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UNHCR, Komnas HAM push for education rights for refugee children
Indonesia has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, meaning that the country has to guarantee education at the primary level for all children, regardless of their nationality.
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Refugees sit on a pedestrian walkway in Kebon Sirih, Jakarta, recently. (JP/Dhoni Setiawan)
T
he National Commission on Human Rights (KOMNAS HAM) has signed a new memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to continue their advocacy and human rights protection of refugees and asylum seekers currently in Indonesia, this time focusing on children's right to education.
UNHCR representative to Indonesia Thomas Vargas said both organizations were committed to offering solutions so that refugees, asylum seekers and stateless persons could prepare for their future, including by pushing for public schools to accept refugee children.
He said Indonesia had ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, meaning that the country had to guarantee education at the primary level for all children, regardless of their nationality.
"Little by little, we are trying to develop projects where [children] can improve their Indonesian language so they can be accepted by public schools. Of course, when they finish the program, they can obtain a school certificate that they can use in the future wherever they may end up," Thomas told a press briefing in Jakarta on Friday.
Although more public schools across the country are accepting refugee children, the children cannot obtain graduation certificates as they are not registered in residential family cards. Presidential Decree No. 125/2016 on the treatment of refugees from overseas also does not mention refugees' right to education.
Thomas said his office would be working with KOMNAS HAM and the government to see if schools could accept refugee cards issued by the UNHCR in place of residential family cards so that the children could obtain graduation certificates, and whether such exception would require a revision in the decree or merely procedural changes at the school level.
Komnas HAM chairman Ahmad Taufan Damanik said the commission had been pushing for local administrations to accommodate refugee children's right to education by including them in their budget.
