Kenya

Participated in Addis workshop but would not provide speaker.

January – March 2017: Member of Core Group in Geneva. Attended consistently and supportive. Ambassador raised the issue with Ambassador of Tunisia, who chairs the African Group.

March 2017: Attended Buenos Aires Conference on Safe Schools, represented by Geneva rep.

September 2017: 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 alos to mention the AU call to endorse during the Open Debate on children and armed conflict.

July 2018: Joined Argentina’s joint statement to the UN SC during the open debate on children and armed conflict.

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, Kenya mentioned the following reference: “For example, Kenya has endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration to ensure safe education for our women and girls.”

January 2020: Military Cited Among School Land Grabbers: https://www.nation.co.ke/news/education/Churches-and-military-cited-among-school-land-grabbers/2643604-5423316-xs3cvqz/index.html Land belonging to Mweza Primary and Secondary schools in Mombasa has been taken by Kenya Navy. Shule Yangu attempted to intervene by consulting State officials. It says in its report that the navy appeared to be backing down but later began fencing off part of the land. “This is a violation of the right to education for the children of Mweza Primary and Secondary schools. It is a violation of the trust the school community has entrusted the navy,” the report continues.

March 2020: Human Rights Watch made a submission to the Committee on the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child on Kenya. It encourages the Committee to recommend to the government to implement the Safe Schools Declaration, to take concrete measures to deter the military use of schools, and to share any good practices with fellow African Union members.

June 2021: Apolline met with Mr. Kariuki, Counsellor, at the Kenyan mission. The representative was interested in the Nigeria conference and the state-led network. I shared the save the date for the conference as well as the concept note for the implementation network afterwards. He said the network was timely to encourage greater and better implementation. I encouraged him to share good practices with us in advance of the conference and explained the value of sharing good practices. I also presented GCPEA’s research on gender and shared key documents with him as a follow up. He said that he would share GCPEA’s recommendations for the CAAC debate with his capital but did not foresee any issues as they are supportive of all of them.

October 2021: cosponsored UNSRC2601.

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.