noted that “continuous engagement with the government of Bangladesh is critical” to
“achieve greater policy clarity” in line with the human rights obligation to ensure
children’s education “regardless of their immigration status”. The 2019 response plan midyear update identified the “lack of [an] authorized learning framework” as an obstacle to
“meaningful education with a clear pathway to accreditation,” but without reference to
Bangladesh’s human rights obligations.
The humanitarian education response is crucial for Rohingya children, but donors have at
times incorrectly represented the children’s right to education as subject to deferral. A
2018 grant approval by the Global Partnership for Education, for instance, remarked on the
“need to ensure that interventions fulfil the /onger-term education rights of refugee
children and youth,” which would “require[e] more time and negotiation amid
continuously evolving circumstances”. International law allows for states that lack the
resources needed to fulfill all children’s right to education to realize that right
progressively, but Bangladesh is blocking foreign and multilateral donors and
humanitarian partners from providing funding and implementing education programs. The
deferral of core aspects of the right to education, like accreditation, also violates
humanitarian standards on education in emergencies. The UN refugee agency’s “education
in emergency standard,” for instance, provides that “refugee children and youth are able
to participate in accredited national education systems and programmes under similar
conditions to local children,” and states: “the same standards apply to long term and
emergency situations.”
Given that Dhaka’s entrenched policies have deprived generations of Rohingya children of
access to education, the UN, donor countries, and multilateral donors should jointly and
consistently press Bangladesh for reforms. Such an effort should be paired with increased
and consistent international pressure on Myanmar
to end its persecution of the Rohingya
and to hold to account the officials responsible for atrocity crimes.
The UN-coordinated annual Joint Response Plans should include clear benchmarks to fulfill
Rohingya children’s right to education without discrimination, and donors should provide
the required funding and political support. Donors and humanitarian groups working in the
education sector should set timelines for Rohingya children’s access to formal, certified
education, including the ability to sit for national examinations. The informal education
program could be reconceived as a pathway to give out-of-school children the skills they
“ARE WE HUMAN?”
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