Taking education for granted: the Day of General Discusion at the UN
By Usman Ali, age 15
Going to Geneva twice in four months (I was a member of the Get ready for Geneva delegation to the UN Committee in June) was certainly not something I aspired to do, let alone meeting the Committee on the Rights of the Child. However, I was fortunate enough to do this.
This year’s Day of General Discussion was dedicated to education in emergency situations: a topic which at first I thought doesn’t apply to the UK. However, I surprised myself. It started with a minute’s silence for an aid worker killed in Afghanistan.
The floor was then given to some key speakers including Cream Wright, chief of education at UNICEF. Listening to the key note speakers taught me an awful lot, but the one thing which kept occurring in my head was how fortunate I am in receiving such a high-quality education. Of course, I didn’t take my education for granted before I attended the DGD but it certainly has left me with some thoughts.
The Committee then divided into two working groups. I was in the working group which discussed ‘Continuation and/or reconstruction of the educational system’.
Before my working group begun I briefly spoke to Ms. Agnes Aidoo, a member of the Committee. She then introduced me to the chair of the working group. It was great that the Committee were so informal and spoke in a very open manner. This meant that interventions throughout the day could be made in a very comfortable way.
I spoke to the Committee about children who come to the UK from emergency situations such as refugee children. These children have had their education disrupted from their home country and still don’t have a perfect education in the UK. Host countries like ours aren’t providing sufficient resources for these children. To name a few these include interpreting services and education maintenance allowances.
I spoke again about how refugee children don’t choose which school they go to because of transport issues. I also spoke on behalf of the UK and how we are starting to fund tangibly e.g. sponsor a child £15 for a month to go to school in a developing country. I said this is good practice and is perhaps something other countries may want to follow, especially as donor governments aren’t providing enough money for education in emergency situations.
One of the interesting facts I learnt from a human rights lawyer was boys are more likely to be discriminated against than girls. I quote from him ‘in Venezuela 43 per cent of girls are in secondary school, but only 30 per cent of boys: a 13 point gap to the detriment of boys.’
Another thing that will stick by me for the rest of my life is ‘A child had said that school was his sanity; a chance for his future; and that the only thing that could be carried away from the community or home was what was in his head and what he had learned’.
It had been a very long day especially as we arrived at Palais Wilson at 9:30am and didn’t leave till 7:30pm! An interesting, mind capturing and fruitful day it had been.
However before leaving Palais Wilson, totally unexpected: the highlight of my visit to Geneva was meeting Madam Navanethem Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. I was humbled to meet her, someone who has been a victim herself and is working so hard to protect human rights all around the world.
I learnt a lot and met a lot of great people from all around the world who all are doing good work for children.
Posted on Monday, September 29, 2008 in
