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	The Safe Schools Declaration: Protecting Schools During Wartime by Carlos Conde, Bede Sheppard Human Rights Watch, agencies   25 July 2017   Philippine President’s appalling threat to bomb tribal schools, by Carlos Conde.   Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened airstrikes on schools for indigenous children on the southern island of Mindanao that he alleged are teaching “subversion and communism.”   “I will bomb those schools,” Duterte said on Monday. “I will use the Armed Forces, the Philippine Air Force…because you’re operating illegally and you’re teaching the children to rebel against government.”   Duterte issued the threat at a press conference minutes after his State of the Nation Address, in which he vowed to continue his “war on drugs,” a murderous campaign in which thousands of suspected drug dealers and users have died. His tirade against “subversive” schools that teach indigenous Lumad children came after he declared an end to the peace negotiations with the Communist New People’s Army (NPA), which has been waging a Maoist insurgency for nearly five decades and, according to the government, has made tribal areas in the countryside its base of operations.   By calling for an attack on schools, Mr. Duterte is directing the military to commit war crimes. International humanitarian law – the laws of war – prohibits attacks on schools and other civilian structures unless they are being used for military purposes. Deliberately attacking civilians, including students and teachers, is also a war crime.   Mr. Duterte should publicly retract his threat of violence against tribal schools before the military acts on them. And although the Philippines has legislation and Department of Education guidelines prohibiting military use of schools, they are often ignored.   Instead of denying Filipino children their right to safe education, Duterte should sign the Safe Schools Declaration, an inter-governmental political commitment for the protection of students, teachers, schools, and universities from attack during times of war.   Sixty-seven countries have now signed the declaration. It’s clearer than ever that the Philippines should do likewise.   June 2017   The Safe Schools Declaration: Protecting Schools During Wartime, by Bede Sheppard. (Human Rights Watch)   The blood stains on the classroom walls couldn’t be washed away following the Taliban attack on the middle school in Postak Bazaar village in Afghanistan. ‘We had to chip it away from the wall with an axe,’ a school official told Human Rights Watch.   But the blood wasn’t that of the school’s students. It was that of seven members of the Afghan National Police, a counter-insurgency force that had set up their military base inside the school. That attack was in 2010. After the Taliban retook the area, their fighters too slept in the school.   By 2015, government forces were back, and established their base with sandbagged positions on the second floor, while students tried to continue their schooling below.   Alarmed school officials obtained a letter from the Kabul authorities ordering the forces to leave, but their commander ignored it. At exam time, school officials again presented the letter, but the soldiers fired their guns toward the assembled teachers and students, who fled.   Since the Australia-supported military intervention in Afghanistan began in 2001, foreign donors have invested heavily in education, building schools and providing textbooks across the country. The expansion of education in Afghanistan, especially for girls, has been one of the success stories of the past 15 years.   But as the security situation has deteriorated, schools throughout Afghanistan have been under threat, not only from resurgent Taliban forces but also from the Afghan state security forces mandated to protect them.   But it’s not just in Afghanistan that schools are under attack, or are being taken over by military forces. In the majority of countries with armed conflict around the world, schools are being attacked and used for military purposes, often converted into military bases or barracks. As the middle school in Postak Bazaar illustrates, the military use of schools not only turns schools into targets for attack, but the presence of armed forces inside a school can also interfere with education even if the school continues operating.   On 1 June, Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop announced the government would contribute $2 million to improve education for children in emergencies, including facilitating safe places to learn.   But there’s one more thing Australia could do to protect children’s education in emergencies, and it doesn’t cost a cent: endorse the Safe Schools Declaration. The Safe Schools Declaration marks an inter-governmental political commitment where countries pledge to protect students, teachers, schools and universities from attack during times of war. Last month marked its two-year anniversary.   So far 66 nations have endorsed the declaration aimed at ending the use of schools by militaries or armed groups. But Australia isn’t yet one of them. The declaration builds a community of nations committed to respecting the civilian nature of schools and developing and sharing examples of good practices for protecting schools during war.   Countries that join agree to restore access to education faster when schools are attacked, and to make it less likely that students, teachers and schools will be attacked in the first place. They seek to deter such attacks by promising to investigate and prosecute war crimes involving schools. And they agree to minimise the use of schools for military purposes so they don’t become targets for attack.   On 13 February, some members of the Australian Parliament urged the government to join an international effort to protect students, teachers and schools in countries affected by war.   MPs Chris Hayes, Trent Zimmerman, and Maria Vamvakinou laid out the chilling details of how students and schools are all too frequently deliberately attacked during armed conflict, pointing to examples in Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, South Sudan and Syria.   