Citation

Bennouna C, van Boetzelaer E, Rojas L, Richard K, Karume G, Nshombo M, Roberts L, Boothby N. Disasters 2018; 42(2): 314-335.

Affiliation

Program on Forced Migration and Health at the Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, United States.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/disa.12245

PMID

28792073

Abstract

The United Nations' Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism is charged with documenting six grave violations against children in a time of conflict, including attacks on schools. Many of these incidents, however, remain unreported across the globe. This study explores whether or not a local knowledge base of education and child protection actors in North and South Kivu Provinces, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and in Mogadishu, Somalia, could contribute to a more complete record of attacks on education in those areas. Hundreds of semi-structured interviews were conducted with key informants across the three settings, and in total 432 attacks on education were documented. Purposive samples of these reports were verified and a large majority was confirmed. Local non-governmental organisations and education institutions were most knowledgeable about these incidents, but most never reported them to a monitoring authority. The study concludes that attack surveillance and response were largely insufficient, and recommends investing in mechanisms that utilise local knowledge to address these shortcomings.

© 2017 The Author(s). Disasters © Overseas Development Institute, 2017.

Language: en

Keywords

Democratic Republic of the Congo; Somalia; education; grave violations; human rights; violence