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Submission by Human Rights Watch to the Committee on the Rights of the Child on Luxembourg

82nd pre-sessional, 2018

This submission focuses on the topics of the protection of students, teachers, and schools during times of armed conflict. It relates to articles 28, 38 and 39 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. We make recommendations for Committee members to raise with the government of Luxembourg. 

Luxembourg has taken a leading role in promoting the protection of students, teachers, and schools during times of armed conflict. It was an early endorser of the Safe Schools Declaration[1] and the Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use during Armed Conflict,[2] which aim to better protect schools and universities from attack and use by armed groups for military purposes, and to minimize the negative impact that armed conflict has on students’ safety and education.

Luxembourg also led on the issue of protecting children during armed conflict during its membership of the United Nations Security Council. Between 2013 and 2015, Luxembourg chaired the Security Council Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict. During Luxembourg’s presidency of the Council, it ensured the passage of Resolution 2143 (2014), which calls for increased efforts to protect children in armed conflict. In particular, the resolution expresses “deep concern at the military use of schools in contravention of applicable international law, recognizing that such use may render schools legitimate targets of attack, thus endangering children’s and teachers’ safety as well as children’s education.”[3] The Security Council urged “all parties to armed conflict to respect the civilian character of schools in accordance with international humanitarian law,”[4] and encouraged “Member States to consider concrete measures to deter the use of schools by armed forces and armed non-State groups.”[5]

Human Rights Watch recommends that the Committee:

  • Commend Luxembourg for its work on protecting of students, teachers, and schools during times of armed conflict as well as its endorsement of the Safe Schools Declaration and the Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use during Armed Conflict; and
  • Encourage Luxembourg to continue to develop and share examples of its implementation of the Safe Schools Declaration’s commitments with this Committee and with other countries that have endorsed the Declaration—particularly at the 2019 Third International Safe Schools Conference—as examples of good practice in protecting students, teachers, and schools during armed conflict.
 

[1] Safe Schools Declaration, May 28, 2015, https://www.regjeringen.no/globalassets/departementene/ud/vedlegg/utvikling/safe_schools_declaration.pdf (accessed November 6, 2018).

[2] Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use during Armed Conflict, March 18, 2014, http://protectingeducation.org/sites/default/files/documents/guidelines_en.pdf (accessed November 6, 2018).

[3] United Nations Security Council, Resolution 2143 (2014), 7 March 2014, https://undocs.org/S/RES/2143(2014) (accessed November 6, 2018).

[4] Ibid.  

[5] Ibid.

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