HRW: Iraqi Gov. denies education access to children with alleged parent affiliation to ISIS

Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Wednesday that the Iraqi government is denying thousands of children whose parents are perceived to have been affiliated with the Islamic State “their right to access an education.”

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Wednesday that the Iraqi government is denying thousands of children whose parents are perceived to have been affiliated with the Islamic State “their right to access an education.”

Children who were born and lived in areas under the Islamic State, from 2014 until 2017, lack official documents necessary for school enrollment, and according to HRW, the Iraqi government is making it difficult for the families to obtain them.

In September 2018, a document signed by officials from Iraq’s Education Ministry appeared to allow children lacking civil documents to be admitted to school, but HRW states that officials are instructing school principals and aid groups providing support services for education that undocumented children are still not allowed to enroll in government schools.

“Denying children their right to education because of something their parents might have done is a grossly misguided form of collective punishment,” said Lama Fakih, acting Middle East director at HRW.

“It undermines any potential government efforts to counter extremist ideology by pushing these children to the margins of society.”

The human rights organization cited an aid worker coordinating an education program in Nineveh Province and three school principals who claimed ministry officials informed them that despite the September 2018 decision, as of January 1, 2019, students could only attend school if their parents pledged in person, at the governorate’s General Directorate of Education, that they would “obtain their child’s civil documentation by the end of the school year or within 30 days of making the pledge.”

A school principal in a camp 30 kilometers south of Mosul said that since 2018, he had been allowing all children in the camp to enroll but that, once he received the ministry’s new instructions, “at least 100 kids stopped coming to school.”

“Either their parents couldn’t afford to go to Mosul to make the pledge, or they didn’t see the point because they knew that they would not be able to get civil documentation for them within 30 days,” HRW reported.

The organization also noted that they have interviewed over 20 families whose children could have access to education based on the September 2018 decision, but could not identify any families missing documentation who were able to enroll their children in school.

Following the emergence of the Islamic State in 2014 and its expansion in Iraq, militants confiscated all local civil documentation from people living in the areas they controlled and issued their own documents, which the Iraqi authorities do not recognize.

As schools re-open for the new year, starting Sept. 15, HRW says “the Education Ministry should urgently to notify all school staff not to require civil documentation as a condition for enrolling, taking examinations, or obtaining certificates until a procedure is in place facilitating the issuing of civil documentation for all Iraqi children.”

“The ministry, working with aid agencies, should seek to notify parents living in areas formerly under ISIS control and in camps for displaced people that the civil documentation requirements have been waived.”

The acting Middle East director at HRW called on the Iraqi government to ensure children who have already lost years of education under Islamic State rule are admitted to government schools.

“Some Iraqi children lost three years of education under ISIS.” Fakih said. “The government should be doing everything in its power to ensure that children do not miss any more years of crucial education.”

Editing by Nadia Riva