New data shows thousands of attacks on schools, mostly by military and other armed forces. This continuing epidemic of violence in regions of armed conflict demonstrates the vital and ongoing need to endorse and implement the Safe Schools Declaration.
Armed attacks continue according to new data
On May 28-29 2019, at the Third International Conference on Safe Schools in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, researchers presented new data from the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack. It showed that over the last five years, 14,000 armed attacks took place affecting education personnel in 34 high-conflict countries.
The data also showed that, of the 14,000 attacks,10,000 were directly on schools – buildings were bombed, damaged and used by military forces. It is clear that in many situations, students and school personnel were privileged targets. Such attacks and the fear that they generate make quality education difficult if not impossible.
The Safe Schools Declaration
Education International calls upon all countries to endorse the Safe Schools Declaration, a commitment to end the targeting of education institutions by government forces. The declaration, first available in May 2015 for endorsement in Oslo, Norway, talks about making an effort to investigate violations of international humanitarian law, promoting ‘conflict-sensitive’ approaches to education and offers guidelines for States. These guidelinesare aimed at governments in zones of conflict and stresses insulating education institutions from conflict and protecting students and staff in schools and universities from military intervention.
The Safe Schools Declaration represents a political determination and commitment to ensure that schools are safe. To date, 87 countries have signed the Safe Schools Declaration. EI urges all other countries to join in this global drive to protect the world’s youth.
Photo Credit: Ivy Dawned
Disclaimer: All third-party opinions expressed via IASWI accounts linked to and from this page are those of the individuals concerned and do not necessarily represent those of IASWI or its affiliates. No copyright infringement is intended nor implied. To discuss this disclaimer or the removal of appropriate credit for materials of which you hold copyright please contact us. All the third party videos and contents found on workers-iran.org is not hosted on our servers; all third party videos or contents are hosted on a third party site. The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the various authors and news sources on the www.workers-iran.org do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of the IASWI or official policies of the IASWI. These posts are only generated for the purpose of information sharing on the labour related issues.