eua_2014_full.pdf?utm_content=buffer4a392&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

PART I — GLOBAL OveRvIeWsucceeded in some cases. For example, in Somalia,the UN has collected and used data on military use ofeducation facilities to secure the agreement of militarycommanders to vacate schools. 186 In some instances,negotiations have taken place successfully witharmed forces and groups at local level to ban certainpractices from school grounds, such as occupationand use of schools and looting and burning of learningmaterials and classroom furniture. In South Sudan,community leaders and Parent Teacher Associations(PTAs) play a central role, acting as steeringcommittees for county commissioners who negotiatewith government security forces. 187Dialogue initiated by ministries of education or UNpartners with ministries of defence and leaders of thenational armed forces has led the latter to issue anumber of military directives to vacate schoolpremises, for instance in South Sudan. 188 In Mali, theeducation ministry and the UN engaged in dialoguewith the defence ministry and a number of schoolswere subsequently vacated. 189 In DRC, UN-led interventionwith military leaders resulted in the nationalarmed forces vacating schools. 190Community-driven negotiations to develop and agreeto codes of conduct have also been undertaken incountries such as Nepal and the Philippines, where anumber of communities have establishedprogrammes whereby schools or ‘learning institutions’become recognized as ‘Zones of Peace’ (SZOPand LIZOP, respectively). In Nepal, one of the keycomponents of the SZOP programme was the writingand signing of codes of conduct defining what wasand was not allowed on school grounds in order tominimize violence, school closures and the politicizationof schooling. For instance, terms of the codein some cases included: ‘No arrest or abduction of anyindividual within the premises’, ‘no use of school tocamp’ or ‘no use of school as an armed base’. This wasachieved through collaboration among diversepolitical and ethnic groups in widely publicized massmeetings. 191 The signatory parties kept their commitments,in general, and these efforts helpedcommunities to keep schools open, improvingprotection as well as school governance. 192Syrian children attend a small makeshift school,set up for families who were scared to send theirchildren far in the midst of war, in a village innorthern Syria, 9 February 2013. The lessons aretaught by a medical student whose own studieswere cut short because of fighting.© 2013 Lynsey Addario/VII68