Submitted in Advance of 2011 UN Security Council Open Debate on Children and Armed Conflict

I am concerned by the increasing trend of attacks against schools and hospitals, and I encourage the Security Council to further ensure that such facilities remain protected.
–UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, May 2011[1]

KEY PROPOSALS

• Expand the MRM trigger to incorporate attacks against schools in situations of armed conflict, including patterns of attack against students or education personnel.
• Request the MRM system to monitor attacks on education on a systematic and comprehensive basis.
• Request action plans to include time-bound commitments to end attacks on schools, including patterns of attacks against students or education personnel. 
• Urge parties to refrain from actions that impede access to education, including the use of schools for military purposes.  

Introduction

In situations of armed conflict worldwide, combatants are targeting schools, students and their teachers for attack, in clear violation of international law.[2] The UN Security Council, UN Secretary-General, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict (SRSG-CAAC), UNESCO, UNICEF and NGO members of the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA) have all documented the serious and widespread nature of such attacks, raised concerns about this trend, and now call for a stronger international response. 

The UN Secretary-General’s most recent report on children and armed conflict documents direct physical damage to schools, closure of schools as a result of threats and intimidation, military use of schools and use of schools as recruiting grounds in armed conflicts across the globe.[3] The UN Security Council has expressed deep concern about the growing number of attacks or threats of attack against schools and education facilities, and teachers and pupils.[4] The Security Council has also condemned attacks on students and teachers and urged parties to armed conflict to refrain from actions that impede children’s access to education, including the use of schools for military operations and other attacks or threats of attack on students or teachers.[5] The Security Council’s Working Group on Children and Armed Conflict recently concluded a field visit to Afghanistan with a special focus on attacks on schools and hospitals. Despite these important expressions of concern, to date the Security Council’s overall attention to attacks against education has been weak. 

While the Security Council has identified the category of “attacks on schools or hospitals” as one of the six grave violations to be monitored by the MRM, this briefing note focuses solely on the Global Coalition’s area of expertise, the issue of attacks on schools, without prejudice to including the broader category already used by the MRM. The note highlights the global phenomenon of attacks on schools and outlines concrete steps that the Security Council can take to respond. It reiterates the UN Secretary-General’s recent recommendations to add parties to conflict that attack schools to the annex of his annual report on children and armed conflict.[6] It also makes several other recommendations to the Security Council for improving protection of education from attack. 

Scope of the Problem and Its Impact

Attacks on education appear to be far more severe and widespread than previously thought. UNESCO’s report Education Under Attack 2010 indicates that systematic targeting of students, teachers, education staff and institutions is prevalent in situations of armed conflict around the world. In the first global study on this problem, published in 2007, UNESCO found that attacks on schools, teachers and students seemed to have risen since 2000, with a six-fold increase in reported incidents between 2003 and 2006.[7]

Armed attacks, assassinations, abductions, forced recruitment, sexual violence and threats against students and their teachers, as well as destruction, looting and military use of education buildings, threaten the physical, cognitive and psychosocial well-being of children and communities.[8] The 2010 UNESCO report illustrates that these attacks not only cost students and teachers their lives, but can also lead to dramatic decreases in school attendance, leaving millions of children without an education and the chance for a better life. At least 28 million children who live in low-income countries affected by armed conflict are out of school.[9] In the long term, attacks can lead to diminished education quality and weakened educational systems. Weakened education adversely affects a country’s economic, political and social development and undermines efforts to reduce poverty and improve maternal and child health.  

Out of 22 country situations reported in the Secretary-General’s 2011 Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict, 14 make reference to attacks on schools, documenting increased attacks in several situations, such as OPT/Israel, Philippines and Somalia.[10] The following are several examples from the 2011 report:

Afghanistan: The UN verified 197 education-related incidents in 2010, including direct attacks against schools, collateral damage, killing and injury of students and education personnel, threats and intimidation and forced school closures. These incidents were mostly attributed to armed groups. Military use of schools by pro-government forces was also a concern.

Colombia: Schools continued to be occupied by national security forces in the departments of Antioquia, Arauca, Cauca, Córdoba and Norte de Santander. Armed groups have also been reported to occupy schools and recruit students. Schools were damaged as a result of hostilities as well as anti-personnel mines and explosive devices planted by the armed group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). 

