Education: EU Commission and Borrell, “all children and young people must be guaranteed” this right, which is “essential to building peace and democracy”

“The EU strongly condemns all attacks against education and expects all children and young people to be guaranteed their right to education”, the European Commission and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, said in a joint statement ahead of the International Day of Education on 24 January. The EU remains “firmly committed to accelerating progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) on quality education”. Yet “attacks against education are increasing worldwide”. In Afghanistan, “the Taliban have completely denied girls and women their fundamental right to education. Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified military aggression against Ukraine has resulted in at least 3,045 educational facilities suffering bombing or shelling since 24 February 2022”. Education is “a fundamental human right”, which is essential to “building peace and democracy, socio-economic cohesion and gender equality, and more just and sustainable societies”. At the UN Education Summit in September 2022, “133 countries, including the EU and its Member States as Team Europe, committed to recover learning losses and make education systems fit for the future”. The EU has pledged to invest “at least 10% of the overall funding of Global Europe and of its humanitarian aid budget” in education.
Valentina Bombelli