Belgium

Attended consultations on the SSD in Geneva but never sopke. Attempts to meet MFA in capital (NRC Bxl – April 2015) were unsuccessful: from phone conversation, MFA apparently frustrated that their comments on the Guidelines were not taken onboard and unwilling to talk. There is however no record of any particular comments from Belgium neither on GCPEA’s side nor on Norway’s side. Possible HRW digital campaign targeting Belgium in 2016.

January 2016: Save the Children is carrying out advocacy to encourage the Belgium government to join the Declaration and come to Buenos Aires.

Feb 2016: Geneva mission indicates the blockage is with MoD. They have a literal interpretation of the Guidelines and don’t want to commit to eveyr single coma in it. Advice was to renew dialogue once there are examples of how other countries have adapted the Guidelines to their particular context and needs.

January 2017: Advocacy meeting with GVA mission. He said he’d read the declaration and thought it seemed a “no brainer” and didn’t understand why Belgium hadn’t endorsed already. He said he’d passed that recommendation on to Brussels, but hadn’t heard any response. He suggested a meeting with the MFA in Brussels would be a good next step, and if they indicated it would be helpful, with the Belgian MoD too. Is this something Jacqui from Save the Children could do? January 2017 meeting with Bede and Gisela in Geneva: We were very encouraged that Belgium suggested a lunch meeting, but it seemed he was just more keen to learn about HRW and how we do our work. But he said he’d read the declaration and thought it seemed a “no brainer” and didn’t understand why Belgium hadn’t endorsed already. He said he’d passed that recommendation on to Brussels, but hadn’t heard any response. He suggested a meeting with the MFA in Brussels would be a good next step, and if they indicated it would be helpful, with the Belgian MoD too.

February 2017: Save the Children, HRW, and GCPEA issued joint letters to the Foreign and Defense Ministers of Belgium following the conference to encourage endorsement. Belgium hosted a breakfast meeting of the Geneva Group of Friends on CAAC, at which SCI highlighted the Declaration and upcoming conference. March 2017: Attended the Buenos Aires Conference on Safe Schools and announced their endorsement of the Declaration.

April 2017: Attended post-conference briefing for missions in New York. Spoke in strong support of the Declaration and asked what can be done to ensure more endorsements, particularly by EU states. Human Rights Watch briefed a gathering of embassies in Brussels, hosted by Estonia, on their new Pakistan report, and included advocacy messaging on endorsement of the SSD. Human Rights Watch had advocacy meetings in Brussels with the Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), the European External Action Service, and the Directorate-General for International Cooperation and Development. Save the Children provided an ECHO briefing in Brussels on Schools as Zones of Peace, as part of the Enhanced Response Capacity series, and included a read-out of the Buenos Aires Conference.

September 2017 UNSC: GCPEA sent a letter to the Ambassador in NY asking to raise the issue of attacks and military use and draw attention to to the Declaration and the Guidelines during the Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict. In the letter we congratulate them on endorsing since the last debate.

October 2017: Save the Children Brussels met with the MFA of Belgium who advised that residual reticence in the MoD around the Guidelines comes from ground forces, not the air forces. It is unlikely that Belgium can host an International Conference on Safe Schools in 2019 due to other commitments, but they are open to the possibility of hosting one in 2020.

July 2018: Joined Argentina’s joint statement to the UN SC during the open debate on children and armed conflict.
Co-sponsored resolution 2427 (2018).Mentioned and welcomed the Safe Schools Declaration during the statement to the SC. Belgium also joined the statement of Canada on behalf of the GoF which mentioned the Safe Schools Declaration.

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: joined Norway’s joint statement on the Safe Schools Declaration. 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. She was very interested in Nigeria’s ratification of the Safe Schools Declaration. She was also interested in the fact that Yemen has endorsed. Concerning the UNSC resolution on sexual violence, they said that it would be very difficult to introduce new language since negotiations were already going on. GCPEA issued letter to the Foreign Ministers, encouraging them to highlight in their statements during the 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.

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

December 2019: Nevena met with the new Counsellor of the Belgium mission in Geneva and I am drafting now a follow-up email to share our tools and resources, including the factsheet, and a list of priority countries for Belgium to conduct advocacy to influence states to endorse.

December 2019: HRW shared copies of HRW report from May, with examples of military policies etc., with members of the national IHL Committee in Belgium, and specifying which countries they should look at to compare to their own policies.

