Somalia

Participated in Addis workshop.

February 2017: Confidential update from AMISOM Child Protection Officer, Musa Gbow, to Dragica, Watchlist: “I am aware that some AMISOM troops continue to occupy the Masla University but they have begun the process of vacating that campus. There are plans for the AU to renovate it before it could be returned to the government. This is yet to be done and the longer it takes the more children continue to be deprived of the needed education. There is therefore the need for more advocacy and funds mobilization to support AMISOM to vacate and renovate the university.”

July 2017: AMISOM vacated the Somali National University and returned control of the facility to the authorities in a handover ceremony, which was presided over by Special Representative of the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Somalia, and the Minister of Education, Deputy Minister of Finance, and the Deputy Governor. Also in attendance were representatives of OCHA, UNICEF, civil society and other government officials. Prior to the handing over, the UN Support Office in Somalia supported the clearance of all unexploded ordnance and cleaned the buildings that had been occupied by the troops. Significant refurbishment is required, but the university director announced that classes would resume in September 2017. This is the third education facility now handed over to the Federal Government of Somalia since the beginning of 2017. Human Rights Watch issued a dispatch highlighting the handover, and calling on the African Union to adopt rules aimed at ending all military use of schools. The dispatch was further shared by All Africa. UNICEF issued a press release welcoming the handover, which highlighted the need for education facilities to be disassociated from military use.

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

February 2018: The Somalia Ministry of Defense contacted GCPEA to express their interest in working on implementation of the Declaration. GCPEA replied to share updates and advise that key GCPEA tools are under translation to Somali.

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

November 2018: GCPEA conducted its first technical implementation visit which took place in Somalia from November 12-15. The purpose of the visit was to catalyse gender-sensitive implementation of the Safe Schools Declaration and the Guidelines. The visit included consultation with more than 60 representatives of national and international organisations, and civil society organisations to raise awareness of the Safe Schools Declaration, and equip participants to advocate for implementation of the commitments. UNICEF, the Education and Child Protection Clusters, and Save the Children Somalia supported the organisation, presented on their efforts to address attacks on and military use of schools, and contributed to the discussions. The visits will also include a training aimed at operationalising the GCPEA-Roméo Dallaire Child Soldiers Initiative toolkit to guide understanding and implementation of the Guidelines. The training, facilitated the Dallaire Initiative, gathered members of the Somali armed forces, police, representatives of the African Union Mission in Somalia, and the relevant Ministries. As part of the visit, GCPEA met with the Ministries of Defense, Education, Culture and Higher Education, Women and Human Rights Development, and Religious Affairs to raise awareness across the Somali government of their commitment to implement relevant aspects of the Declaration and the Guidelines, including through follow-up on an action plan.

March 2019: 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.

September 2019: Save the Children Somalia, together with the East and Southern Africa Regional Office held a sensitization workshop for civil society and federal and state level ministries to share good practice and develop an action plan for implementation of the Safe Schools Declaration in Somalia. GCPEA gave a presentation by Skype to help link the national efforts in Somalia to global Safe Schools Declaration work on implementation. During the workshop, the following priorities were identified: awareness-raising on the use of the Guidelines, conflict-sensitive approaches to education, establishment of a Safe Schools Declaration Civil Society Working Group, awareness-raising at the community level on attacks on education, and advocacy for accountability for perpetrators of attacks.

February 2020: In the lead up to CRC review of Somalia, several organizations including Save the Children (Somalia and Norway country offices); SOS Childrens Villages, Human Rights Watch, and UNICEF Somalia are engaging the Committee through a civil society task team. During the pre-sessional Working Group held in February 2020, a private meeting with NGOs was held with a view to provide input to the “list of issues”. Save the Children Somalia reported that the CRC members were very interested in the implementation of the Safe Schools Declaration at the national level. GCPEA Secretariat and Save the Children Somalia discussed the positive developments on implementation of the Safe Schools Declaration at national level, including the establishment of the Safe Schools Declaration Task Force. The Secretariat commended the work done by Save the Children and shared the report from GCPEA’s 2018 visit in order to build synergies on concrete recommendations for deeper implementation. The opportunity to include some of GCPEA recommendations in a future Action Plan on implementation for the Task Force was discussed.

April 2020: The Children and armed conflict in Somalia Report of the Secretary-General paints an alarming picture about attacks on education from 1 August 2016 to 30 September 2019. Attacks on schools increased between 2017 and 2018 due to the continued targeting of schools and education personnel by Al-Shabaab as a tactic for recruitment, including through abductions of children and teachers from schools and madrasas during these years. In addition, the country task force verified the military use of three schools.

Oct 2020: As part of the advocacy activities to disseminate Education Under Attack findings, GCPEA made a submission ahead of the Universal Periodic Review of Somalia. The reviews is scheduled in May 2021.

February 2021: GCPEA input ahead of the UPR country review was included in the compilation of stakeholder submissions here

October 2021: cosponsored UNSRC2601.

February 2022: Save the Children Country Office in Somalia is working to organise a Capacity building Training for Government representative, AMISOM and SNA, on the Declaration and the Guidelines.

August 2022: The Safe Schools Policy is in the final stage. The Somalia’s Ministry of Education, Culture and Higher Education held the last consultation meeting to validate the policy on 8 August 2022. The meeting was attended by education stakeholders and donors to review the policy and gave them useful comments and suggestions. The Ministry should validate the policy very shortly.

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.