Argentina

Present in Lucens.

2015: Attended the state consultations on the SSD in Geneva – led by Norway + 2015: Present at the First International Conference on the SSD in Oslo.

We consistently approach both Gva and NY Missions to encourage continued leadership on SSD in particular with a possible follow-up conference, continued visibility of the SSD, and state-to-state advocacy in the Latin American countries. In NY, advised approaching Ecuador as current chair of CELAG (GRULAC’s political “wing”) for state-to-state advocacy with Latin American countries.

May 2016: Announced 2017 for implementation conference. Letter sent ahead of CAAC open debate 2016.

August 2016: CAAC Open Debate: “We express our concern about and strongly condemn the increasing use of schools for military purposes and the increase in attacks on schools and hospitals. We believe that the issue deserves particular attention on the part of the international community in that it radically affects the right to education and health of thousands of children worldwide.” “We reiterate our strong support for the Safe Schools Declaration adopted in Oslo in May 2015 and sponsored by Argentina and Norway. It commits States to implementing the Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use during Armed Conflict, thereby ensuring the right to education and the protection of children and young people in conflict situations. We urgently call upon United Nations Member States, especially the members of the Security Council, to endorse the Declaration, in view of the celebration in Buenos Aires next March of the second International Conference on Safe Schools.”

March 2017: Hosted Buenos Aires Conference on Safe Schools. GCPEA and Save the Children International met with the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Argentina during his visit to Geneva on 1 March to discuss the Safe Schools process and the Buenos Aires Conference on Safe Schools.

March 2017: GCPEA spoke at an awareness-raising event at an international school in Buenos Aires, attended by approximately 100 secondary school students, and also addressed by several panelists from the Buenos Aires Conference. GCPEA explained the work of the Coalition, including research and advocacy on Education under Attack, the SSD, and the Guidelines.

April 2017: Hosted post-conference briefing for Missions in New York. Argentina delivered a statement on behalf of the endorsing states at the Human Rights Council Interactive Dialogue on Children and Armed Conflict on 7 March, at which the SRSG presented her report. Report of the dialogue here. France, Montenegro, Qatar, and Slovenia expressed support for the SSD in their statements. The Child Rights Connect Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict also made a statement, highlighting the SSD, Guidelines, and Buenos Aires Conference. GCPEA/Human Rights Watch provided a briefing to Missions in New York on the outcomes of the Buenos Aires Conference on Safe Schools. The briefing was hosted by Argentina and Norway, and attended by representatives of 32 states (13 non-endorsing) plus the European Union. The Ambassadors of Argentina and Norway and a representative of ICRC also spoke.

May 2017: The Ministry of Defense of Argentina provided a briefing on the Declaration and Guidelines at CAECOPAZ, the Argentine Centre for Joint Training for Peace Operations. The Ministry of Defense of Argentina provided a briefing on the Declaration and Guidelines at the national air force institute. The Special Representative of the Secretary General in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Maman Sidikou, condemned recent attacks on health and education infrastructure in the Kasaï Central province and called on the parties involved to respect health centers and schools as zones of peace. 639 elementary and secondary schools have been destroyed or attacked by militias in the Kasaï Central and Kasaï provinces.

June 2017: Argentina hosted a meeting of the Core Group in Geneva. In addition to Argentina and Norway, it was attended by Austria, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Jordan, Luxembourg, Article 36, and GCPEA. Following the meeting, Argentina circulated a calendar of events (with input from GCPEA) of international and regional opportunities for raising the profile of the Declaration. Argentina also circulated the concept note for GCPEA’s next regional implementation workshopya, and Zama are all available to travel to Oslo at different times.

September 2017: GCPEA sent a letter to the Ambassador in New York asking to raise the issue of attacks and military use and draw attention to the Declaration and the Guidelines during the Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict. Argentina co-hosted with Liberia and Norway an high level dialogue and AU Liaison office in Addi Abeba organized by Save the Children Pan Africa with the aim to galvanize support for the protection of education from attacks and military use and to promote the implementation of the Declaration and the Guidelines. Argentina delivered a statement during the event.

