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Central African Republic

Central African Republic

Africa

Endorsements

Safe Schools Declaration

Endorsed in 2015

Paris Principles

Endorsed

Vancouver Principles

Endorsed

EWIPA Declaration

Endorsed

Relevant UN Resolutions

No current sponsorships
GCPEA Education Under Attack

Profiled in GCPEA Education Under Attack

Profiled in: 2022, 2020, 2018, 2014

Other Important Information
Memberships in International Regional Organizations
Peacekeeping

Is not a peacekeeping contributing country

Key Information

Key information about the country.

Advocacy Meetings

Chronological recap of the engagement with this state or any other relevant information that can support advocacy.

Watchlist discussed the issue with MFA, MoE and PM’s office as part of their research on attacks on schools (April-May 2015). Present at African Group briefing in June 2015 and endorsed afterwards.

September 2017 UNSC: GCPEA sent a letter to the ambassador in New York asking to raise the issue on attacks and military use, draw attention to the Declaration and the Guidelines and to mention the AU call to endorse during the Open Debate on children and armed conflict. The Central African Republic has ratified OPAC.

July 2018: Co-sponsored resolution 2427 (2018)

March 2019: Clustered Interactive Dialogue with the SRSG CAAC Virginia Gamba, HRC Geneva: joined Norway’s joint statement on the Safe Schools Declaration.

July 2019: In July, the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict (SRSG CAAC) informed that the Front Populaire pour la Renaissance de la Centrafrique (FPRC) had signed an Action Plan to end and prevent grave violations against children with the United Nations. The Action Plan addresses the four violations for which the FPRC is listed, including attacks against schools.

September 2019: In September, the Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict (SRSG CAAC) informed that L’Unité pour la paix en Centrafrique (UPC) signed an Action Plan with the United Nations to end and prevent grave violations against children. The Action Plan covers the four violations for which the UPC is listed, including attacks on schools and hospitals.

December 2019: The International Criminal Court issued a unanimous decision partially confirming the charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity carried out by Anti-Balaka leaders, including crimes committed at Yamwara School.

April 2020: The Working group has also called on all armed groups operating in the Central African Republic to prevent and stop attacks or threats of attacks against schools and hospitals and their personnel, as well as the use of educational establishments and hospitals for military purposes.

May 2022: On 04/05, GCPEA met with Mr. Prosper Nkew from Plan International CAR and Mr. Mama Tramat from the Ministry of Education to discuss ongoing efforts at the national level for implementation of the SSD. Mr. Nkew explained that they had established a technical committee on SSD implementation in November 2021 and were currently drafting an action plan. One of the first activity they would like to organise is a roundtable discussion with all of the relevant ministries to get them more engaged on this issue (he highlighted that there is very low engagement from MFA and MoD). GCPEA shared experiences from different countries/contexts on inter-ministerial roundtables, proposed to write a letter to the ministries requesting focal points for the state-led network to support the technical committee, shared the example of the SSD Sahel platform on regional coordinated impact, and discussed the idea of workshops for NSAGs in collaboration with the ICRC and Geneva Call. We agreed to keep in touch and support the technical committee in the drafting of its action plan and future concept notes for activities.

August 2022: On 18 August, Nevena and Apolline met with Mr. Marius Nzessioue, Charge d’Affaires (note: there has not been an ambassador at the mission for the last 2 years) from the PM of NY to discuss the Transforming Education Summit. We shared GCPEA’s recommendations, highlighting the ones specific to CAR (I.e. implement the Child Protection Code and National Action Plan) and explained the importance of incorporating the protection of education within the TES discussions and actions. The representative was very keen to support and explained that he would share a note with the MFA, with the MoE in copy, containing our recommendations and recommending that it be incorporated into his President’s statement at the TES. We followed up in writing with the recommendations.

September 2022 Transforming Education Summit: CAR: committed to strengthen the system of data collection to take into account the situation of children out of school.

