11/02/2021
Yemen: ongoing conflict deeply threatens children’s education
SANA’A (11 February 2021) –An entire generation of children in Yemen faces a bleak future because of limited or no access to education. A three-minutes animation produced by the UN Human Rights Office in Yemen depicts how the lack of access to education has pushed children and families to dangerous alternatives, including early marriage, child labour and recruitment into the fighting.
“All parties to the conflict and those with influence on them need to unconditionally commit to stopping attacks against schools to protect children’s education across Yemen in line with the Safe School Declaration that Yemen endorsed in 2017,” said Renaud Detalle, UN Human Rights Representative for Yemen.
“Today, on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, let us remember that education is a fundamental human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ,” Detalle said, adding that thirty-two years since the convention on the Rights of the Child was ratified, it is unacceptable that education remains out of reach for children in Yemen because of man-made factors. They include conflict-related damage to school buildings or their occupation for military activities or accommodating Internally Displaced Persons.
Together with partners, the UN Human Rights Office in Yemen, continues to call for efforts to be made to prevent an entire generation of Yemeni girls and boys from missing out on their education, denying them the full development of their personality and of becoming tomorrow’s scientists or leaders. Above all, parties to the conflict in Yemen must work towards peace to allow for recovery and for children to grow up in a safe environment.
ENDS