March 2018: During the Clustered Interactive Dialogue with SRSG Gamba, Argentina delivered a joint statement on behalf of more than 50 endorsing states.

April 2018: Norwegian Refugee Council Argentina published a call for investigation of a school attack that occurred in March, highlighting the government’s endorsement of the Declaration and calling for implementation. The Ministry of Defence delivered a lecture on the Declaration and Guidelines to students of DiTella University in Buenos Aires. Human Rights Watch made a submission to the Committee on the Rights of the Child in which they congratulated Argentina for their role in the Safe Schools Declaration.

June 2018: Gisela met with Ms. Victoria Gandini, Second Secretary. It was a quick but productive meeting. She advised that there will be a Presidential Declaration for the High Level Political Forum on SDG4 in July 2019, which will be negotiated in ECOSOC and UNGA in New York, most likely from May to June, though the negotiations may start earlier as it is a Presidential Declaration rather than the usual Ministerial Declaration. She recommended contacting UN/DESA, who will prepare the zero draft, as it will be easier to defend language already included than to add language once the consultations begin. She welcomed the suggestion to have a joint statement by endorsing states at the UNSC open debate on children and armed conflict and said she would contact Norway on this. I have since provided feedback on a first draft and sent further input to Oslo who later became involved in the drafting. Norway hope to get all endorsing states onboard, which would be the first time this has happened. Victoria wondered why Argentina and Norway had not issued a démarche (if indeed they haven’t) to all non-endorsing states to call for endorsement. She explained how Argentina had issued a démarche on the International Convention against Enforced Disappearance, which had resulted in 20 ratifications. She suggested that the Foreign Ministers of Argentina and Norway should issue a joint démarche at capital level via their embassies. We discussed how the current momentum and the upcoming Spain conference both served as good rationale for the use of political capital that is involved. She identified Australia as a priority for endorsement, which would mean full endorsement by CANZ, and asked why they hadn’t endorsed. I explained the background and that we are rebooting our advocacy in light of the UK endorsement. She pledged to reach out and mentioned that Argentina and Australia work closely on child labour issues, which is related.

July 2018: Co-sponsored resolution 2427 (2018). Joined GoF CAAC statement which mentioned the Safe Schools Declaration.
August 2018: Human Rights Watch has made the attached submission to the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights for Argentina’s upcoming review. It asks the committee to commend Argentina for its leadership role on the Safe Schools Declaration and to “Encourage Argentina to continue to develop and share examples of its implementation of the Declaration’s commitments with other countries that have endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration and with the Committee as examples of good practice in protecting students, teachers, and schools during armed conflict.”
October 2018: During GCPEA briefing for GoF WPS, Argentina called for the topic to be addressed more proactively and in fora outside the Security Council, such as the Third Committee.

March 2019: co-hosted GCPEA side- event “Better Protecting Women and Girls from Attacks on Education” in Geneva.  In his opening remarks, the Ambassador highlighted his country’s leadership in driving the development of the Safe Schools Declaration together with Norway, and the upcoming Third International Conference on Safe Schools.
He also noted that Argentina’s Ministry of Defense had reinforced measures to train armed forces on prohibition of the military use of schools.

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.

March 2019: co-sponsored Education Above All side event “Education in the 2030 Agenda – Leaving no one behind: Children with disabilities, girls, forcibly displaced children and minorities”.

April 2019: GCPEA met with the First Secretary in New York. She raised the idea of ensuring better coordination of endorsing states in New York. Concerning the UNSC open debate on sexual violence, she promised to share GCPEA key messages with the Permanent Representative to consider including them in the statement.

April 2019: GCPEA issued letter to the Foreign Ministers, encouraging them to highlight in their statements during the UNSC open debate on sexual violence in conflict the importance of protecting against sexual violence by parties to the conflict at school and on the way to school, to refer to their government’s endorsement or announce the endorsement of the Declaration.