November 2022: Endorsed the Political Declaration on Strengthening the Protection of Civilians from the Humanitarian Consequences Arising from the Use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas (EWIPA) on 18 November during an International Conference hosted by Ireland, the leader and penholder behind the Declaration.
March 2017: Attended Buenos Aires Conference on Safe Schools and provided a speaker – third secretary from Geneva mission.

March 2017: UNAMA organized a workshop in Mazar, Afghanistan, aimed at finding ways to prevent the recruitment of children by armed groups. The workshop included sessions outlining international legal instruments including the SSD, which Afghanistan endorsed in 2015.

May 2017: Human Rights Watch issued a letter to all NATO member states about civilian protection in Afghanistan, asking them to help Afghanistan to stop using schools in light of their shared commitments under the Declaration.

September 2017 UNSC: GCPEA sent a letter to the Ambassador of Afghanistan in New York asking to raise issue of attacks and military use and to draw attention to the Declaration and Guidelines during the Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict.

October 2017: Human Rights Watch issued a report on barriers to access to education for girls in Afghanistan, together with a new animation video, highlighting many of these barriers, including attacks on students and military use of schools.

March 2018: During the Annual Day on the Rights of the Child, 5 March: Afghanistan highlighted their support for the Declaration in their national statement.

May 2018: In its monthly update for May, Watchlist called on Afghanistan to implementation the Declaration.

July 2018: Co-sponsored resolution 2427 (2018).

August 2018: Norwegian Refugee Council issued a report, Educational Sites in Afghanistan are Changing from Bastions of Hope and Safety into Spaces of Fear, Armed Conflict and Politics. According to the report, schools in Afghanistan are increasingly becoming military, ideological, and political battlegrounds. “28 per cent of surveyed children and parents stated that schools in their places of origin had been closed due to the conflict. NRC found that the majority of surveyed children do not feel safe at school, with many boys and girls terrified that their school would be attacked. 12 per cent had experienced attacks on their school and 15 per cent experienced shooting very near to their school building. Many had missed exams or periods of school, either because of threats from armed actors, or because they or their parents believed that the school would be targeted. 36 per cent of the children were frightened about risks of kidnap or attack en route to school.” The report also refers to NRC Afghanistan’s new 2018-2020 Protection Strategy which will focus partly on protecting education and operationalizing the Safe Schools Declaration.

November 2018: GCPEA has been working with Save the Children to prepare a briefing paper on attacks on education in Afghanistan that will be released on November 26, ahead of the Geneva Ministerial Conference on Afghanistan that will take place in Geneva on November 27-28.

November 2018: GCPEA released Attacks on Education in Afghanistan briefing paper to coincide with the Geneva Ministerial Conference on Afghanistan, where the Afghan Government and the international community will gather to discuss strategies for achieving peace and development in the country.

March 2019: mentioned their endorsement of the Safe Schools Declaration during the Clustered Interactive Dialogue with the SRSG CAAC Virginia Gamba, HRC Geneva. Joined Norway’s joint statement on the Safe Schools Declaration.

May 2019: Participated in the Third International Conference in Palma.

December 2019: HRW made a submission to CEDAW: https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/12/23/submission-committee-elimination-discrimination-against-women-review-afghanistan.

April 2020: the Safe Schools Declaration was referenced by the Working Group in connection with the examination of the fourth report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict in Afghanistan (document S/2019/727).

March 2020: the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women has now made its first reference to the Guidelines for Protecting Schools from Military Used during Armed Conflict, in its concluding observations regarding Afghanistan

Oct 2020: GCPEA Director attended a joint virtual meeting which brought together the Group of Friends of Afghanistan in New York, Group of Friends of Children and Armed Conflict in New York, and the Group of Friends of Children and Armed Conflict in Kabul, Afghanistan. In her intervention, Diya highlighted that attacks against students and education personnel accelerated dramatically during 2017-2019 and gave concrete recommendations to strengthen implementation of the Safe Schools Declaration.

