Mesures prises:
The United Kingdom (UK) is a strong advocate for the Safe Schools Declaration, which is an international commitment expressing support for the protection of students, teachers and their schools during armed conflict.
Since endorsing the Safe Schools Declaration in April 2018, the UK has worked hard to implement its commitments and to raise awareness, aimed at improving the protection of education in situations of armed conflict, and address the consequences of armed conflict on students, education personnel and school infrastructure. Specifically, the UK has implemented a number of important actions.
A cross-Government Safe Schools Working Group was created to oversee UK implementation. It comprises policy and legal experts from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and the Ministry of Defence. The Working Group provides the opportunity to ensure UK implementation of the Declaration complements wider conflict-related work across Government.
The UK co-sponsored UN Security Council Resolution 2601 (2021) on the Protection of Education in Armed Conflict, which was the first Resolution of its kind, linking the protection of education to international peace and security.
The Safe Schools Declaration features in the United Kingdom’s Joint Service Publication (JSP) 985 on Human Security, most recently revised in [insert date]. The JSP on Human Security provides that: “UK Defence should… whilst on deployments, unless absolutely unavoidable, not use functioning schools, universities or places of learning for any purpose or to carry out any security tasks in close proximity to their buildings or grounds, and not use evacuated or abandoned schools, universities or places of learning except in extenuating circumstances with no viable alternative, in line with the ‘Safe Schools Declaration’.”
Guidelines were developed for ‘Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use’, which were intended to provide guidance to States and armed non-state actors for the planning and execution of military operations.
The UK provided a panellist for the Fourth International Conference on the Safe Schools Declaration on 25-27 October 2021 to discuss the United Kingdom’s work in implementing these Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use during Armed Conflict.
The UK continues to push for Safe Schools language in UN Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC) Country Conclusions as a member of the UN Security Council’s Working Group on CAAC.
Since endorsing the Safe Schools Declaration, the UK has encouraged other states to sign up to the Declaration, thereby committing them to promoting its effective implementation, and raising awareness of the Declaration.
