Syrian Citizenship Disappeared people.”68 He objects to the term “stateless,” explaining that the census conducted in the Kurdish regions deliberately ignored the existing nationality of tens of thousands of Syrian Kurds: “The stateless have been deprived of all their rights, including the right to register their marriage, the right to own property, the right to education, the right to have a decent housing, the right to travel abroad, the right to travel by plane, and the right to stay at hotels as well. I have met many of them who were stripped of their nationality while showing Syrian documents they had gotten before 1962, including identity cards, military service book and property deeds.”69 1.2.15. The Stateless and the Right to Education Everyone has the right to education. Article 26 Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone to education. (…) 2. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize that, with a view to achieving the full realization of this right: (a) Primary education shall be compulsory and available free to all; 68 Ashraf Sino worked as a volunteer lawyer to defend the prisoners of conscience in the ordinary tribunals as well as the exceptional ones, i.e. the military courts and the State Security Court, in Syria for many years. Since 200, he has worked on human rights through his work at the Committees for the Defense of Democracy Freedoms and Human Rights in Syria, and he established, along with several activists, the Kurdish Organization for Human Rights in Syria (DAD), which is still active within Syria. He has been living in Germany since 2015. The interview was conducted via the Internet on July 31, 2018. 69 In Syria there is a military ID and a military service book. When reach the age of 18 years old, all males go to the general recruitment agency, where they are interviewed, they have their photo taken, and they undertake blood tests, among other procedures. They are then issued a military service book. Even those who will end up exempt from service for any reason” receive the military service book, within which their exemption will be written and stamped. (b) Secondary education in its different forms, including technical and vocational secondary education, shall be made generally available and accessible to all by every appropriate means, and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education; (c) Higher education shall be made equally accessible to all, on the basis of capacity, by every appropriate means, and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education; Article 13 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights 1. States Parties recognize the right of the child to education, and with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity, they shall, in particular: (a) Make primary education compulsory and available free to all; (b) Encourage the development of different forms of secondary education, including general and vocational education, make them available and accessible to every child, and take appropriate measures such as the introduction of free education and offering financial assistance in case of need; (c) Make higher education accessible to all on the basis of capacity by every appropriate means; Article 28, Convention on the Rights of the Child The right to education is fundamental to the fulfilment and exercise of all rights. By providing citizens, from a young age, with the necessary resources to think critically, schools are essential to the fulfilment of democratic ideas. Educated citizens are more aware of their rights and of the way to exercise them. On the other hand, education gives pupils and student the potential to seek fulfilling jobs, in line with their ambitions, contributing to their personal development. 23