Examples of Good Practice

What, if anything, the country has done to protect education and/or implement any of the 8 commitments outlined in the Declaration.

Commitment 1

related to CAR – MINUSCA issued a directive in 2015 (MINUSCA/OSRSG/046/2015) which states that “[a]ll MINUSCA military and police personnel should avoid encroaching on the security and education of children by using the following guidelines as good practice […] The use of a school or university by a party to a conflict is not permitted, and cannot provide grounds for continuation of such use”.

The government promulgated the 2020 Child Protection Code, which criminalizes attacks on schools and their occupation . This is the first piece of legislation in Africa banning or criminalizing military use of schools.

The Safe Schools Declaration Technical Committee launched an Action Plan in March 2020 with concrete activities to disseminate the Guidelines and incorporate protection of schools and universities into national legislation.

November 2021: SSD follow up committee put in place. Like the committees in other countries, they will help the government to follow-up on their pledge by taking concrete actions on the ground. The focus will therefore be the implementation of the Guidelines and data collection.

December 2022: National Plan on the SSD has been develped by the national committee.

Commitment 2

On May 5, 2022, GCPEA conducted an Orientation on the Toolkit at a Regional Meeting on the Implementation of the Safe Schools Declaration in West and Central Africa; the meeting convened EiE and CPiE specialists from across the region. At least 20 people were in attendance; the meeting was also recorded and further disseminated. GCPEA provided simultaneous interpretation (English-French) for the meeting which enhanced participation of the GCPEA secretariat as well as representatives from both anglophone and francophone countries. The orientation covered definitions of attacks, the GCPEA data collection tools, and sharing of good practices in reporting on attacks on education. Following the meeting, the group set several action points, many of which related to GCPEA’s orientation or other GCPEA work. The Regional EiE and CPiE working groups agreed to 1) Define a minimum set of indicators to be regularly collected by countries in the region (based on existing tools including the GCPEA toolkit); Propose to the clusters of the region further GCPEA training on their toolkit and to support the GCPEA-Spain Training; Undertake a granular analysis of the nuances between ‘schools closed’/’education under attack’/’schools not-functional’. In addition, the group committed to several advocacy actions for the International Day and Transforming Education Summit.

 

Commitment 3

None

Commitment 4

None

Commitment 5

None

Commitment 6

In 2015, in some areas, community members, with the support of UNICEF, started an SMS alert system, EduTrac, that linked schools, communities, and local and national Ministries via text message. This allowed education personnel, especially in schools in remote communities, to communicate education data, such as enrollment and attendance, to regional and national education authorities. In addition, schools targeted for attack could utilize EduTrac to report attacks to the Ministries and police and receive support.

In 2006, when entire communities in conflict-affected areas in northern Central African Republic fled to the bush to avoid fighting and attacks targeting villages, temporary “bush schools” were established by teachers, parents, and community members, with assistance from UNICEF and other donors, including the United Kingdom Department of International Development (DfID) and the European Community Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO). Parents were offered short teacher training courses and served as teachers in the bush schools. They delivered lessons that attempted to parallel the national curriculum taught in government schools, teaching over 100,000 students in makeshift shelters or under trees.

Commitment 7

None

Commitment 8

None

National Action Plan or Technical Committee on the SSD

Not established

Relevant Contacts

Contact information of the representatives of Permanent Missions, national Ministries, and focal points for the State-led Implementation Network.

Geneva Missions

General Email(s):
missioncentrafrique@protonmail.ch

Other Contacts:

Mr. Firmin Gabin N’GBENG-MOKOUE
Counsellor
Chargé d’affaires
firmokoue@gmail.com

New York Missions

General Email(s):
repercaf.ny@gmail.com | loungoulah1@yahoo.fr

Other Contacts:

Marius NZESSIOUE
Chargé d’affaires a.i
(they don’t have an ambassador for the last 2 years)
mnzessioue@gmail.com

State-led Implementation Network

None