Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen,
My name is Jonathan Murphy, and I am here today on behalf of Broken Chalk. I am honoured to be asked to speak here in front of you, alongside so many capable experts committed to the cause of human rights. It feels that this commitment is being tested more and more every day in the current climate.
A little bit about us – Broken Chalk is an Amsterdam based NGO focused on human rights violations in the education sector. We are a relatively new organisation established in the aftermath of the worst of Covid in October of 2020. We are a broad tent of human rights advocates, researchers, lawyers, campaigners, and interns. We aim to advocate for those targeted or pushed aside by states and governments. We do this through engagement with international bodies, including the UN, to provide swift redress to those having their rights infringed. We also seek to shine a light on the status of human rights in education all over the world, from Armenia to Zambia. We have an army of interns and volunteers who research and produce detailed reports for international organisations, stakeholders, and governments. The comprehensiveness of these reports aims to shine a light on underdiscussed issues which prevail all over the world. We believe that through raising awareness we can compel states and international institutions to honour the basic human right to education.
We envision a world where every person, regardless of background or location, has safe access to quality education.
There was a time after the fall of the Berlin wall where an assumption about human rights prevailed – one that declared the end of history and the beginning of a global acceptance of free markets, free states, and free people – in that order. This assumption imagined a world where human rights would be inalienable from the individual. Unfortunately, reality has not complied. “Human rights” are often discussed with a distinct curl of the lip – particularly by far right and totalitarian regimes. Basic rights, including the right to education are being threatened all over the world.
At Broken Chalk, we regard the right to education as one of the most fundamental human rights. However, this right, like others, is under threat. The right to education is enshrined in innumerable covenants and conventions, not least the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We believe that education allows for the flourishing of the individual and society. It lifts people out of poverty, it leads society out of ignorance, and it propels the world into a fairer and more hopeful future. There are no excuses for governments seeking to suppress its’ access. However, UNESCO reports that at least 244 million children and young people are still not receiving education for a host of social, cultural, and economic factors. We seek to provide a bulwark between government repression of this right and the students seeking to fulfil their potential.
We do this by documenting how different factors are eroding students’ rights to education and providing non-exhaustive recommendations.
I’d like to start by talking about how state repression can affect the right to education through the targeting of students.
For example, we have documented how in Turkey, students are being targeted under the guise of security from terrorism. In May 2024, 40 individuals were arrested – including 14 minors. From this coercion where minors were interrogated for up to 15 hours without the right to legal access, prosecutors charged 37 women, predominantly university students, with terrorism. These were active, outgoing, normal students who were identified using coercive interrogations and flimsy evidence. Their student apartments were framed as “operative cells” for the Gulen movement. Yet searches found nothing. No propaganda, no documents, no incriminating materials whatsoever. What they found was the typical student room – laptops, books, and personal devices. These university students have been accused of recruiting and indoctrinating youngsters under the guise of organising social activities – shopping, tutoring, even bowling. To say the least, this is not the type of recruitment that other international terrorist organisations have sought to implement in the overthrow of the government.
Evidence of the nefarious motives of these students include the use of modern messaging apps such as Whatsapp, Telegram, and Instagram. Authorities made 75 references to the use of these platforms as proof of suspicious activity. If this were the case, I suspect each and every person in this room would be under intense scrutiny. That is to say – the use of these platforms as proof highlights the arbitrariness of the evidence being used to support one of the most serious crimes in law. To quote from the Arrested Lawyers Initiative:
The right to use encrypted communication is protected under international human rights law. Article 19 of the ICCPR and the UDHR affirm the rights to freedom of expression and privacy, both of which are reinforced by encryption. The UN has emphasized that States must protect encryption, and any interference with these rights must meet strict criteria of legality, necessity, and proportionality. Criminalizing encrypted communication without meeting these standards violates the fundamental rights of privacy and free expression.
We at Broken Chalk publicised this case and recommended the following non-exhaustive list of next steps to be taken:
1. Advocate for legal and humanitarian assistance by encouraging NGOs to provide support for the affected persons. For example, providing counselling services, funding legal defence and monitoring the conditions for the detainees to see if they align with the international standards.
2. Promote awareness and mobilize support for the current issue, as well as encouraging campaigns that support human rights. Additionally, these could also compel the Turkish authorities to adhere to international standards.
3. Call for investigation by demanding the UN organs or different human rights organizations initiate an independent investigation into the alleged violations of human rights.
