Cairo: Secretary-General of the Arab Network for National Human Rights Institutions (ANNHRI) H E Sultan bin Hassan Al Jamali said that the Israeli occupation violated the right to education, guaranteed by all international and regional conventions and treaties, in the Gaza Strip and all of the occupied Palestine.
In a speech during the regional dialogue forum on the future of education and education on human rights in the Arab region held in Cairo, Al Jamali called for concerted efforts to achieve a better future of education for future generations, including educating them on human rights, accepting the opinion of the other, and educating on dialogue as a way to resolve difference.
He noted the role of national human rights institutions in providing support and cooperation with stakeholders to protect the right to education by providing advice to governments, contributing to the national review of curricula to integrate human rights concepts into them and refining them from hate speech, and introducing the discourse of tolerance, dialogue and peace, in addition to cooperating with governmental institutions and civil society to spread the culture of human rights.
Achieving this, he added, requires reviewing legislation to ensure its compatibility with human rights principles and standards stipulated in international agreements to which countries have accessed, participating in programs to build and raise the capabilities of those responsible for education to integrate human rights concepts.
He explained that the strategic plan of the Arab network stipulated the dissemination of the culture of human rights, and the issue of human rights education and the future of education were also highlighted in the recommendations of a number of the Arab network’s conferences and its general assemblies.
Al Jamali stressed the role of national human rights institutions in implementing and following up on the implementation of the 2030 sustainable development goals, including the fourth goal on education by focusing on implementing Goal 16 as it is the key to implementing the 2030 sustainable development goals, stressing that without the presence of peace, justice and strong institutions along with transparency, accountability, anti-corruption and governance, no goal can be implemented.
He called for working to create political will and resources and then completing work on Goal 17 and the international solidarity it constitutes in order to contribute to the implementation of Goal 4 on education and its seven goals.
Al Jamali said that the ANNHRI will work, in cooperation with its partners and participants in the forum, to implement its recommendations by encouraging members of the network to coordinate cooperation between experts, the Unesco, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the ministries of education in their countries.
Al Jamali renewed the Network’s denunciation of the crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, including killings, bombings, destruction of homes, targeting hospitals residential towers and civil institutions, preventing the entry of fuel and goods, and cutting off electricity to the Gaza Strip.
