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	Islamist gunmen kill dozens in school attack in northern Nigeria by Unicef & news agencies Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack Nigeria   8 July 2013   The United Nations Children"s Fund (UNICEF) and a top child rights envoy have condemned the recent attack on a school in north-east Nigeria that resulted in the deaths of a number of students and called for the perpetrators to be brought to justice.   “As we extend our sympathy to the families of the victims, we would say in the strongest possible terms that there can be no justification for the deliberate targeting of children and those looking after them,” said UNICEF"s Regional Director for West and Central Africa, Manuel Fontaine.   According to media reports, Islamic militants belonging to the Boko Haram group attacked a boarding school in the north-eastern state of Yobe before dawn on Saturday, killing 41 students and one teacher.   Secondary schools in the state have reportedly now been closed until the start of the new academic term in September to allow state and federal Government officials, as well as community leaders, to work on ways to guarantee the safety of schools.   “UNICEF calls for those responsible to be brought to justice and for communities to demand that schools be considered as places of safety,” it stated in a news release.   The agency noted that, since 16 June, a total of 48 students and seven teachers have reportedly been killed in four attacks in the region.   Leila Zerrougui, the Secretary-General"s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, voiced her deep concern at the recent spike in incidents affecting schools and children in the region and called on the Nigerian Government to investigate these “heinous” crimes and hold the perpetrators accountable.   She called on those responsible to refrain from any attacks directed at or in the vicinity of schools, and warned that the killing and maiming of children, as well as attacks on schools, teachers and school children are serious violations of international law.   7 July, 2013 (AFP)   More than 40 people, including many children, have died in a Islamist militant attack on a school in north-east Nigeria. Mamudo is some five kilometres from Potiskum, the commercial hub of Yobe State.   Survivors say the militants doused a dormitory in petrol and set it alight as students slept at the secondary school in Yobe state.   Authorities say the attackers were Islamists from Nigeria"s Boko Haram insurgent group, which has been behind a spate of school attacks in the region.   Many of the victims were taken to a hospital at Potiskum with burns and gunshot wounds.   "We received 42 dead bodies of students and other staff of Government Secondary School in Mamudo last night," Haliru Aliyu of the Potiskum General Hospital said.   Gunmen thought to be loyal to the al-Qaeda-linked Boko Haram movement descended on the government secondary school in Mamudo on Saturday, spraying it with bullets and using petrol to burn some pupils alive.   At the regional morgue, Musa Hassan, 15, recalled the horror of listening to the death cries of his fellow pupils.   "We were sleeping when we heard gunshots. When I woke up, someone was pointing a gun at me," he said. He put his arm up in instinctive self-defence, and suffered a gunshot that blew off all four fingers on his right hand.   He said the gunmen came armed with jerry cans that they used to torch the school"s administrative block and one of the hostels.   "They burned the children alive," he said, the pain and horror etched in his eyes.   Hundreds more children from the 1200-student school were unaccounted for, having escaped into the bush.   Malam Abdullahi, a farmer and father of two victims, declared he would withdraw his three remaining sons from a nearby school. He complained there was no additional security for students despite the deployment of thousands of troops since May.   One of Mr Abdullahi"s sons, a 10-year-old, was shot in the back as he tried to run away, while his 12-year-old brother was shot in the chest. "Its not safe," he said. "The gunmen are attacking schools and there is not enough protection for students despite all the soldiers."   Mamudo lies just a few kilometres from Maiduguri, the town known as the birthplace of Boko Haram. The name of the group, which was established there 11 years ago, translates as a call to ban Western education. It has sought to retaliate against government offensives by attacking government-run schools.   Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has declared Boko Haram a threat to Nigeria"s integrity. He imposed a state of emergency in the states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.   Violence linked to the Boko Haram insurgency has left some 3,600 people dead since 2009. Boko Haram has killed hundreds of students in attacks on schools in the tense region in recent months.   http://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/effects-of-conflict/the-most-grave-violations/attacks-against-schools/ http://www.protectingeducation.org http://www.voicesofyouth.org/en/posts/un-to-protect-schools-and-hospitals http://www.icrc.org/eng/what-we-do/protecting-civilians/overview-protection-civilian-population.htm http://watchlist.org/ Visit the related web page
