The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine supports the idea of joining Ukraine to the Declaration on School Safety and will submit all necessary documents for consideration by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in the near future. This was stated by the Minister of Education and Science Lilia Hrynevych at a meeting with the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain Silvia Martin, the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Norway Ule Horpestad and Chargé d'affaires of the Embassy of Argentina Ariel Romer on March 22, 2019.
The Declaration on School Safety contains a number of obligations aimed at preventing and responding to attacks and the use of educational institutions for military purposes during armed conflict. Currently, 81 countries of the world have joined the document.
"I would like to emphasize that the Ministry is interested in approving the Declaration on School Safety. We will continue our efforts in this direction. We will soon submit all relevant documents for consideration by the Government. After that, the Cabinet of Ministers must authorize the Minister of Education and Science to sign the letter of accession to the Declaration. As soon as I am authorized to sign, we will immediately send a corresponding letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway through the Norwegian Embassy in Ukraine," Liliya Hrynevych explained.
She emphasized that now, when Ukraine has been in a state of armed conflict for 5 years, joining this document is an extremely important decision.
The ambassadors also extended an invitation for the Minister - from the Kingdom of Spain in cooperation with Argentina, the Kingdom of Norway and GCPEA (Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack) - to participate in the Third International Conference on School Security, which will be held at the end of May in Spain.
"Very often people who are not deeply involved in the Ukrainian context cannot understand the problems of the armed conflict that your country is experiencing today. This conference is a good opportunity to remind the world community of the problems you face and all the difficulties of armed conflicts," said Silvia Martin, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain to Ukraine.
