UNCLASSIFIED   UNESCOPARI   11142105 
VZCZCXRO1454
RR RUEHAP RUEHFL RUEHGI RUEHGR RUEHKN RUEHKR RUEHMA RUEHMJ RUEHMR
RUEHPA RUEHPB RUEHQU RUEHRN
DE RUEHFR #2105/01 3191744
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 141744Z NOV 08
FM UNESCO PARIS FR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC
INFO RUCNSCO/UNESCO COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PARIS FR 002105 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OEXC UNESCO KEDU FR IZ QA JO USAID
 
SUBJECT: UNESCO HOSTS EDUCATION CONFERENCE ON IRAQ 
 
¶1. Summary:  On October 30 - November 1, 2008 UNESCO and the First 
Lady of Qatar, Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned, hosted the 
International Conference on the Right to Education in 
Crisis-Affected Countries entitled "Stop Jeopardizing the Future of 
Iraq" in Paris.  Director General Matsuura opened the conference, 
which brought together 150-200 participants from multi-lateral 
organizations, NGO's and members of the academic community in Iraq, 
including the Iraqi Education Ministry.  Discussion focused 
primarily on the problems of educating children - especially girls 
-- amid violence and uncertainty.  While the discussion was for the 
most part business-like and apolitical, the U.S. was sharply 
criticized by an academic in the audience who held the US entirely 
responsible for the situation.  In concluding remarks, Sheikha Mozah 
called for creation of a committee to ensure the conference's 
recommendations are followed up and announced a meeting in Doha on 
November 30, 2008 to consider the problems of education in conflict 
zones more generally.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. A major focus of the conference was how to restore Iraq's 
educational system and encourage teachers, educators, and students 
to return to the classroom.  Security issues and lack of schools as 
well as the constant threat of violence were primary topics of the 
conference.  Many of the panelists spoke about the lack of the 
implementation of a right to education in Iraq, particularly among 
girls, due to the violence and destruction of school infrastructure. 
 However, achievements were also outlined by several Ministers 
including improved planning, better international collaboration and 
the slow return of teachers to the classroom. 
 
¶3. On the first day of the conference, panel discussions focused on 
education in conflict and post-conflict reconstruction with 
discussions on the legal framework of the right to education in 
conflict countries, the role of the media in advocacy for that 
right, humanitarian responses in the education sector and 
post-conflict reconstruction in the education sector.  Experts from 
other post-conflict areas, specifically Afghanistan and Palestine, 
spoke about the successes they had achieved as well as the 
challenges and barriers they still had to overcome. 
 
¶4. One member of the panel, Mr. Saad Jaber, Deputy Director of the 
Center for North African Studies, spoke about the legal framework of 
the right to education in conflict. He stated that according to 
international law, aggression against educators was a crime against 
humanity but the question was how to enforce this.  He stated that 
first one must document the events.  He also said that occupying 
powers have a certain responsibility to protect educators, not just 
the Ministry of Defense, because education is a right. 
 
¶5. During the question and answer period, an academic in the 
audience attacked the United States as being responsible for the 
deaths of academics both directly and indirectly, and for preventing 
students from taking exams due to roadblocks and other barriers that 
prevented their going to school. She said that American occupying 
forces are jeopardizing the future of Iraq and should be condemned 
because they only destroy.  She questioned why embargoes are put 
around cities during final exams, and said that students had been 
arrested while studying on their roofs when American troops went 
"parading" by.  She stated that Iraqis did not need anyone to show 
them how to build an education system but they needed to demonstrate 
the aggressiveness of the U.S. and give compensation to everyone who 
was hurt. She concluded that the role of the media is to tell the 
truth about the occupiers and demanded that an investigation of the 
deaths of academics be done because, in her view, the Americans were 
primarily responsible for all of this, and should be forced to pay 
reparations. 
 
