Peru

August 2016: Outreach letter sent in advance of CAAC Open Debate.

February 2017: Bede and Gisela met with GVA mission rep. Had received the save-the-date from Argentina. Interested in issue. Would make positive recommendation back to capital.

March 2017: Bede wrote to the Ambassador in France to encourage participation in Buenos Aires. Attended Buenos Aires Conference on Safe Schools – Marleny Silva Ycochea and Nency Virrueta Jimenez from the from the Ministry of Education.

April 2017: Letter sent to MFA, copied to Ambassador and expert in Geneva Mission.

May 2017: GCPEA (Cristal) had a meeting with Mission in New York. Counsellor Ronnie Habich. Overall, his outlook was positive. Peru is going to be sitting on the Security Council next year so he thinks endorsement makes a lot of sense in that context. That said, he had no knowledge of what is going on in Lima with regard to the Declaration, so he is going to follow up with the appropriate parties and let me know. I of course told him that if they needed any additional info etc. he should let us know. Other points that he saw as supporting Peru’s endorsement were their relationship with Argentina and their history of child protection / rights in national policy. I also mentioned the broad inclusion of education in reparations and other national transitional justice mechanisms and we talked about that for a bit, although I’m not sure whether his interest was related to the Declaration or just general. He asked about the endorsement process and was particularly interested in the list of endorsing states, especially the Latin American states. He also told me that the people who went to Buenos Aires were not from the General Directorate for Human Rights but rather the Ministry of Education.

April 2017: GCPEA wrote to Foreign Minister.

June 2017: GCPEA had advocacy meetings with Bahamas, Hungary, Peru, Republic of Korea, and Yemen in Geneva.

July 2017: Human Rights Watch (Zama) travelled to Peru and had meetings with representatives of the Ministries of Defense, Education, Foreign Affairs, Interior, and Justice, the Ambassador of Argentina in Peru, and the UNICEF Peru education expert. The meetings were productive, and the responses of the Ministries’ representatives were very positive, with the MoD appearing to be the potential sticking point. However, the MoD representatives advised that they have made an internal recommendation to the Ministry to support endorsement. Human Rights Watch is following up closely with the meeting attendees.

September 2017: GCPEA had a positive meeting with the expert in Geneva, and shared a report of Zama’s visit to Lima in July. The expert pledged to make a positive recommendation to capital. Human Rights Watch (Zama) wrote to Lima to request an update and was advised that all Ministries had indicated support except the Ministry for Justice. This was surprising as the MoJ had been very supportive during the meeting in Lima. The expert is very supportive, and was interested to hear the update from Zama’s meetings in Lima. He doesn’t see any reason why Peru cannot endorse, but will ask his capital if there are any specific objections. He was unsure whether endorsement could be achieved in time for the UNSC open debate in October, although he recognized that it would be an ideal forum in light of Peru’s upcoming membership, but he suggested that Peru could signal its intention to endorse instead. He will follow up with capital. GCPEA shared names of the people Zama met with in Lima, as well as details of the UNSG and SRSG calls to endorse, the DPKO policy, the framework for action, and the toolkit.

October 2017: Watchlist met with Mission in New York. Dragica wrote a follow-up email as the next step we planned in the meeting we just had at his Mission, “adding 12 more voices” to the choir – he said that in the past, he only met with HRW and felt that having the email from me representing 12 organizations would be something he can forward to his capital as another push for decision from their ministries’ end. He said that honestly, the reason is not their lack of openness to endorse, but rather bureaucracy in the Government. He says that he has written and called almost weekly about this, so our appeal for rushed update before next week might help. Ministries that all need to agree are 1) Ministry of Education, 2) Ministry of Justice, 3) Ministry of Defense, 4) Ministry of Human Rights, 5) Ministry of Internal Affairs, and 6) Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations. He does not currently know which one is the hold up out of these, but hopes to find out asap. We made a high pitch to AT LEAST announce the intention to endorse next week at the Debate if the bureaucracy is still an issue.

October 2017: GCPEA emailed and spoke with the expert in Geneva who advised that the Secretary of State in MoJ had changed which may be the cause of the delay. He advised going through the expert in New York regarding the question of whether Peru can signal its intention to endorse. Dragica shared this update with the New York expert who confirmed. He promised to follow up with capital and come back with more information. Zama is following up directly with her MoJ contact.

January 2018: The Mission in New York responded to a request for an update from Human Rights Watch (Zama) to advise that he is still waiting for further information from his capital.

February 2018: In advance of OPAC turns 18 event, GCPEA issued letter highlighting that Peru has signed OPAC, Paris, and Vancouver, but not the Declaration,and calling for endorsement.

February 2018: GCPEA issued a letter to the Minister for Justice of Peru. All Ministries had indicated support for endorsement before the previous Minister for Justice was replaced.

June 2018: Peru will include a paragraph in their statement for the CACC Open Debate regarding their endorsement of the Safe Schools Declaration.

June 2018: Gisela met with Ronnie Habich. He promised to: – Work with Sweden and Bolivia to ensure the related topics are included in the concept note for the WPS open debate in October. Sweden and Peru are co-chairs of the formal expert group on WPS; – Encourage implementation by Peru before the Spain conference – most likely in peacekeeping training;- He took note of the non-endorsing Latin American countries and our wish for Peru to play a leading role in getting them all onboard before Spain.

July 2018: UNSC Open Debate on children and armed conflict: 1) Peru announced endorsement during the UNSC Open Debate CAAC. 2) Co-sponsored resolution 2427 (2018). 3) Mentioned and welcomed the Safe Schools Declaration during the statement to the SC. 4) also joined the statement of Canada on behalf of the GoF which mentioned the Safe Schools Declaration.

August 2018: Zama will reach out to her contact to follow up on the missing endorsement letter.

September 2018: Norway embassies in Kyiv and Manila are following up on the issues of the endorsement letter. Gisela sent to Hana from the Norway mission in Geneva our contacts in Peru.

April 2019: GCPEA met with the Counsellor. He was very interested in other Latin American countries and whether or not they might endorse.

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

May 2019: UNSC PoC debate: called for compliance with international humanitarian law and human rights law in order to ensure the protection of civilians, including in attacks on schools.

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.