April 2019: During the UN Security Council Open Debate on Sexual Violence in Conflict on 23 April, Argentina highlighted the Safe Schools Declaration and called for endorsement.
May 2019: GCPEA share by email key messages for the upcoming UNSC open debate on protection of civilians in conflict with the First Secretary in New York. No response.
May 2019: Participated in the Third International Conference in Palma.

May 2019: during the UN Security Council Open Debate on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict on 23 May, referred to the Safe Schools Declaration.

October 2019: GCPEA issued letters to their Foreign Minister, encouraging them to highlight in their statements to the Council the Safe Schools Declaration as a tool to ensure implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325.
October 2019: During the WPS open debate, Argentina mentioned the following reference: “I should therefore like to draw attention to the significant role of the Safe Schools Declaration, an initiative led by Norway and Argentina, and I invite States to endorse the Declaration, a non-binding instrument that also contributes to the implementation of resolution 1325 (2000).”

June 2021: Apolline met with María Florencia González and Soledad Sandler (focal point for SSD in the mission). They were very keen to work more with us to bring the SSD into the UN mechanisms in NY. They said that their ambassador would be delighted to hold an informal GRULAC briefing for non-endorsing countries, but needed to confirm. They want to build a stronger relationship with GCPEA moving forward. I followed up by email, sharing a concept note and proposed agenda for a NY meeting.

October 2021: Co-hosted the Fourth International Conference on the SSD.

October 2021: Co-sponsored the UNSCR2601.

December 2021: On 08/23, Nevena and Apolline met with Maria Soledad, SSD focal point at the Argentina Permanent Mission in New-York to discuss possibilities for engagement in 2022. We discussed the idea of having the Safe Schools Declaration as an agenda item in the regular GRULAC monthly meeting for the month of January. The aim would be to raise awareness on the Declaration and encourage endorsement in the region. The representative will get back to us to confirm nearer the time. The representative told us about the work of the Group of Friends on Education (co-chaired by Japan, Kenta, Czech Republic and Norway). The GoF had a High-Level event last week in which Argentina highlighted the Declaration. She explained that 2022 would provide a lot of opportunities for education, with the Secretary General calling for a High Level “Transforming Education Summit” in September, and a pre-summit set to take place around March in Paris (UNESCO HQ), and more preparatory meetings before then. She also suggested that we could bring this agenda into the Youth, Peace and Security agenda. The representative also mentioned the International Day for Education commemoration on 24 January in which Argentina will make a statement, providing GCPEA an opportunity to input on the Declaration. We also highlighted the upcoming Education under Attack 2022 report to be published in May 2022 for the anniversary of the Declaration. She said it would be a great opportunity to organise an event in New-York and that Argentina would be interested in supporting. Lastly, we spoke about the recently adopted UNSCR 2601 and followed-up in writing to share the name of the 16 countries that co-sponsored but have not endorsed the Declaration in order to include this in any bilateral meetings with her Ambassador and these countries.

July 2022: At the UNSC CAAC debate :
– Concerned about increased in attacks on schools including military use
– Active supporter of the Safe Schools Declaration

September 2022: On 30 September, we had a quick call with Ana Soledad, the SSD focal point at the NY mission. We proposed the idea of organizing a briefing on “attacks on education” for the Group of Friends on Education and Lifelong Learning, which Argentina co-chairs with Japan, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Kenya, and Norway. We suggested to present on the scale and impact of attacks and to speak about the SSD and the UNSCR2601. She will discuss it with the other co-chairs and let us know if that would be possible (proposed dates: the morning of 25th Oct or 28th Oct).

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 2023: During the ID with SRSG CAAC (52 HRC), Argentina Ambassador spoke on behalf of the core group and endorsing states (total 74 co sponsors)
– Safe Schools Declaration and Guidelines mentioned
– Deeply concerned about increase in attacks on education
– Gendered impact of attacks and deepened impact on children with disabilities