by Pam Perraud, AAWE Paris/FAUSA & UN Representative
Defending the Right to Education
In honor of the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights from October 15 - December 18, UNESCO is running a digital campaign, #RightToEducation, highlighting the work UNESCO does related to education. UNESCO staff works to encourage states to make the right of a quality education a reality. In places like Haiti, UNESCO staff on the ground works with UNICEF and government officials to enhance the quality of teachers and improve working conditions for both students and teachers.
In Afghanistan, working with the government, UNESCO has provided literacy classes to more than a million people, over 70% of them women. In the Caribbean, along with its partners UNICEF and CARICOM (the Caribbean Community), UNESCO strives to improve childhood education policies to make them more inclusive.
For more information about the how UNESCO staff defends the right to education, click HERE!
Ending Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists
On November 2, the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, UNESCO launched the “Observatory of Killed Journalists”. The observatory is an online database providing information on the statutes of court cases and judicial inquiries into each killing of a journalist or media worker recorded by UNESCO since 1993. According to that Observatory, there have been 1,293 killings.
According to the 2018 UNESCO Director General Report on the Safety of Journalists, one journalist or media personnel is killed every four days. Even worse, UNESCO statistics show that in 89% of the cases the perpetrators go unpunished. UNESCO, as the UN agency with the mandate to promote freedom of expression and the safety of journalists, monitors killings and supports member states in reducing impunity for such killings and attacks.
For more information on this topic click HERE!