February 2020: Belgium supported the development of the OSRSG CAAC Practical guidance for mediators to protect children in situations of armed conflict.

February 2020: the Security Council held a briefing on the situation in Ukraine. In their statement to the Council, Belgium did express grave concern on targeting of schools, called for increased efforts to demine near schools, and welcomed Ukraine’s endorsement of the Safe Schools Declaration.

September 2020: statement during Niger’s CAAC briefing on attacks on schools: Calls on all States to join the 2015 Safe Schools Declaration.

Oct 2020: GCPEA (Yatasha) met with Mr. Ewout Stoefs, First Secretary and CAAC expert, Permanent Representation of Belgium to the UN to discuss the WPS recommendations (protection of students and educators, gender responsive implementation of the Declaration) and developments on the Safe Schools Declaration. The First Secretary emphasized their ambition to protect education from attack and that the PRST highlighted the plight of girls. They do a lot of outreach to get countries to endorse and that we can count on them for support. The CAAC is a priority for Belgium and they will continue this in 2021. They encouraged GCPEA to be in contact on specific areas in furthering this agenda. On a standalone resolution, GCPEA encouraged Belgium to share good practice on implementation of the Declaration at the national level, and undertake engagement with the remaining EU countries yet to endorse.

October 2021: cosponsored UNSRC2601.

December 2021: Positive statement at Arria formula meeting on protection of education during armed conflict citing SSD. Welcome three key recommendations in the UNSC 2601: “(1) improved data collection to enhance our understanding of the issue, (2) adherence to international instruments to strengthen our collective response, (3) accountability as a means of preventing and ending grave violations against children”. Calling for the implementation of international mechanisms for the protection of education in conflict, including “the endorsement and implementation of the Safe Schools Declaration to strengthen the protection of children”

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.2015: Attended the state consultations on the SSD in Geneva – led by Norway.

March 2023: During ID with SRSG CAAC (52 HRC), national statement: As a strong supporter of the Safe Schools Declaration, we are gravely concerned by the ongoing attacks against education in many places and encourage all parties to conflict to comply with their IHL obligations

February 2023: Belgium and Albania (OSCE delegations): Nevena requested the meeting to discuss the work of the newly established Group of Friends on Children and Armed Conflict within the OSCE (it was created in December 2022 and it comprises of Italy, Belgium, Albania, Poland, and Norway). She underlined how GCPEA can support them in integrating the protection of education from attack within the institution. One of the ideas is that a few states can suggest a questionnaire on children and armed conflict to the Code of Conduct on Politico-Military Aspects of Security. Every year states on a voluntary basis submit information on the Code of Conduct’s questionnaire. In this new questionnaire on CAAC, states could potentially report if they have endorsed the SSD and how they have been implementing its commitments or any other measures they have taken to protect education. The answers to the questionnaires are publicly available on the OSCE’s website. Secondly, she urged them to look into the training manuals of OSCE field operations officers and include the SSD and Guidelines. Third, they agreed that a side event on protecting education from attack during the Human Dimension Committee Implementation meeting in October could raise awareness about the issue.

September 2023: On September 21st Michela met with Pieter Leenknegt, Ambassador of Belgium in Nigeria, who previously worked at the Belgium Mission in Geneva and was chair of the core group on the SSD. Pieter shared his insight on the approach of the government of Nigeria to attacks on education, which seems to be very much focusing on the North-east, while attacks are also happening in North- West and North -Central Nigeria. The idea of an ECOWAS meeting to discuss SSD endorsement and implementation was discussed and Pieter promised to look at possible venues to approach ECOWAS, trough the Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security. Michela also presented the idea of a lunch briefing in Abuja with Guinea, Guinea Bissau and Cabo Verde to encourage endorsement. This idea had been discussed by Norway and the Nigerian MFA last year, but the activity didn’t take place. Pieter seemed positive about organizing the lunch, together with Nigeria and possibly Norway, but flagged that they may not be able to engage with Guinea due to the coup. The following week the Ambassador organized a lunch to discuss SSD implementation in Nigeria, inviting government representatives from the ministries of Finance, Defense and Education, Save the Children, UNICEF and a CSO. The key commitment was to work with other ambassadors to engage ECOWAS on SSD in the region.