(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
Fazeena Saleem
|
The Peninsula
Doha, Qatar: The fifth International Day to Protect Education from Attack (IDPEA) was observed yesterday in Doha, with a global call to safeguard schools and ensure every child has access to a safe learning environment.
The event was led by H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Education Above All (EAA) Foundation and attended by global leaders, UN dignitaries, and youth advocates at Qatar National convention Centre.
The day serves as an advocacy platform, bringing global attention to the increasing number of attacks on educational institutions, which have increased by 20% over the last year. This year's IDPEA is organised by Education Above All (EAA) Foundation, a global leader in education and development, under the theme 'Education in Peril: The Human Cost of War.'
In her keynote speech, Sheikha Moza called for a renewed global commitment to safeguarding educational spaces. She highlighted the grave reality of destroyed schools and the failure to protect education.
“Education is the vessel that will carry children to that bright future, but attacks on education rip away the vessel, destroying the lives of teachers and students,” said Sheikha Moza.
She added:“We – the international community – have failed to protect education and we have failed to protect students.”
“We are all too aware of the politics that shape our world and the unfair mechanisms through which policies are implemented. We may well rationalise what we see, but we cannot justify the international community allowing those who attack education to do so with impunity and without decisive deterrence,” she added.
Sheikha Moza emphasised that attacks on education are premeditated, particularly in Gaza.
“A year has passed, and no students are returning to the classrooms of Gaza. Some have died as martyrs. Some are on sickbeds, their arms or feet amputated. Some await their unknown fate, surrounded by death on every side while hope for peace, justice, and freedom diminishes away,” Sheikha Moza said.
“We have failed you, children of Gaza. No international law, no UN charter, no multilateral agreements have protected you,” she added.
H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of the Education Above All (EAA) Foundation, and H E Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani, Vice Chairperson and CEO of Qatar Foundation, in conversation with Ebrahim Adnan Qdaih, an EAA Foundation beneficiary, who studied nursing in Gaza, on the sidelines of the event yesterday.
Prime Minister of Yemen, H E Ahmad Awad bin Mubarak; Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the State of Palestine, H E Dr. Varsen Aghabekian; Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Liberia, H E Sara Beysolow Nyanti; UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, H E Virginia Gamba and several other dignitaries were present at the event.
A powerful and moving performance by 45 students, including those from Gaza, Sudan, and Qatar, featured a song by Fahad Alhajjaji that addressed the critical importance of safeguarding education during times of crisis.
The event also saw Swar Al Dahab, a football commentator, shedding light on the devastating wars in Gaza and Sudan and the urgent need to protect education amidst conflict.
At the Gen R: Generation of Resilience in Times of Conflict session Motaz Azaiza, a Palestinian photo journalist, shared the real-time impact of conflict on education emphasising how journalism sheds light on life in conflict zones. Ebrahim Adnan Qdaih, an EAA Foundation beneficiary, who studied nursing in Gaza and affected by the ongoing violence said,“All educational facilities were destroyed, leaving us shattered. I was a young man with many dreams, but everything was lost.”
Established in 2020, IDPEA was adopted by the UN General Assembly, following a call for action by H H Sheikha Moza at the Social Form of the Human Rights Council in 2019 and based on a resolution introduced by the State of Qatar. Supported by 62 countries, the resolution declared September 9 as the UN International Day to Protect Education from Attack, a day dedicated to acknowledging and addressing the global need to safeguard education in conflict zones and against other barriers.
Students perform during the fifth IDPEA that addressed the critical importance of safeguarding education during times of crisis. Pic Rajan Vadakkemuriyil / The Peninsula
Following is the full text of the speech delivered by H H Sheikha Moza during the fifth IDPEA event yesterday.
When I talk of education, my definition is not abstract, but comprehensive. Education is classrooms crowded with innocent children who dream. Education is the parents who dream of a bright future for their children. Education is the vessel that will carry those children to that bright future. Education is the dedicated teachers who guide the vessel and prepare the children to lead the way. But attacks on education rip away the vessel, destroying the lives of teachers and students and leaving nothing but emptiness. The future is annihilated. And there is no doubt that those who target education know what they are doing and do so with premeditation.
Ladies and gentlemen,
When I speak of premeditation, Gaza is the most urgent and important issue. Gaza is being subjected to brutal bombardment – a genocide marked by massacres that are taking place every day. One of the most atrocious was the massacre of more than a hundred displaced Palestinians, killed as they took shelter in the Tab'een School in Al Daraj district. If a similar massacre was committed by another country in Asia or Africa, the international community would have rushed, with no hesitation, to condemn and sanction it.
