Væbnede konflikter udelukker 28 millioner børn fra uddannelse og udsætter dem for voldtægt og andre seksuelle overgreb, konkluderer en rapport fra FNs Organisation for Uddannelse, Videnskab og Kultur (UNESCO) tirsdag.
NEW YORK, 1 March 2011: The report, “The hidden crisis: Armed conflict and Education”, cautions that the world is not on track to achieve by 2015 the six Education for All goals that over 160 countries signed up to in 2000.
Although there has been progress in many areas, most of the goals will be missed by a wide margin – especially in regions riven by conflict.
– Armed conflict remains a major roadblock to human development in many parts of the world, yet its impact on education is widely neglected, said UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, adding: – This groundbreaking report documents the scale of this hidden crisis, identifies its root causes and offers solid proposals for change.
The report is endorsed by four Nobel Peace Prize laureates: Oscar Arias Sánchez (Costa Rica), Shirin Ebadi (Islamic Republic of Iran), José Ramos-Horta (Timor-Leste) and Archbishop Desmond Tutu (South Africa)
Introducing the report, Archbishop Tutu says: – It documents in stark detail the sheer brutality of the violence against some of the world’s most vulnerable people, including its schoolchildren, and it challenges world leaders of all countries, rich and poor, to act decisively.
Of the total number of primary school age children in the world who are not enrolled in school, 42 per cent – 28 million – live in poor countries affected by conflict.
This year’s report sets out a comprehensive agenda for change, including tougher action against human rights violations, an overhaul of global aid priorities, strengthened rights for displaced people and more attention to the ways education failures can increase the risk of conflict.
Thirty-five 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 Afghanistan, at least 613 attacks on schools were recorded in 2009, up from 347 in 2008. Insurgents in north western Pakistan have made numerous attacks on girls’ schools including one in which 95 girls were injured.
In Northern Yemen, 220 schools were destroyed, damaged or looted during fighting in 2009 and 2010 between government and rebel forces.
Rape and other sexual violence have been widely used as a war tactic in many countries. Insecurity and fear associated with sexual violence keep young girls, in particular, out of school.
The international courts set up in the wake of the wars in the former Yugoslavia and the genocide (folkedrab) in Rwanda have firmly established rape and other sexual violence as war crimes, yet these acts remain widely deployed weapons of war.
Of the rapes reported in the DR Congo, one-third involve children (and 13 per cent are against children under the age of 10).
Unreported rape in conflict-affected areas in the east of the country may be 10 to 20 times the reported level. Sexual violence has a devastating impact on education: it impairs victims learning potential, creates a climate of fear that keeps girls at home and leads to family breakdown that deprives children of a nurturing environment.
The report calls for the end to a culture of impunity (straffrihed) surrounding sexual violence, with stronger monitoring of human rights violations affecting education, a more rigorous application of existing international law and the creation of an International Commission on Rape and Sexual Violence backed by the International Criminal Court.
The report warns that education failures are fuelling conflict:
• The ‘youth bulge’: 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 they need to escape poverty, unemployment and the economic despair that often contributes to violent conflict.
• The wrong type of education: Education has the potential to act as a force for peace — but too often schools can be used to reinforce the social divisions, intolerance and prejudices that lead to war.
• Failures to build peace. Education needs to be integrated into wider strategies to encourage tolerance, mutual respect and the ability to live peacefully with others. Between 500 million and 1 billion us dollar should be channelled to education through the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund, with UNESCO and UNICEF playing a more central role.
The report outlines the considerable progress that has been made in education since 2000 but warns that:
• The number of children out of school stood at 67 million in 2008, and is falling too slowly to meet the Education for All target by 2015.
• Many children drop out of school before completing a full primary cycle. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, 10 million children drop out of primary school every year.
• About 17 per cent of the world’s adults – 796 million people – still lack basic literacy skills. Nearly two-thirds are women.
• Another 1,9 million teachers will be needed by 2015 to achieve universal primary education, more than half of them in sub-Saharan Africa.
The EFA Global Monitoring Report is developed annually by an independent team and published by UNESCO.
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http://www.unesco.org/new/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/ED/pdf/gmr2011-UNESDOC.pdf
