Education is one of the basic rights of every child in the world irrespective of peacetime or war. In this respect, the recent speech by H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation (QF) and Education Above All Foundation (EAA), urging the global community to facilitate access to quality education for displaced children and to enforce severe penalties for perpetrators of armed conflict, is a clarion call.
The recent example of how the blockading countries placed students in various academic institutions in a difficult situation by rejecting them to continue education is a gross violation of human rights.
H H Sheikha Moza’s speeches at various fora always highlighted the devastation caused due to armed conflicts and put focus on how various nations ignore the fundamental rights of children and education should be kept above all obstacles.
H H Sheikha Moza, Advocate for the UN Sustainable Development Goals, at a high-level panel discus-sion held recently at the UN headquarters in Geneva under the title “Quality Education for a Sustaina-ble Future: A Comprehensive Approach for Refugees and Internally Displaced People”, organised by the EAA in cooperation with the UNHCR, said: “Education must be given priority as it is the tool for the children of the present and future. A global approach needs to be adapted, in order to remove institu-tional barriers which prevent the recognition and verification of refugee education”.
Last month, H H Sheikha Moza, has affirmed that the QF’s ‘Educate A Child Programme’, is one month away from reaching the goal set six years ago to enable 10 million children around the world to get basic education.
The recent Unesco estimate of around 63 million children do not receive any form of education is an eye-opener for each person in this world and it’s the endeavour for all of us to make sure that each child in this world attend school.
It’s commendable that H H Sheikha Moza called on leaders of industry and government to place edu-cation at the heart of human development agenda. She also noted: “We need each person to think of educating out-of-school children as a personal challenge, as their cause”.
