in a healthy environment, we’re
really losing any kind of progress and their right to education, which is the
biggest and best hope for making their lives better and addressing the
challenges they face.
For the thousands of children killed or maimed in conflicts in
the past, recent and even this day of year, the world’s failure is clear. Yet
we are also failing children when their homes, their schools and hospitals, and
the other services that provide them with the basics of life are denied or
attacked. #EndConflicts
#ChildrenHaveEducationRights #PeaceandReconciliation #PrayforOurChildrenInConflicts
#Humanity
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