In response to a question on notice on 17 March, the Attorney-General George Brandis stated that the government had decided not to endorse the Safe Schools Guidelines and Declaration ‘as we assess they do not reflect existing international humanitarian law’. But in fact, countries such as the Netherlands and Switzerland, which have centuries-old traditions of professional militaries, were among the first to join the declaration.   The Declaration doesn’t create a legal obligation, but is a political commitment. Indeed, the International Committee of the Red Cross, which is traditionally seen as the guardian of international humanitarian law, has actively disseminated the guidelines to its staff.   As both Hayes and Zimmerman noted, when Australia was on the United Nations Security Council in 2014, it felt it appropriate to encourage other countries to take action to protect schools. Australia used its vote to encourage all countries to consider concrete measures to deter military use of schools.   Australia’s Ambassador to the UN, Gary Quinlan, told the Security Council members that using schools for military purposes gravely endangers the lives of children. ‘We need to do more to protect schools, teachers, and students during conflict,’ Quinlan relayed to the UNSC. ‘The child victims around the world count on us.’   Quinlan, representing the Australian government, was spot on. On 15 May UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged all UN member states to endorse the declaration. It’s now time for Australia to rediscover the position it held in 2014. http://bit.ly/2ryxiZM   http://www.protectingeducation.org/ Visit the related web page
	India''s Slumdog Press by CPJ, SBS Dateline   September 5, 2017   Editor of Indian newspaper shot dead outside her home. (CPJ)   Authorities in India''s Karnataka state must thoroughly investigate and bring to justice the killers of Gauri Lankesh, an independent journalist who was shot dead today outside her home in Bangalore, the Committee to Protect Journalists said.   Lankesh was the editor and publisher of Gauri Lankesh Patrike, a Kannada-language weekly tabloid. At least three unidentified assailants fired at Lankesh as she returned home from work, according to reports that cited witnesses. She was shot in the head and chest and died immediately, according to a report in the Hindustan Times.   Lankesh was a critic of right-wing extremism and her publication was known for its anti-establishment stand, according to news reports. It covered issues including communal violence and the caste system.   "We urge police in Karnataka to thoroughly investigate the murder of Gauri Lankesh, including whether journalism was a motive," said CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Steven Butler, from Washington D.C. "India needs to address the problem of impunity in journalist murders and ensure the press can work freely."   At least 27 journalists have been murdered in direct retaliation for their work in India since 1992, according to CPJ research. The country ranked 13th on CPJ''s latest Impunity Index, a measure of countries worldwide where journalist are killed and the murderers go free.   http://cpj.org/2017/09/editor-of-indian-newspaper-shot-dead-outside-her-h.php http://bit.ly/2j1FqlJ http://wapo.st/2xOXIdb   July 2017   India''s Slumdog Press. (SBS Dateline)   In the slums of Delhi, a group of impoverished Indian children are making their voices heard and their stories told; by publishing their own newspaper, Balaknama - ‘Voice of the Children’.   In Delhi, a group of kids from the city’s sprawling slums are making a niche publication, and doing it successfully.   Balaknama has grown in circulation in over the decade and a half of its existence and, more importantly, is giving young kids a chance to tell the stories of those around them.   While many of these kids know little of life in the rest of the world, their articles are making headlines that reach from their local communities all the way to Britain and the United States.   Jyoti, the paper’s most senior reporter, is one of millions of ‘invisible children’ living in poverty stricken communities across India. Her life is a cruel paradox; while she writes articles that are being read by thousands of people, it’s a daily struggle for her family to put food on the table.   As one of only 60 reporters on staff her responsibility is huge – giving a voice to the 2 million street kids in India who don’t have one.   “I don’t include my own thoughts in the reports,” she says. “I don’t judge. I only write down their difficulties as they tell them to me.”   Shambhu, the editor of the paper, says it is one of a kind; “The best thing is that this paper is run by children, those children who live on the street and who are considered as no good by society.”   “We only print news about street children, to make their voices heard.”   In his leadership role he tries to encourage Balaknama’s reporters to follow the stories they’re interested in, rather than wield too much control over the direction of the paper.   “An editor needs to be patient,” he says. “His attitude must be to understand the kids, not to ignore them.”   Reporter Chetan says the paper is telling stories that would otherwise be ignored.   “News about street kids is given very small space in a corner in the mainstream media,” he says. “Even if it is a big problem it does not get coverage. Even if the kids do something good it is not reported.”   For Jyoti, the struggle of life on the street is what makes her job so important.   Despite her lack of formal journalism training, Jyoti’s familiarity with the lives of India’s ‘invisible children’ gives her a perspective and knack for talking to them that others wouldn’t have.   “In the eyes of the well-off we are wrong,” she says. “They think people living in shelters are thieves and that we drink. They say bad words about us, but they don’t ask us why we live here.“The world should know that no other child should live like I did.”   * Watch the full story via the link below. Visit the related web page
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