Colombia has become the 116th country to adhere to this declaration, seven years after it was promoted by the Global Alliance for Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience in the Education Sector (GADRRES), from civil society, as well as Norway and Argentina.
“What we want is for girls, boys and adolescents to be at the center of comprehensive peace, and to be the builders of peace, and for this to be achieved we must guarantee them an environment that provides protection; an environment in which they are not recruited, schools are not surrounded by mines, and militants are not penetrated; in addition to that , building a space for dialogue,” explained Gill.
For his part, the Minister of Defense, Ivan Velasquez, stressed that schools cannot be an area of conflict, and the public force must bear this obligation, and respect those educational places.
The Deputy Secretary of Defense and Security Policy, Alberto Lara Losada, noted the measures that have been taken to make schools safer.
In this regard, he indicated commitment to the development of the educational process, human rights education training, as well as the educational process of the military forces.
At the conclusion of the discussion in the Palacio de San Carlos, the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in the daily visualization exercise, the Secretary of Education for the region, Edna Bonilla Ceba, spoke about the importance of commitment to children in the country. And young people in transforming the school into a land of peace.
“We must listen to each other to build a comprehensive peace, together with girls and boys, thus empowering their voice,” he said.
The Safe Schools Declaration is a policy tool through which states recognize the various obstacles affecting education during armed conflict and undertake to improve protection for students, staff and educational institutions.
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