Joint Statement on the International Day to Protect Education from Attack

Before it is too late: Save Education in Yemen

Justice Charter for Yemen Coalition

September 9, 2024

On September 9, every year, the world commemorates the International Day to Protect Education from Attack. The United Nations has declared this day to raise awareness of the plight facing millions of children in countries affected by conflict. This day comes as Yemen suffers from a 10-year-long war between the internationally recognized Government and the Ansar Allah group (Houthis), which has had negative repercussions on education and its members.

On this Day, the Justice Charter for Yemen Coalition appeals to all concerned, especially UNESCO and UNICEF, to work to save education in Yemen - before it is too late - and renews its call to all parties to the conflict in Yemen - primarily the Houthi group - to stop attacks targeting education facilities and members and to provide a safe and conducive environment for the performance of its mission. The "Coalition" calls for strengthening accountability mechanisms and access to justice for victims of attacks targeting education and those associated with it.

Yemeni children are struggling to access their right to education, due to attacks and practices that have harmed education, its facilities, and its members. All parties have carried out direct attacks targeting schools, particularly by bombing or using them as military headquarters, resulting in the damage or destruction of (2916) schools. The report of the Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict of 2023 recorded (37) attacks on schools, attributed to government forces and affiliated armed groups, and the Houthis. It recorded the use of (34) schools for military purposes, most of which were by the Houthis, and the rest by government and joint forces. These statistics do not reflect the extent of the attacks. According to the Rasd Coalition, a member of the Justice Charter Coalition, about (20,764) children, including (11,830) girls, were affected by attacks on schools by the Houthis in the governorates of Al-Mahwit and Amran alone during 2023. The parties to the conflict also attacked schools and universities, depriving children, and youth of education. The Houthi group seeks to compensate for the shortage of soldiers by mobilizing and recruiting children from schools and publicly calling on them to fight alongside it. The group did not stop there but also revised the school curricula to match its ideological orientation and serve its military position in recruiting children. In this context, the Deputy Minister of Education in the Yemeni government spoke about the Houthis establishing Martyr of the Qur’an schools, which provided internal housing for students and many temptations for them to join these schools. Schools and universities are widely used to spread ideas related to the ideological convictions of the Houthi group, for polarization and recruitment. The Yemen Humanitarian Needs Overview 2024 estimates that more than 4.5 million Yemeni school-age children aged 5-17 do not go to school, over the past few years. The situation is no different in university education, where students' reluctance to education has begun in recent years in most universities to reach critical numbers, especially in the humanities colleges, where the number of students in some departments does not exceed one or two students. The teachers' salaries crisis continues in schools and universities. According to a statement by the Justice Charter Coalition, the salaries of nearly (172) thousand teachers are still suspended in the areas controlled by the Houthis, and they have only received fourteen and a half months' salary since October 2016. In the areas of the Yemeni government, there is a severe decline in teachers' wages, in public and university education in Yemen.

According to the United Nations resolution to adopt this day as an occasion to protect education from attacks, "the right to education requires the provision of safe and conducive environments for learning in humanitarian emergencies." According to the message of the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres in 2022, “Education is not only a fundamental human right in itself - it is also essential for the realization of all human rights.

Attacks on education and restrictions on safe learning environments by parties to the conflict have led to teachers being absent from schools for fear of their safety, and some of them joined alternative jobs. Education offices in most governorates have replaced those who have dropped out or are absent, with volunteers, who are mainly high school graduates who have never received sufficient knowledge and skills to qualify them to teach children. The parties to the conflict in Yemen must realize that social and economic recovery after the conflict begins with education. This requires an immediate cessation of attacks, engaging in peace talks to secure children’s future in education, and for places of education to be a haven for children and teachers.

The Justice Charter Coalition welcomes all initiatives that improve the education situation or mitigate the effects of attacks on it. In this context, we welcome UNESCO’s initiative and its announcement of three educational projects to meet the needs of children during Times of Crisis. Related to the “I Have the Right to Learn” program, the “I Have the Right to Develop” program, and the “Education is Peace” program. We also welcome UNICEF’s initiative for the Education and Learning Recovery Project, which aims to restore 1,100 schools, provide financial incentives to more than 35,000 teachers and school staff, provide more than 600,000 healthy meals and snacks to students in schools, 560,000 school bags, and train more than 11,000 teachers. We encourage all initiatives involved in the restoration and rehabilitation of education infrastructure in various governorates. In this context, we call on the Yemeni government, the Houthi group, and all armed groups to accommodate these initiatives and not miss them, and to remove all restrictions on their implementation.

Recommendations:

• All parties to the conflict in Yemen must urgently work to save education in Yemen. And immediately stop all attacks on education and protect those associated with it.
• We look forward to the relevant parties, especially UNESCO and UNICEF, working hard with the parties to the conflict in Yemen, to abide by their duties and the rules of international law in force to protect education from attacks. And to work at a high pace to bring urgent funding to save education and its infrastructure and comprehensively reform the education system.
• We stress to all parties to the conflict, especially the Houthi group, to stop using schools for their indoctrination and military activities, to prevent the recruitment of children, and to cease immediately from changing school curricula and stop distributing them to schools.
• Ansar Allah group (Houthis) must pay the outstanding salaries of the teachers for the past ten years, stop intimidating them, and release the detained teachers.
• The internationally recognized government must address the severe decline in teachers' salaries, and develop a new strategy for the wages and salaries of teachers and academics, considering the circumstances they are going through and the requirements of a decent life.
• We call on all international and local funding agencies to develop programs and initiatives to rehabilitate schools and educational facilities and allocate part of them to provide rewards to teachers and in-kind incentives to students to prevent their dropout.

Signatory organizations:

1. Yemeni Coalition for Monitoring Human Rights Violations (Rasd Coalition)
2. Musaalah Organization
3. Al-Amal Cultural and Social Women's Foundation
4. Marib Dam Foundation for Social Development
5. Free Media Center for Investigative Journalism
6. Center for Strategic Studies to Support Women and Children
7. Center for Economic Studies and Media
8. Human Rights Monitoring Organization
9. Association of Mothers of Abductees Organization
10. SAM Organization for Rights and Liberties
11. Masar Foundation for Development and Human Rights
12. Defense Foundation for Rights and Freedoms
13. Rassd Center for Rights and Development
14. Paths to Peace Foundation (PPF)
15. Dhamir Foundation for Rights and Freedoms
16. The Martyr Bin Habreesh Foundation for Development
17. The Other Center for Peace and Development
18. Women's and Children's Development Center