Protection of Education in Armed Conflict

Completed in December 2014

Commissioned by the Qatar-based Education Above All Foundation (EAA), and researched and authored by the Geneva Academy, this project analyzed how United Nations (UN) human rights treaty bodies and relevant UN Charter-based mechanisms and entities have addressed the implementation of the right to education and other relevant rights in armed conflict and armed violence.

The research notably looked at the UN Human Rights Council (including the Universal Periodic Review); UN treaty bodies such as the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Committee on the Rights of the Child, Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and Human Rights Committee; UN Special Procedure (both thematic and country mandates); the UN Security Council Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism established under Resolution 1612; and the country-specific UN fact-finding missions and commissions of inquiry.

Research Team

This research project was carried out by Stuart Casey-Maslen, Gilles Giacca and Takhmina Karimova.

OUTPUT

Recommendations to Better Protect the Right to Education During Armed Conflict

The final report, United Nations Human Rights Mechanisms and the Right to Education in Insecurity and Armed Conflict (2013), offers recommendations on how such protection might be strengthened. These include a call for greater attention to the impact of disability on access to education in insecurity and armed conflict; also, protection should consistently concern all levels of education to ensure the rights of adults as well as those of children to high-quality education are respected, protected and fulfilled.

The report considers how UN human rights mechanisms have conceptualized the right to education. It concludes that positive international legal obligations to respect, protect and provide education continue to apply during insecurity and armed conflict and that targeted attacks against educational staff, students and facilities, whether by armed forces or armed non-state actors, violate the right to education.

The Policy Summary of the report outlines key policy issues and recommendations relating to the protection of the right to education in armed conflict.

Publications

Cover of Protection of Education in Armed Conflict

United Nations Human Rights Mechanisms and the Right to Education in Insecurity and Armed Conflict

October 2013

PEIC

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Cover of Policy Summary: United Nations Human Rights Mechanisms and the Right to Education in Insecurity and Armed Conflict

Policy Summary: United Nations Human Rights Mechanisms and the Right to Education in Insecurity and Armed Conflict

October 2013

PEIC

Download >

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