Right To Education Denied By Gaza Authority

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) denounced the recent decision by the Gaza Ministry of Education to forbid eight secondary school students from traveling to the United States for “social and cultural reasons.”  These eight students had received scholarships through AMIDEAST’s Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) program, a “U.S. Department of State-funded scholarship program” that requires scholarship recipients to return to their countries and resume their education at the conclusion of the year-long program. 

As the PCHR notes in its statement, the Ministry’s decision violates human rights standards set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, specifically Section 3 of Article 26, or the Right to Education, which states, “Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.” The Ministry has denied the students’ right to travel to the U.S. to study despite the fact that in their requests to exit Palestine, the students’ parents acknowledged that they understood the stipulations of the scholarship and the necessary measures to ensure the safety of their children. 

Since 1995, the PCHR, and its dynamic founder Raji Sourani, who is a former RFK Center human rights Laureate and profiled in the book Speak Truth To Power, has worked tirelessly to incorporate international human rights standards and basic democratic principles into the legal fabric of the Gaza Strip. As Sourani said to Kerry Kennedy in his interview for Speak Truth To Power: “I simply believe that human rights, democracy, and the rule of law are not luxuries. They are crucial necessities—the oxygen of meaningful life.” In this case, the PCHR believes that the human rights of these students will not be upheld until the Prime Minister in Gaza intervenes to annul the decision of the Gaza Ministry of Education and facilitate the travel of the students to the U.S. to further their education.