More than 10,000 students have been confirmed killed in Gaza since 7 October last year, and at least 400 teachers. 93% of schools have been destroyed. Many were occupied by displaced people rendered homeless by the conflict. Some had even been designed to double as emergency accommodation.
Last April, 19 independent UN experts and rapporteurs gave an explicit warning of an intentional“scholasticide” in the Gaza Strip. Recently, Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, has stated that Israel has been“genociding the Palestinians ... one school at a time” in the Gaza Strip. The failure of the international community to stop Israel's atrocities has permitted this genocide, and the international community cannot continue to ignore Israel's project to cleanse Palestine of the Palestinian people.
These are the findings and perspective of the UN representative mandated to report and advise on human rights in the Palestinian territories.
Esteemed Guests,
A year has passed, and no students are returning to the classrooms of Gaza. Some have died as martyrs. Some are on sickbeds, their arms or feet amputated. Some await their unknown fate, surrounded by death on every side while hope for peace, justice, and freedom diminishes away.
We have failed you, children of Gaza. No international law, no UN charter, no multilateral agreements have protected you.
So, what now? Is this what we have become? Have we surrendered to apathy? Have we reached a point where we sit back and watch entire cities destroyed, their inhabitants deliberately shot at, deprived of medical treatment, tortured, starved? Without any adequate response? Have we reached the stage where we allow children to die, frightened and alone, in hospitals with no medicine or medical staff? What have we become that we allow missiles and gunfire to target schools full of desperate refugees?
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The reality is that the violence continues and the displacement of millions continues and attacks on education continue. In Sudan, Ukraine, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Colombia, innocent students pay an incalculable price for bitter division. We – the international community – have failed to protect education and we have failed to protect students.
We are all too aware of the politics that shape our world and the unfair mechanisms through which policies are implemented. We may well rationalize what we see, but we cannot justify the international community allowing those who attack education to do so with impunity and without decisive deterrence.
Rebuilding infrastructure will cost billions, including for schools and universities in Gaza, Yemen, Syria, Ukraine, Myanmar and others. We must agree that the states that caused the damage bear full legal responsibility for rebuilding the education systems they have destroyed.
In the midst of despair, it is young people who keep our hope alive. Those students around the world, who continue to protest against war and suffering embody the innate human instinct towards peace, before it is tainted by personal interest, pragmatism and politics.
As the challenges to this fragile planet mount – among them climate change, disease, and further wars – we need the talent and ability of every child and young person to be put to good use. We need them to fulfil their potential. We need them to continue their education. We need them to teach, to advocate and to lead, to defend the rights of children and young people to peace and education. Above all, we need them to live.
Dear guests,
The“human cost” of the war on Gaza is unacceptable to any person with a conscience, morals, or humanitarian principles. I am outraged by the crimes committed against the Palestinians and against international law. I am truly furious – angry at the scale and number of crimes committed in Gaza. I am angry at the blatant silence that has exposed our lack of humanity. Our humanity has absconded, losing its nobility completely in the face of the Occupation's barbarity.
I am angry at an international community that claims to be civilized. Gaza has revealed its hypocrisy. I am angry at the leaders of countries who proclaim their anger over one war and remain silent about another. I am angry at leaders who blather about human rights and the mandate of international law and say nothing about the genocide taking place in Gaza. I am angry at leaders who often say that Palestine is the central cause of the Arabs, yet we see no centrality in their positions. I am angry for Hind and I am angry for those killed before her and after her.
I am among many who are angry. But God's anger will come. Those who have angered God will feel His wrath.
What we are witnessing in Gaza has stripped away the world's imagined veil of civility unmasking its sheer brutality. We thought the world was civilized, but it was not so. This brutality extends beyond those who commit crimes and kill women and children. It includes all who have supported this depraved aggression with funds and weapons. It includes those who watch what is happening in Gaza; those who encourage it in private or in public; and those who choose to remain silent.
After the veils have fallen, and we have lost our shared values, our principles, our very moral codes, what is left is Gaza: a litmus test against which all standards are measured. The dignity of the women and children of Gaza reminds us that there is truth in God, truth in religion, truth in the right to a homeland, and that a life without dignity is no true life.
MENAFN10092024000063011010ID1108655518