Malungo Germano UD269HHU71326 COURSE NAME: Humanity and Human Rights Assignment Title: Seminar International Development: I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban ATLANTIC INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY December/2019 1 TABLE OF CONTENT Table of content………………………………………………………………... 2 Introduction …………………………………………………………………..... 3 The activism of Malala: Who is Malala Yousafzai? …………………………………………. 5 Why is the female education so important? …………………………………………………. 10 How to fight for the female education? ……………………………………………………… 15 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………..... 24 Reference ……………………………………………………………………... 26 2 Introduction In December, 9th, 1998, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universality Recognized Human Rights and Fundamentals Freedoms. This instrument, commonly called United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders recognizes the rights and responsibility of individuals, group and associations to promote and to strive for the protection and realization of human rights. The referred Declaration came to reinforce the protection of Human Rights Defenders, in its article 12, it says, that everyone has the right to participate in peaceful activities against violations of human rights.1 Human Rights defenders are individuals, groups or association who strive to reclaim the human rights. They defend and advocate for human rights, by educating and raising awareness of situation affecting the rights of person. They press Governments to account for their actions, as result in countries where the democracy is not yet rooted, Human rights defenders or HR activists are not well come. They are always subject to reprisals, arbitrary detentions, surveillance, harassment, extrajudicial executions, tortures, degrading treatment. According to the Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, published on July 2019, from the 2014 to June 2019, 1,153 communications have been sent to States. Of those communications, 28 per cent referred to arbitrary detention; 19 per cent to 1 United Nations General Assembly (December 1998), Declaration on the Rights and Responsibility of Individuals, Groups and Organs of Society to Promote and Protect Universality Recognized Human Rights and Fundamentals Freedoms, Article 12. 3 torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; 18 per cent to extrajudicial executions; 9 per cent to abductions; 8 per cent to violence against human rights defenders and 0, 5 per cent to forced displacement and this has affected 2810 human rights defenders. The Special Rapporteur also received information on other practices such as criminalization, office break- ins and digital attacks against human rights activists. In 2017, in Mexico, an investigation identified the use of a powerful software called “Pegasus” to infiltrate the technological devices of high-profile human rights defenders.2 More than 20 years ago, since the Declaration was adopted, but human rights defenders, over the world continue to face difficulties to perform their activities of advocacy, they are constantly persecuted. One of the victim of this persecution is the young Human Right Defender, Malala, the girl who stood up for female education and was shot by the Taliban. There are many human rights defenders who are facing the same situation, but in this paper we will focus only on the activism of Malala, a young human rights defender and we will also refer to the examples of some human rights defenders who stood for the rights before Malala. In the first part we will learn about Malala. Who is Malala? What she did for female education, what is happened to her and what she is doing today. In the second part we will approach the female education, where we will see, why is the education so important in general and in particular for the women. Finally, this essay will discuss on how we can fight for our rights, as Malala did? What lesson we can learn from those who fought for the rights before us? How 2 UN, July 2019, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Page 5, 14 and 15. Retrieved from: https://undocs.org/en/A/74/159, December, 25th, 2019 4 can we be inspired from the example of famous women and men who promoted human rights and stood for what they believed to be correct, logic and reasonable? 1. The activism of Malala: Who is Malala Yousafzai? Malala is a young human rights defender, from Swat Valley, Pakistan. She was born in July 12th, 1997, in land where the role of daughters in life is simply to prepare food and give birth to children. In most families the girls stay at home while the boys went to school. They have just to wait to be married.3 Although the environment in which Malala was growing up was against female education, but Malala did not allow to traditional concepts to destroy her passion for education. Malala family had great passion for education, this came from her father and this can be understood through what herself wrote about her father: Education had been a great gift for him (Malala´s father). He believed that lack of education was the root of all Pakistan´s problems. Ignorance allowed politicians to fool people and bad administrators to be re-elected. He believed schooling should be available for all, rich and poor, boys and girls.4 This was what Malala´s father was believing, later this become also the way of thinking of Malala. Since the childhood, Malala was thinking to become a doctor, but her father encour- aged her to become a politician. Her father talked frequently to her on politic issues. She was 3 Yousafzai M and Lamb C. (2013), I am Malala, the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, Weidenfeld Nicolson, Page 22, London, 2013 4 Ibid, Page 33 5 incentivized in political activism by her father and she has chosen to do her activism on the education for all. She has started very early her activism, fighting for the female education. In 2009, she was 12 years old, she wrote a blog under a pseudonym for BBC URDU, detailing her life during Taliban occupation of Swat. A journalist made a documentary about Malala life, in New York Time.5 This publication has called the attention of Taliban and they looked for a way to put end of her life. In October 9th, 2012, Malala was shot in the head by the Taliban in Swat, Pakistan. The case was very serious, she was in critical condition, she was hit in the head with a bullet and re- mained unconscientious hovering between the life and the death. She was medically dead and was taken by helicopter to the Military Hospital. On October 15th, 2012, she was transferred to Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, in the United Kingdom. This hospital is known in the United Kingdom for treating British soldiers wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq. Malala was shot because of her activism on education for all in which she dedicated her life since early age. She was accused by the Taliban to promote Western values in her village, which was a conservative part, dominated by radical Moslem. Malala grown up in environment where living Taliban who think that girls should not go to school, but Malala went to school and promote education for all. 5 Joan Marques (2019), Lead with Heart in Mind Treading the Noble Eightfold Path For Mindful and Sustainable Practice, Springer, Switzerland, Page 67 6 Although Malala was shot because of her activism, but she did not allow this sad and negative circumstances to push her to give up, contrary she became more motivated to continue to fight for female education. After to be recovered, she set up her own Foundation and fighting for female education. She believed that each girl, and boy, has the power to change the world and that all they need is a chance or an opportunity.6 and her advocacy has grown up at international level, supporting education advocacy groups with a focus on Pakistan, Nigeria, Jordan, Syria and Kenya.7 Almost of the countries of the world has condemned what Taliban had done against Malala. Many people at local level as well at international level had reacted against Malala´s shooting. For Ban Ki-Moon, the former UN Secretary General, this assassination attempted is considered as a heinous and cowardly act, while the former United State of America president, Barrack Obama described it as reprehensible and disgusting and tragic.8 Malala has received and continue to receive support from high rank people for her advocacy on education for all, as it is described in some statements bellow: «UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has reiterated his support for Malala Yousafzai, the Pa- kistani Nobel Laureate and girls' education advocate, who has come under a renewed volley 6 Yousafzai M and Lamb C. (2013), I am Malala the Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, Weidenfeld Nicolson, Page 293, London. 7 Ibid Page xxii. 8 Ibid, Page 223. 7 of attacks in her homeland. Moon's deputy spokesman, Farhan Haq, told reporters on Tuesday: "The Secretary-General has made clear his support for Malala, for her goals, for the cause of girls' education and he continues to stand by that. So he is very clear that the work she's doing is in line with the work of the United Nations, and we will support her in those efforts.»9 As we can find in various publications, Malala received a lot of support in order to go ahead with her advocacy. She made a petition, demanding global leader to end the education emergency, and she received a great support in this petition, 8916 people signed the petition, and was supported by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon who stood with Malala and asked to global leader to put an end to the education emergency.