UNESCO Director-General expresses sorrow over death of aid workers in Afghanistan

It was with shock and great sorrow that I learned of the murder of four colleagues, working for the International Rescue Committee (IRC), in Afghanistan on 13 August 2008. Those killed were Dr. Jackie Kirk, Ms Nicole Dial, Ms Shirley Case, all education and child protection specialists, and their driver, Mr. Mohamed Aimal. As members of the development and humanitarian communities, we at UNESCO and all partner agencies are deeply affected by this tragic event.

One of the deceased, Dr. Jackie Kirk, worked with UNESCO colleagues in various field offices, at headquarters and with UNESCO’s specialized institutes on numerous occasions. Her tireless advocacy and passion for quality education in conflict, post-conflict and post-disaster situations moved and inspired all those who had the opportunity to work with her. Dr. Kirk was a gifted researcher and scholar, with a deep grounding in field operational realities in the most difficult of environments. She was especially committed to the provision of high quality education to women and girls in conflict and disaster settings and to increasing understanding of the gender dynamics of education. She worked tirelessly within the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) with colleagues all over the world. Dr. Kirk’s death is a loss to her many personal friends at UNESCO, to the education in emergencies community and to the children, teachers and communities who will continue to benefit from her tremendous contributions to the field.

Jackie Kirk worked with UNESCO IIEP on two studies, which will soon be published posthumously: One deals with the educational response to the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan; the other with the certification of the learning attainments of refugee and internally displaced students. The 2009 Education for All Global Monitoring Report, to be published shortly, includes a background paper she authored on teacher management issues in fragile states. Next week, she was due to participate in a joint UNESCO/UNHCR/IRC mission to Syria and Jordan, working on certification of Iraqi refugees’ learning attainments and safe learning environments. These are but a few examples of her broad and deep engagement.

UNESCO has recently spoken out forcefully against the increasingly prevalent practice of armed attacks on schools, students, teachers and other education workers. Last year, we published a study by Brendan O’Malley, entitled Education under Attack, which documented the killings, kidnaps and other types of attacks on educational institutions and personnel all over the world. The cowardly murders of our IRC colleagues in Afghanistan are just four more examples of this lamentable trend. I am determined that UNESCO, in partnership with many others, will do its utmost to reverse this trend, by advocating for the strengthening of the monitoring of compliance with the instruments of international law that condemn such attacks.

We at UNESCO hope to honour our dead colleagues by applying the same commitment and passion in our work as they did in theirs, and by continued dedication to the cause they pursued so relentlessly: the provision of education for children and communities affected by conflict and disasters.

• Source:UNESCO Director General
• 20-08-2008