Refugees – Ideas in ALL

United Nations International Day of Education 24^th January 2023 – How the Russian Invasion of Ukraine Denies Access to Education for Millions of Ukrainians

Social Lives

Author: Matthew McKenna, PhD Researcher at Maynooth University’s Assisting Living and Learning Institute (ALL Institute), Research Funded through the Science Foundation of Ireland (SFI) Centre for Research Training in Advanced Networks for Sustainable Societies (ADVANCE CRT)

Matthew McKenna

The 24^th of January 2023 was the UN International Day of Education, whilst today, the 24^th of February, represents the first anniversary of the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine that began a year ago as of this morning. This blogpost will address the unfathomable human rights crisis and tragedy that has befallen the Ukrainian people and the subsequent denial of access to education in wartime.

“Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war” – Dr Maria Montessori.

Montessori, was an Italian medical doctor who pioneered the philosophy of education through her work with children with disabilities, starting in 1896. She delivered the above quote in the late 1930s while working on the ‘Education for Peace’ movement during her exile from Italy due to the anti-fascist ethos of her humanitarian work. Montessori believed that a lasting unity between nations and peoples could be achieved when the education of children was underpinned with the values of international peace and humanitarianism. Moreover, her work has had a profound impact on the gradual educational reforms that have slowly enabled persons with disabilities to enter education and has helped, albeit over time, to reduce the traditionally punitive and penal institutional approach to children experiencing learning difficulties. And as we marked the UN International Day of Education a month ago on 24^th January 2023, her words sound just as relevant in today’s context as they were in the agitated pre-war climate of the late 1930s.

“Human rights crisis within a crisis” – Intersectional challenges for persons with disabilities in the war in Ukraine

Social Structures

Author: Rebecca Daniel – PHD Student, Assisting Living and Learning (ALL) Institute, Department of Psychology, Maynooth University

The situation of persons with disabilities during the current war in Ukraine has been repeatedly described as a “crisis within a crisis” during the past number of months. This blog post aims to reflect on the multiple forms of discrimination that persons with disabilities face in times of conflict.

Approximately 15% of the worldwide population has a disability. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that 13% of people in Ukraine, in need of humanitarian assistance in 2021, had a disability. In situations of war and conflict, these numbers can even increase, since many disabilities are caused or worsened by war (e.g. through war injuries, a lack of health care provisions, or post-traumatic stress disorders). Given this, it can be estimated that the numbers of persons with disabilities directly or indirectly affected by the war in Ukraine are even higher than those estimated above.

International Day of Persons with Disabilities: Displacement and disabilities

Social Structures

Symposium

Click here for Audio Version

Author: Élise Fabre, Legal Assistant, Law Firm specialised in Asylum Law, Paris (France)

The protection of human rights in migration and displacement is a major global challenge for policy makers, as 27 people perished trying to cross the Channel a week ago and others are suffering from deplorable living conditions at the beginning of winter on the doorstep of Poland.

According to the United Nations, migration refers to both voluntary and involuntary movement of people across borders, or within a country. While people move to search for a better life, some specifically fear persecutions and are forced to undertake a long journey to find peace and safe living conditions.

During their journey and in their host countries, migrants and refugees face great barriers in accessing their human rights, especially their social rights, such as the right to an adequate standard of living, including housing, food, and the right to the highest attainable standard of both physical and mental health. In its 2020 annual conclusions, the European Committee of Social Rights expressed concerns over the lack of access to social rights of migrant families and children in Europe. The Committee showed particular concerns about the treatment of children in an irregular migration situation and asylum-seeking children, as they encounter many obstacles in accessing safe and appropriate accommodation. The exposure to trauma, the separation or loss of family members and the lack of access to social rights lead to the prevalence of psychosocial conditions among refugee and asylum-seeking children. They are, hence, subjected to abuse, human trafficking and face great violations of their human rights.

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