UN Secretary General’s Special Representative to Liberia and head of UNMIL, Farid Zarif has said “next to the right to life, the right to education is central to the exercise of all other human rights and freedoms.”
Speaking at a ceremony in Monrovia to commemorate ECOWAS Human Rights Day on Tuesday, said 14 years of civil war left Liberia’s education in a total state of disarray.
Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Liberia was one of the original signatories to in 1948, guarantees the right of everyone around the world to education.
With some 65% of the children out of school, the UN envoy said, the future of Liberia was bleak, something President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf described as a big mess that must be fixed.
Since then, the UNMIL boss said there have been many initiatives taken and a lot of efforts and resources invested to address that unacceptable situation.
But Zarif noted that when these efforts were producing impressive results, along with many other socio-economic indicators, Liberia was hit by the horrific Ebola crisis, followed by a steep fall in the prices of Liberia’s traditional export commodities,
According to him, these developments imposed other priorities on the government and distracted attention from the on-going efforts, including the education sector.
The Secretary General’s Special Representative said a further complicating factor was the rapid draw-down of UNMIL, which compelled the government to assume full responsibility for many areas previously supported by UNMIL, particularly in the area of security.
Despite the challenges, Zarif, pointed out that Liberia has made a lot of accomplishments over the past 12 years, including in the area of education, but the way forward is still long and challenging.
This he said requires that the incoming administration of President-elect, George Weah will need to remain committed and focused on education, and build upon the achievements of the out-going administration of President Johnson Sirleaf;
The UN diplomat assured that UNMIL and the United Nations family have been with Liberia throughout these challenging periods, and assured that the UN family will remain in Liberia long after UNMIL’s departure.
Zarif further assured that the UN will continue to partner with the incoming government to support its efforts towards the protection and promotion of the right to universal and quality education for Liberians.
Meanwhile, The UNMIL boss has congratulated President Sirleaf and ECOWAS for the initiative to proclaim 15 January as the ECOWAS Human Rights Day.