YouSaid · the spoken record

Hadiza

lines on the record: 6
first: 2020-09-10
most recent: 2020-09-10
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“It is for all of those reasons that I would, first, ask the Security Council to ensure the protection of schools from attacks by parties to conflict around the world and safeguard the rights and duties of children; secondly, I would ask United Nations entities to mobilize international cooperation to fight the increased threat of attacks against schools by parties to armed conflict and to step up international efforts towards the prevention of violence against children, particularly by mobilizing young people and children and combating the use of technology by parties to a conflict; and, thirdly, I would ask the Government of the Niger to create distance-learning classes so that all Nigerien children, especially those who are out of school, can have access to quality education, to provide those children with information-technology resources adapted to the situation — solar computers, solar lamps, solar radios and so on — and to reaffirm its commitment to protecting education from violence and conflict and preventing schools from being used for military purposes.”
2020-09-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8756 (2020) · source
“I will never tire of talking about the continuous difficulties facing us. On 6 February 2015, when I was just 13 years old, the town where I was living was attacked and all of our schools were closed. I also remember a 9-year-old girl named Fatima, an internally displaced person, whose father had his throat cut before her very eyes. Imagine all of the trauma she has experienced; her mother, too, continues to suffer unjustly as a result of her husband’s death. This situation of vulnerability means that Fatima has no feeling of control or belonging. Would any of those present here wish to see their children suffer in that way? No, they would not, so something must be done. In the light of the scale of the conflict in the Sahel, it is necessary to implement a strategy that would ensure that children, particularly girls, can go to school.”
2020-09-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8756 (2020) · source
“For me, defending the right to education of all children in crisis situations is to defend the rights of adults to survival. As they say where I am from, in Hausa, “Children are the hope of tomorrow.” What is most deplorable is that it is these same children, whose futures are hijacked, who return by night to slit their parents’ throats and kidnap their brothers and sisters, sometimes for ransom and sometimes for sexual purposes. I recall a 12-year-old child named Adi, who was very intelligent and full of hope for his studies. He was abducted by his uncle, a member of an armed group, and we have not seen him since then. However, we will never forget his commitment and his dreams of succeeding at school. All these acts were committed because the perpetrators did not want local children to attend Western schools.”
2020-09-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8756 (2020) · source
“I have witnessed various examples of difficulties that children are facing. I remember the village on the banks of the Komadougou river, where my father created a school. The village was very hostile to the school. However, through awareness-raising meetings that he organized in the community, my father taught me that education is the most effective weapon for changing the world. In 2006, all of the children that he taught rose to a higher class. Unfortunately, with the heightened insecurity, the village was attacked, pillaged and burned, and the schools were also attacked. The majority of these children were taken away and integrated into armed groups. You, Mr. President, will agree with me that when a school is attacked and children are obliged to flee their villages, everything is unjustly affected.”
2020-09-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8756 (2020) · source
“I was born in a region affected by crisis with the lowest the school enrolment rate in the country. It is in that very region where we now see conflict in the Niger. I am particularly moved by the situation of the thousands of children torn from their school desks and endlessly displaced, sometimes without their parents. Some of them children are facing their fifth or sixth displacement. Beyond the abuses committed, the coronavirus disease pandemic has further complicated the lives of children. This complication is seen in the stress that has produced different reactions: increased anxiety, withdrawal, agitation and suffering from nocturnal incontinence. This situation has become even more difficult with school closures and physical distancing, which does not allow children to freely enjoy their time together.”
2020-09-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8756 (2020) · source
“Allow me to thank the Government of the Niger for initiating this meeting between children and decision-makers. I would also like to thank the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, the Permanent Mission of the Niger to the United Nations in New York and the country office of Save the Children in the Niger for its commitment to children. My name is Hadiza. I am a student. In 2019, I received a prize for excellence in literature, known as “Miss Literature”. I am strongly committed to the fight for access to education for children in conflict-affected zones. I believe that when education is targeted, it becomes impossible to ensure safe education for all children. That is all the more difficult for those who already lived in difficult situations prior to conflicts.”
2020-09-10 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.8756 (2020) · source