Sudan

March 2017: Attended Buenos Aires Conference on Safe Schools.

June 2017: UNICEF Sudan is preparing a strategy to follow up with the authorities in Sudan on implementation. GCPEA provided advice.

August 2017: Watchlist published a response to the Fifth Conclusion on Sudan, which was issued by Security Council Working Group on children and armed conflict, in which they expressed concern about the military use of schools by the Sudan Armed Forces, and welcomed the Working Group’s call upon the Government to ensure that schools and their personnel are protected, commending its endorsement of the Declaration.

September 2017: Watchlist published a response to the Fifth Conclusion on Sudan, in which they expressed concern about the military use of schools by the Sudan Armed Forces, and welcomed the Working Group’s call upon the Government to ensure that schools and their personnel are protected, commending its endorsement on the Declaration.

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 to mention the AU call to endorse during the Open Debate on children and armed conflict.

May 2018: Speaking at the UN Security Council Arria formula meeting on action plans, the representative of Sudan updated the Council on its work with UNICEF to vacate and rehabilitate schools.

August 2018: Nevena and Gisela met with the Ambassador of Sudan and one of his Counsellors to explore the possibility of a GCPEA visit to Sudan in December. In summary, they are very favourably disposed and will make a positive recommendation to Khartoum.Some points from the discussion: They are very happy that we like the military directive prohibiting use of schools and they promised to try and get a copy for us. They are keen that there will be a benefit (“incentive”) for them in the form of positive publicity. We discussed how we are highlighting good practice in our comms materials, that we plan to have an outcome report of the visit that will detail good practice, and that there may be an opportunity for them to share their good practice at the Spain conference. According to the Ambassador, protection of education is enshrined in Sudan’s constitution, law, and their newly-adopted Armed Forces Act. The Ambassador led the delegation to East Sudan which concluded the 2006 peace agreement. He is keenly interested in conflict-sensitive education policy and spoke of its contribution to ensuring peace is maintained. He also mentioned that ensuring children from both sides of a conflict are all in school can be one way to ensure that the school does not become a target. He advised us that eastern Sudan has been declared landmine-free and spoke about their work on DDR programmes to reintegrate former child soldiers. The Ambassador told us about a large-scale reconstruction efforts by his government to build a school in every village, town, and city across the country and train teachers. He referred to UNAMID’s role in building and reconstructing schools in Darfur. Sudan wants to improve school enrolment and has incentivised school attendance with food aid for the students and their families, focused particularly on increasing enrolment by girls. He said they are at 80% enrolment in primary schools. He recommended engaging with the Assistant to the President and Dr. Amna Derar, Minister of State for Human Resources Development, both of whom were high-level members of the Eastern Front.
As we were leaving the meeting, the Counsellor raised concerns about Education Under Attack 2018. According to him, inaccurate information was included in the report. They asked if GCPEA could consult with them in future to ensure that the report is accurate. I responded briefly explaining the methodology for the report, said I would share the feedback with our Research Director, and invited them to send any specific concerns by email. Next steps: We have followed up in email to thank them for the meeting and share key points concerning the visit. They have promised to share this with Khartoum and let us know when they have received a response.

March 2019: attended GCPEA side-event on “Better Protecting Women and Girls from Attacks on Education” in Geneva. During interventions from the floor, the Secretary-General of Sudan’s National Council on Child Welfare referred to their endorsement of the Declaration and efforts on implementation, including the military directive prohibiting the use of schools for military purposes. They mentioned GCPEA’s mission to Khartoum in December last year, and highlighted that the visit had been successful in setting out tangible objectives.

March 2019: Clustered Interactive Dialogue with the SRSG CAAC Virginia Gamba, HRC Geneva: joined Norway’s joint statement on the Safe Schools Declaration.

February 2020: Save the Children Sudan is planning a multi-stakeholder workshop, which will offer a forum for key stakeholders to collectively assess the barriers to protecting education in Sudan and define joint actions to advance the implementation of the Safe Schools Declaration. A key outcome of the workshop will be the development of a road map for next steps to further implementation of the and to provide a clear division of responsibilities among participants. GCPEA Secretariat provided suggestions and recommendations on how this workshop can build on GCPEA training, which was held in December 2018, and the engagement with key Ministries on implementation. The recommendations included the following subjects: 1) gendered impact of attacks on education in light of the abuses against school girls in areas with presence of security and armed forces; 2) inclusion of the issues of protection of education from attack and military use into the upcoming peace agreements.

October 2021: cosponsored UNSRC2601.

November 2022: On 17 November, Nevena and Apolline met with the Ambassador in Geneva, H.E. Mr. Hassan Hamid, and the First Secretary Mr. Omar Shareef (Sudan was recently elected at the HRC starting in 2023). The Ambassador emphasized that protecting education was a key priority to his country, and he underlined Sudan’s Sovreign Decree prohibiting the military use of schools. He stressed the importance of GCPEA reaching out regularly and conducting field visits (referring to GCPEA’s workshop held in 2018). He was very supportive of working with us in advance of the HRC sessions to strengthen language on protecting education, as well as the idea of joining the Core Group in Geneva. We also briefed the Ambassador on implementation activities through the state-led implementation network. He was very receptive to the idea of participating in the network and promised to follow up with his capital to designate focal points. He was also interested in taking part in the second global training with Spain in 2023 and other upcoming activities.