<\/p>\n
Conflict does not suspend the right to education, and non-state armed groups (NSAGs) have a duty to protect education in areas they control. Humanitarian law mandates the continuance of education in emergencies; the Fourth Geneva Convention, for example, obliges occupying powers to facilitate the \u201cproper working of educational institutions in occupied territories,\u201d and emphasises that for certain children affected by conflict \u201cparties to the conflict must ensure [that] their education [is] facilitated in all circumstances.\u201d1<\/font><\/u><\/a> Education is a crucial factor in normalising the lives of children affected by conflict and providing skills with which to survive and thrive.2<\/font><\/u><\/a><\/p>\n Where populations have been displaced by conflict with NSAGs, the relevant authorities \u2013 whether the NSAG now in charge of territory, or the state maintaining territorial control \u2013 are required to provide education as soon as possible. In the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, Article 23(1) stresses that educational facilities \u201cshall be made available to internally displaced persons\u2026 as soon as conditions permit\u201d.<\/p>\n More than half of the children who are currently out of school are in conflict-affected or fragile states. Given that modern conflicts are frequently internal armed conflicts, many of these states have NSAGs operational in their territory, and these groups can have a significant impact on access to education. While that impact can be extremely destructive, as with attacks on school, for example, it is not always uniformly negative. Education is one area in which NSAGs can have clear incentives to fulfill basic rights \u2013 particularly for NSAGs with political agendas and some degree of territorial control.<\/p>\n NSAGs without territorial control<\/strong><\/p>\n Internal armed conflicts involving NSAGs have a high impact on education through mass forced displacement (a factor which interrupts education through discontinuity of schooling, impoverishment of families, and increased insecurity for facilities and teaching staff); destruction of educational infrastructure (both human and physical); and impeding humanitarian access (including the provision of emergency education programming).<\/p>\n NSAG attacks on education can include not only physical attacks on schools but also abductions from class to join armed groups, and threats to students, teachers and administrators. In the Swat district of Pakistan, for example, NSAG attacks on schools were prevalent in the years leading up to the recent displacement crisis, with more than 200 schools destroyed in that district alone by the end of 2008, of which 95% were girls\u2019 schools. An estimated 50,000 students were deprived of education as a consequence. And a Save the Children UK survey of a school in Kandahar, Afghanistan, found that \u201conly about half of the girls attend school daily due to on-going threats on their lives.\u201d3<\/font><\/u><\/a> Attacks on schools or other facilities ordinarily used by children are prohibited by international law \u2013 yet they continue.<\/p>\n Fighting between NSAGs and others to control territory can have a drastic impact on access to education for displaced persons and others. For example, Save the Children UK estimates that the majority of displaced children in eastern DRC have had no access to formal or informal education since 1998.4<\/font><\/u><\/a> NSAGs in DRC have further exacerbated access to education by impeding humanitarian access and destroying educational infrastructure. They often burn school furniture for firewood, and occupy schools.<\/p>\n NSAGs with some territorial control <\/strong><\/p>\n Where NSAGs have some territorial control, they may be able to provide some kinds of social and economic services to the local population. For instance, Hezbollah is both an NSAG and a political player in Lebanon with control over a large number of municipalities in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah maintains an Education Unit as part of their organised system of health and social services; according to a June 2009 report, the Education Unit \u201cprovides [an] indispensible service to the Shi\u2019ite poor\u201d by operating a number of primary and secondary schools serving approximately 14,000 principally Shi\u2019ite students at low fees in areas where Lebanon\u2019s public school system is considered to be of poor quality. 5<\/font><\/u><\/a> Here, the presence of an NSAG providing some degree of territorial control and social services has a positive impact on access to education, both for displaced and non-displaced children.<\/p>\n However, such a pattern is not always true when a NSAG controls territory; NSAGs can erode security to the point where education is impossible and\/or completely neglected. In Afghanistan\u2019s Jawzjan Province, for example, the central government has largely neglected state services, and much of the area is affected by NSAG violence. Children face serious obstacles in attending the few schools that do exist \u2013 obstacles that include Taliban-laid landmines, and kidnappings en route to and from school. Here, the NSAGs are neither providing sufficient security to permit education to continue nor political support for education itself.<\/p>\n NSAGs have, as a minimum, an obligation not to attack education, and often, where they have some level of territorial control, have a positive obligation to provide access to education. It is clearly necessary, therefore, to engage NSAGs in issues of education, and to recognise the role they can play in damaging or promoting children\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n Alice Farmer<\/font><\/u><\/a> is Child Rights Advisor with the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre \/ Norwegian Refugee Council<\/font><\/u><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n 1<\/font><\/u><\/a> Articles 50(1) and 24(1)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n 2<\/font><\/u><\/a> Graca<\/font><\/u><\/a> Machel, The Impact of War on Children<\/em>, 2001<\/font><\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n 3<\/font><\/u><\/a> Save the Children UK, Barriers to Accessing Education in Conflict-Affected Fragile States, Case study: Afghanistan<\/em>, p 27<\/font><\/u><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n 4<\/font><\/u><\/a> Save the Children UK, Barriers to Accessing Education in Conflict-Affected Fragile States, Case study<\/em>: Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)<\/em>, p18<\/font><\/u><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n 5<\/font><\/u><\/a> Middle East Policy Center, Hezbollah\u2019s social Jihad: non-profits as resistance organizations<\/em>, June 2009.<\/font><\/u><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conflict does not suspend the right to education, and non-state armed groups (NSAGs) have a duty to protect education in areas they control. Humanitarian law mandates the continuance of education in emergencies; the Fourth Geneva Convention, for example, obliges occupying powers to facilitate the \u201cproper working of educational institutions in occupied territories,\u201d and emphasises that…","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","fmr_themes":[],"fmr_region":[],"fmr_issue":[],"fmr_year":[],"fmr_content_type":[27],"fmr_languages":[36],"fmr_list_years":[],"class_list":["post-33684","fmr_content","type-fmr_content","status-publish","hentry","fmr_content_type-article","fmr_languages-english","entry","no-media"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n