¶6. These comments were received with support and applause.  The 
UNESCO Secretariat looked uncomfortable and tried to keep the 
meeting under control.  Mr. Jaber said that compensation could be 
looked at for both individuals and institutions, but it would have 
to be done respecting both national and international law. He 
recommended an investigative body be established to look into all of 
this, and that a file be created on all the harm done by the 
Americans.  He ended by saying that any request for compensation had 
to be done on a diplomatic level.  The Minister of Education from 
Kurdistan commented that we must look to the future not the past 
because this crisis did not start with the Americans, but with 
Saddam Hussein who had started all of this and who had closed 4000 
schools.  There was no response to his comments. 
 
¶7. Recommendations #8 and #10 from the conference (see attachment) 
specifically address these concerns and are directly aimed at the 
United States.  We are concerned that these two recommendations 
could lead to problems for the United States in the area of 
education in Iraq.   (Comment: The Iraqi Ambassador to UNESCO told 
Ambassador Oliver that the academic in the audience (referred to 
above) should be ignored but the fact remains that two of the 
recommendations adopted by the conference reflect her concerns and 
those of Mr. Jaber. End Comment.) 
 
¶8. The second day of the conference was divided into five working 
groups:  access to quality basic education in Iraq; issues facing 
 
UNESCOPARI 11142105  002 OF 003 
 
 
universities in Iraq; the protection of Iraqi intellectuals, 
academics, teachers, students and educational institutions; 
educational issues facing internally displaced persons and the 
implications they have for the Iraqi education system; and, 
educational issues facing refugees in neighboring countries and 
their implications on the Iraqi education system.  The United States 
did not attend these working group sessions.  On the final day of 
the conference, draft recommendations from these working groups were 
presented to the plenary session (see Para #11 below). 
 
¶9. Attendees were primarily officials from the Iraqi Education 
Ministry, NGO's from neighboring countries such as Jordan, Lebanon 
and Syria, and academics representing the university system in Iraq. 
 Very few UNESCO delegations attended the conference, and while the 
UNESCO headquarters staff was represented among the panelists, it 
was not directly involved in organizing the conference.  Officials 
of UNESCO's Iraq field office located in Amman, Jordan, took the 
lead working with Sheikha Mozah and her staff.  (Comment:  We 
understand the Sheikha was the prime mover behind this conference, 
having expressed concerns to UNESCO that she was upset because she 
did not know how US Dols 15 million she gave UNESCO in 2005 had been 
spent.  End Comment.)  In her closing statement, Sheikha Mozah 
stated that she did not believe that any change had taken place in 
Iraq to restore the educational system. 
 
¶10. Note:  Ambassador Oliver attended the first day of the 
conference and was welcomed to the conference by the UNESCO 
Ambassador from Qatar who told her he was glad to see her.  However, 
the former Ambassador to Lebanon who is Lebanon's representative on 
the UNESCO Executive Board, Ms. Samira Hanna-El-Daher, told 
Ambassador Oliver that people sitting around her expressed surprise 
that Ambassador Oliver had attended.  Ambassador Oliver asked, "Why 
shouldn't I be here?  It's a UNESCO meeting."  The former Lebanese 
Ambassador agreed with her but still stated that many people in the 
audience were surprised that Ambassador Oliver had attended the 
conference.  Privately the UN representative told Ambassador Oliver 
that the United States had been indispensable to his work in 
education in Iraq but this was not stated publicly. 
 
¶11. In closing the conference, Sheikha Mozah emphasized that neither 
Education for All (EFA) goals nor Millennium Development Goals 
(MDGs) would be achieved if more international attention and 
financing were not focused on crisis-affected countries. 
 
¶12. Draft recommendations from the conference:  "The Paris 
Conference on the Right to Education in Crisis-Affected Countries: 
"Stop Jeopardizing the Future of Iraq" follow below: 
 
 
¶1. Develop a national vision, mission and strategy for 
education at all levels based on a consultation of all 
         stakeholders, and design policies based on updated, 
 accurate data and relevant studies and analysis. 
 