	On 20th anniversary of historic rights declaration, United Nations urges progress on human rights by Navi Pillay, Jan Eliasson United Nations   The United Nations human rights chief has delivered a “mixed report” on human rights progress around the world, with slow and steady advances in some areas alongside causes for alarm in others, including Syria and the Central African Republic (CAR).   “As we look around the world at the end of 2013, we see examples of situations where that readiness of the international community to act in time is already being sorely tested,” High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said during a press conference in Geneva.   “In addition to Syria, where the scale and viciousness of the abuses being perpetuated by elements on both sides almost defies belief, the situation in the Central African Republic is deteriorating rapidly, and the alarm bells are ringing loud and clear.”   “Elsewhere, there is much turbulence,” Ms. Pillay said, highlighting the “serious politically-driven instability” in Bangladesh which is claiming a lot of lives in the run up to the election, the “heavy-handed attempts” by successive administrations in Egypt to quell people’s right to peaceful protests, and the current confrontations in Thailand.   Meanwhile, reprisals against civil society organizations, individual human rights defenders and journalists working on rights issues are “extremely worrying” in a number of countries, she said.   The High Commissioner also drew attention to the situation of migrants, who continue to be treated as second-class citizens in many countries, as well as the continuing political exploitation of xenophobia and racism in Europe and other industrialized areas.   “Amidst all this, there is nevertheless progress, sometimes taking place slowly and steadily out of the limelight, sometimes the subject of major policy shifts – including a number of reforms announced over the past two weeks by the Government of China,” Ms. Pillay stated.   This year marks the 20th anniversary of the creation of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), and she noted that overall, the UN human rights system is a great deal stronger than it was two decades ago.   At the same time, concerns remain. “The UN human rights institutions, however well they function, are not enough by themselves,” she added.   “The rest of the United Nations – individual Member States, powerful bodies such as the Security Council and the General Assembly, and all the UN’s myriad agencies, funds and programme – need to pull their weight in the common cause of improving human rights for everyone everywhere, in accordance with the UN Charter.”   http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/StoriesbyDate.aspx   Sep 2013   While there have been significant human rights achievements since the landmark adoption of the Vienna Declaration 20 years ago, people across the world are still being denied basic liberties, a United Nations senior official said, calling on countries to step up their efforts to prevent gross rights violations.   “Much progress has occurred during the past two decades, thanks to the path laid down in Vienna… but the landmark construction is still only half built,” said Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, opening the Vienna+20 Conference in the Austrian capital.   “The Vienna Declaration showed us the way forward, and to some extent, we have followed that path. But, sadly, reprehensibly, we also continue, all too often, to deviate from it.”   “Even as I speak to you now, women are being abducted and raped, hospital are being targeted, and indiscriminate shelling and deliberate massacres stain the earth with the blood of innocents,” she said, stressing this was “intolerable” and calling for action to stop rights violations, particularly in places mired in conflict such as Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia.   Hundreds of diplomats, civil society members, academics and human rights experts have gathered for the two-day Conference to mark 20 years since the adoption of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action at the World Conference on Human Rights in 1993.   In her remarks, Ms. Pillay said the Vienna Declaration, born “in the best of times and worst of times” – the end of the Cold War and the start of a rash of brutal internal conflicts – was “the most significant human rights document produced in the last quarter of a century and one of the strongest...of the past hundred years.”   She added that the Vienna Declaration “crystallized the principle that human rights are universal, indivisible, interdependent, and interrelated, and firmly entrenched the notion of universality by committing States to the promotion and protection of all human rights for all people ‘regardless of their political, economic, and cultural systems.’”   The Vienna Declaration, which created the post of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, also paved the way for important landmarks agreements and human rights mechanisms Ms. Pillay said, including the International Criminal Court. It also strengthened the system of expert committees, known as treaty bodies, which assist States to meet their legal obligations under international human rights treaties, and national human rights institutions which now exist in 103 countries.   Still, there have been many setbacks, the High Commissioner noted, adding that the work started is far from complete.   “We must recognize that in many areas, we have failed to build on the foundations of the Vienna Declaration. The inspiring opening promise of the Universal Declaration – that all human beings are born equal in dignity and in rights – is still only a dream for far too many people,” she said.   “It is essential that we view the Vienna Declaration as a living document that can and should continue to guide our actions and goals. Human rights are still not universally available, or viewed as indivisible and interrelated, despite our promise to make them so.   “States still continue to make arguments about cultural relativity. Women, minorities and migrants are still discriminated against and abused. The right to development is still not accepted by everybody. Power still corrupts, and leaders are still prepared to sacrifice their people in order to retain it.”   Ms. Pillay urged countries to revive the spirit of the Vienna Declaration and refocus their efforts to achieve universality, and impartiality with regard to justice.”   In his remarks to the Conference, UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson said countries run the risk of becoming numb to violence and rights violations and stressed they need to make an effort to prioritize human rights issues.   “There is a wave of brutalization going over the world,” Mr. Eliasson said. “We are seeing figures of people being killed, innocent men, women and children in great numbers and we get used to it. We almost get numb. They end up on page 16 in a small little note. We must put an end to this.”   http://at20.ohchr.org/ http://at20.ohchr.org/stories.html http://www.cesr20.org/ Visit the related web page
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