Education International Internationale de l'Education Internacional de la Educación Bildungsinternationale Head Office 5, Bd du Roi Albert II 1210 Brussels, Belgium Tel +32 2 224 06 11 Fax +32 2 224 06 06 [email protected] http://www.ei-ie.org President Susan Hopgood General Secretary Fred van Leeuwen
All communications should be addressed to the General Secretary – Toute correspondance doit être adressée au Secrétaire général Toda la correspondencia debe dirigirse al Secretario General – Der gesamte Briefwechsel ist an den Generalsekretär zu richten
Ms Irina Bokova Director-General, UNESCO 7, place de Fontenoy 75352 Paris 07 SP France Email: [email protected] Brussels, 6 January 2016
Subject: Urgent situation of teachers and students in the East of Turkey Dear Director General,
Education International requests your intervention to ask the government of Turkey to comply with their international obligation and provide a secure environment for education buildings to ensure the safety of teachers and learners and maintain the provision of quality education.
Education International’s affiliate in Turkey has brought to our attention that school
buildings in the East of Turkey have been appropriated by army and police forces. We have also learnt that teachers have received text messages from the authorities summoning them to leave the region and to attend ad hoc training programs without any further explanation. As a result, hundreds of thousands of children are unable to attend school.
Education International has called on the Turkish authorities to bring the violent
confrontations in Eastern Turkey to an end, to allow teachers to return to their workplaces, including those employed in Cizre and Silopi, and to have military and police forces vacate all school buildings they currently occupy, so that education can be resumed as soon as
possible.
We always urge UNESCO to make every possible effort to protect the rights and interests of all children in conflict areas. It seems the situation affecting teachers and students in Turkey deserves immediate attention.
Yours sincerely,
Fred van Leeuwen General Secretary