¶2.  The Iraqi Government and international partners need to 
 take urgent measures to increase access to education by: 
- Meeting the need for additional schools and classes 
     based on a mapping system, needs assessment, 
     appropriate designs; 
         - Expanding formal and non-formal learning 
           Opportunities for out-of-school children, youth and 
           adult illiterates; 
- Encourage private sector investment and community involvement in 
education to complement government efforts in increasing access; 
 
¶3. The Iraqi Government and international partners need to take 
urgent measures to increase quality of education by: 
- Curriculm development; 
- Qualification and performance standards for teachers; 
- Pre-service and in-service training programmes for teachers; 
- Capacity building for improved school management and educational 
supervision; 
- Enhancing the quality of teaching and learning materials and 
equipment and promoting child-friendly schools; 
 
¶4. The Iraqi government and international partners should help to 
reform the higher education system by developing and upgrading the 
curriculum, by using modern technologies, by reviewing legislation 
concerning university governance, and by providing opportunities for 
further training for university lecturers; 
 
¶5. Include courses and programmes in Iraqi universities that enhance 
national identity and principles of citizenship. 
 
¶6. Through consultation with the relevant authorities, encourage the 
return to Iraq of academics, and benefit from the skills and 
expertise of Iraqi academics whether inside or outside Iraq. 
 
¶7. With the help of universities in other countries and 
international organizations, increase the opportunities for Iraqi 
academics and students to teach, carry out research and study 
abroad. 
 
UNESCOPARI 11142105  003 OF 003 
 
 
 
¶8. The international community should explicitly recognize crimes 
against educators as crimes against humanity or war crimes.  An 
international and independence investigative body should be 
established with the cooperation of Iraq to investigate all such 
crimes.  Furthermore, a UN rapporteur should be sent to Iraq to 
investigate. 
 
¶9. Mechanisms should be established in Iraq to ensure the safety and 
security of educators and students and to create an environment 
conducive to the return of those who have left.  Fundamental to this 
will be the establishment of the neutrality of educational 
institutions through transparency and neutral curricula and 
administrative processes. 
 
¶10. The Government of Iraq should implement national laws and 
prosecute all perpetrators under existing legislation and give 
compensation and ongoing support to the families of assassinated 
educators. 
 
¶11. UNESCO should advocate for a campaign to protect education 
personnel and the education system. 
 
¶12. To permit continuity of schooling for IDP children, use testing 
and referral systems or other temporary measures to permit students 
who have lost school certificates to continue schooling; 
 
¶13. Expanding access to schooling for IDP children by expanding 
facilities, providing transport, offering teacher training to 
members of the IDP community in areas that host large numbers of 
IDPs; 
 
¶14. Provide guidelines for short-term and emergency responses to 
local actors (NGOs and community  organizations) on measures to be 
taken according to the minimum accepted standards; 
 
¶15. Address, in coordination between the central Iraqi government 
and the KRG government, factors that hinder school attendance: 
discrimination, language barriers, lack of appropriate outreach to 
IDP communities to inform them of services (redrafting); 
 
¶16. UN agencies, NGOs, donors should help increase enrollment by 
Iraqi refugee children by providing financial and material support 
in the form of school uniforms, textbooks, school supplies, free 
transportation, waiver of school fees/donations, and Conditional 
Cash Transfers as applicable; 
 
¶17. Donors, UN agencies, and host governments should continue to 
help build the capacity and resources of the Ministries of Education 
to address needs of refugee; 
 
¶18. With the help of international partners, encourage and enable 
Ministries of Education to address issues of certification including 
cross-border examinations and accreditation systems; 
 
¶19. UN agencies, NGOs and host governments should make a concerted 
effort to create or strengthen child protection networks, mechanisms 
and institutions, notably through in or order to: 
 
- Raise awareness among teachers and the general public about the 
pychosocial issues impacting Iraqi refugees; 
- Provide training and support to teachers, counselors and community 
religious leaders on appropriate responses with children; 
- Provide family counseling and discussion/support groups; 
 
¶20. International and national partners should broaden the means of 
access to learning through e-learning and ICTs. 
 
 
      OLIVER