Fiji

February 2017: Zama met with Fiji in New York. Good meeting with FIji and he wrote right after. Although of course the decision is made in capital, he was very positive. Wanted material to include to address concerns he anticipated from Defense, specifically that their military does some leadership and cadet training in schools. I explained that it’s limited to armed conflict situations.

June 2018: Gisela met with H.E. Dr. Satyendra Prasad, Permanent Representative, who was not briefed but very interested and had some ideas concerning opportunities for deeper engagement with the peacebuilding community, as well as the possibilities for cooperation with Ireland during their bid for the Security Council. He highlighted that Norway’s Deputy Foreign Minister was on a visit to Fiji and other Pacific states and suggested asking Norway to ensure an encouragement to endorse is in the Minister’s talking points. I reached out to Norway but, unfortunately, the visit was already over. The Ambassador highlighted a concern that Fiji has contingency plans to use schools in disaster situations, declaring them as No Go areas due to the risk of riots. We spoke about how the use of schools in such circumstances is not covered by the Guidelines (unless the country is also in conflict), although it is preferable to avoid disruption to education if at all possible. He highlighted the interest for Fiji as a peacekeeping nation, referring to places where they have served, namely the Golan Heights and South Sudan. He suggested exploring whether DPKO missions could ask their host countries, as a matter of routine, whether they have endorsed. He was particularly interested in the situations in Afghanistan, Colombia, and Iraq. He spoke about the concept of humanitarian corridors and wondered aloud if they could be expanded to become protected spaces which include schools (I suppose not unlike the ‘protection of civilians’ camp in South Sudan). Gisela followed up in writing, sharing a letter for the Foreign Minister. No reply.

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

August 2018: Nevena met with Ms. Robyn-Elizabeth Mani, Second Secretary of the Permanent Mission of Fiji. It was a general introduction discussion on the Safe Schools Declaration and the Guidelines process, commitments and examples of implementation. She could not give unfortunately any information on the status of Fiji’s process on endorsement. Nevertheless, the relevance for Fiji as a peacekeeping contributor was hihglighted as well as the opportunity to share at the Spain’s conference concrete examples of good practice including through their child protection in schools, risk management, and education in emergencies & school safety policy. Nevena sent a follow-up email with all relevant points from the discussion and hyperlinks to all our main resources. We should include Fiji in the list of countries that we send a letter to in advance of the WPS open debate.

September 2018: Ahead of the UN WPS open debate, GCPEA a letter addressed to Foreign Minister sent to the Mission in New York. The letter encourages the government to endorse the Safe Schools Declaration and advocate for continued access to quality, conflict-sensitive education for women and girls.

February 2019: GCPEA met with the Ambassador and Second Secretary. GCPEA provided an update on recent developments in the initiative. The Ambassador responded that the Declaration was in line with Fiji’s laws and policies and that the government would endorse. She congratulated GCPEA’s advocacy and highlighted our contribution to making the endorsement happen. Follow-up: GCPEA advised Norway that the endorsement letter would be sent shortly. Norway confirmed that the endorsement letter had been received. GCPEA issued a press release, and sent letters of appreciation for the Ambassador and Foreign Minister.

March 2019: attended GCPEA side-event on “Better Protecting Women and Girls from Attacks on Education” in Geneva. Clustered Interactive Dialogue with the SRSG CAAC Virginia Gamba, HRC Geneva: the Ambassador of Fiji, H.E. Ms. Nazhat Shameem Khanjoined delivered the joined Norway’s joint statement on the Safe Schools Declaration.

October 2021: cosponsored UNSRC2601.