Human Rights Watch (HRW) has made a submission to the 77th Working Group of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) focusing on Sri Lanka’s  use of educational facilities for military purposes during the war.

The submission relates to Articles 28 and 38 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and focuses on the protection of students, teachers, and schools during armed conflict.

With the end of the war, in 2010, the CRC  called upon Sri Lanka to immediately discontinue military occupation and use of the schools and strictly ensure compliance with humanitarian law and the principle of distinction and to cease utilizing the primary section of V/Tamil MV school and the Omanthai Central College in Vavuniya and ensure that school infrastructures damaged as a result of military occupation are promptly and fully restored.

While HRW also asks the CRC to congratulate Sri Lanka on its attendance at the Buenos Aires Safe Schools Conference in March 2017 it called upon the government of Sri Lanka to endorse the Safe Schools Declaration, and take concrete measures to deter the military use of schools.

Read the full statement