Secondly, I would like to highlight how gender discrimination has had a profound effect on the right to education:
The current Taliban Government of Afghanistan have waged war on girls’ education. Since the withdrawal of US troops, the Taliban have taken control of government and society. While some may have predicted that Human Rights would not be a priority for the new regime, the swiftness of the regimes’ dismantling of the right to education has taken many aback. According to the UN, Afghanistan’s Taliban government has “deliberately deprived” at least 1.4 million girls of their right to an education since coming to power. Girls are barred access to schooling above grade 6 (around 12 years old). Young women are not allowed to take entrance exams for universities in Afghanistan; so even those who have received an education before the ban are unable to pursue further education. Chillingly, reports coming from Afghanistan indicate that further restrictions include women showing their face or speaking outside of the home. Female teachers also face significant barriers in attaining professional credentials which has had a significant impact on the number of qualified teachers available in the country. This is exacerbated by the ban on female educators teaching classes for boys. The attack on women’s right to education is, predictably, also negatively affecting the boys. At Broken Chalk, we have indicated that these measures violate numerous treaties that Afghanistan have committed to in the past.
In the face of these reforms, Broken Chalk has recommended that the following steps may be taken to redress the balance towards the universal right to education:
1. Advocate for educational programs aimed at reducing illiteracy, especially for girls and women, by encouraging partnerships between international organizations such as the EU, UN Women, and UNESCO. One example is the initiative “Empowering women and adolescent girls in Afghanistan through literacy and skills development for sustainable livelihoods”. This project could be expanded or replicated to reach more women.
2. Promote the establishment of vocational training programs and community-based education for girls and women as an alternative to the ban on secondary and higher education imposed by the Taliban. This approach would help women achieve self-employment and financial independence. Organizations like UNESCO and UNICEF have already provided such training, benefiting over 55,000 young people and adolescents, with a significant majority being women and girls.
3. Advocate for the development of teacher training programs specifically targeted at women, enabling them to pursue careers in education. This could follow the model of the UNICEF Girls’ Access to Teacher Education (GATE) programme, which empowers women by providing them with the skills needed to become educators.
Finally, I’d like to discuss how broader discrimination can negatively affect the right to education.
Gender, of course, is not the only factor which governments take into account when deciding whose rights are repressed. The decision of where money is channelled also has a direct impact on who benefits within the education sector. For example, in Russia inclusive education has not been prioritised. Educators capable of providing specific assistance to student in need are scarce, undertrained, and lack the required educational and mythological material required to meaningfully assist disabled students. This leads to student, parent, and administrator frustration with disabled students often ending their education as soon as possible. However, this is far from solely a Russian problem – countries throughout the world are struggling to provide a comprehensive, inclusive education system.
Discrimination also occurs on theological and ideological grounds. In Iran, teachers must meet “moral, doctrinal, and political obligations”. These include commitment to the rules of Islam, belief and commitment to the Republic of Iran and the constitution, and no history of support for political parties which have been OR WILL BE proscribed, unless their REPENTENCE is proven. The implication on the right to education is clear. Teachers are not selected on their ability to provide a comprehensive, quality education – but through ideological purity. This effects students too. Areas mostly populated by Sunni or other minority religions students, instead of the majority Shia, face school and resource shortages. This is not a bug, it’s a feature. In a mixed methods analysis of the curriculum of the Islamic Republic, it was also found that ‘discriminatory attitudes’, mainly towards women and religious and ethnic minorities, are not ‘accidental or sporadic’. They are rather ‘continuous, consistent, and systematic’.
Finally, I’d like to discuss structural discrimination in regard to race in the education sector. I could point to a host of nations as an example of this type of discrimination, including some uncomfortably close to home. The USA, UK, France, and even the Netherlands have not fulfilled the promise of colour bind equal education opportunities. However, I’d like to discuss the formalised system of racial discrimination in Israel. Israeli schools are divided into four different tracks: state-secular, state-religious, independent religious, and Arab. We have documented the clear budget disparities between the Jewish and Arab schools – approximately a 30% deficit. Arab students have access to fewer classrooms, fewer libraries, fewer laboratories, and fewer qualified teachers than their Jewish counterparts. Yet Palestinian Arabs must learn more subjects as Hebrew is compulsory– leaving Arab students with a higher workload and fewer resources. We have also seen organised settler violence directed against schools in the West Bank – sometimes called Judea and Samaria. At Broken Chalk, we have documented how the Israeli Government have demolished EU funded schools in this area too – under the proviso of a lack of proper permitting and building regulations.
We stand against all forms of discrimination be it racial, ideological, theological or ableism. We call on these states to help fulfil the promise of students by building a more inclusive, more equal, and more empathetic education system. We believe that the only barrier to making these essential changes is political will.
To conclude
I have tried to give a snapshot of the challenges which young people face in various countries while simply trying to pursue their fundamental right to education. These are only some examples. Our own systems are far from perfect, and there are many others which are struggling with host of equally important issues ranging from educating in a war zone to indigenous rights. This was not a speech designed to demonise political states. Yet equally, when governments blindly ratify covenants and conventions to uphold various human rights to receive the plaudits, it is the duty of international organisations, states, NGOs, and civil society to hold them to account. The right to education is not a platitude, it is a promise to our youth that we will do all we can to ensure that their potential, their life, and their happiness will be fulfilled, regardless of who they are, where they’re from, or what they believe.
Thank you so much for your time and attention today.
Featured image by Photo by Lusma Trading on Unsplash
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