OPT/Israel: Incidents resulting in damage to schools or interruption of education in Gaza and the West Bank by Israeli security forces and settlers increased from 9 cases in 2009 to 20 cases in 2010. These incidents included air strikes causing damage to schools and the presence of security forces within school grounds following search and arrest operations. Palestinian armed groups were responsible for 8 incidents related to access to education, including two attacks on UNRWA summer schools and a rocket attack near a kindergarten in Israel.

Philippines: There was an upward trend in reported attacks on schools, attributed partially to use of schools as polling stations during the 2010 elections. In 2010, 41 incidents, including attacks with improvised explosive devises and burnings, were recorded, compared to 10 in 2009. Incidents were attributed to the Armed Forces of the Philippines, as well as opposition armed groups and private militias. Eleven teachers were reported killed. Reports of military use of schools by government forces and state-backed militia also increased. 

Somalia: Al-Shabaab and other armed groups are increasingly attacking schools, education establishments and teachers. They are increasingly targeting students for recruitment and use in armed conflict. In South Central Somalia, 52 schools suspended operations and activities in May 2010 alone, due to growing demands by armed groups. In Mogadishu several schools were closed, damaged and destroyed and students killed or injured due to clashes between armed insurgents and forces of the Transitional Federal Government.

Yemen: By the end of 2010, approximately 43 percent of schools in the northern Sa’ada governorate were partially or completely destroyed due to mortar shelling and crossfire during the internal armed conflict between the government and Huthi rebels.
The Secretary-General’s report highlights a number of instances of use of schools by military forces and armed groups, including in Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Colombia, India, Philippines and Sri Lanka. Although it does not mention the use of schools by military forces or armed groups in Thailand or Yemen, GCPEA members have documented the use of schools in both of these contexts in 2010. 

“Attacks on schools” versus “Attacks on education”

Technically the UN Security Council designates “attacks on schools and hospitals” as one of the six grave violations against children in armed conflict. Yet, the reality on the ground shows that attacks are not only perpetrated against school infrastructure. Documentation from the UN and other sources also shows patterns of attacks against students or education personnel, including targeted killings, abductions and threats. In some country situations, MRM teams already monitor and report on such attacks, which can be just as effective at shutting down schools as direct attacks on school buildings, with equally severe consequences for children. In some countries, armed groups target teachers or school personnel instead of school buildings and use schools as venues for recruiting children. Moreover, the UN Security-Council has expressed concern about a range of attacks on education, including attacks on schools, educational facilities, teachers and pupils, and military use of schools.[11]

What Constitutes an Attack on Education?

Attacks on education are any intentional threat or use of force against students, educators and education institutions. Attacks may be carried out for political, military, ideological, sectarian, ethnic, religious or criminal reasons. State security forces, including armed forces, law enforcement, paramilitary or militia forces acting on behalf of the state, as well as non-state armed groups may perpetrate attacks on education. 

Students, educators and education institutions may be victims of attacks on education. Educators can include schoolteachers, administrators and other education personnel, members of teacher unions, and education aid workers. Education institutions are any sites used for the purposes of education, including buildings dedicated to the work of education ministries and other education administration, as well as places of non-formal education such as tents, under trees or in private homes. Types of attacks include: 

• Physical attacks on school buildings and other places of education;
• Attacks or threats of attack directed at students and educators at education institutions, including abduction, recruitment by armed groups for military service or forced labor, sexual violence, targeted killings, threats and harassment and other violations;
• Attacks while going to or coming from an education institution or elsewhere because of their status as students or educators;
• Attacks on pro-education activists, including teacher unions or any teaching group, because of their activism; and
• Attacks on education personnel, such as administrators and maintenance workers, and education aid workers.

Basis under International Law

• Attacks on education as war crimes and crimes against humanity: During situations of armed conflict, attacks on education may violate international humanitarian and criminal law and constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity as set out in the 1907 Hague Regulations, the 1949 Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and customary international humanitarian law.[12] According to the Rome Statute it is a war crime to intentionally direct attacks against buildings dedicated to education, provided they are not military objectives.[13]  
• Right to education: Attacks on education may violate or deny children’s fundamental right to education, a right that is applicable at all times and enshrined in key international human rights treaties, including the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.   

Military Use of Schools

Whenever it occurs, military use of schools almost always has a detrimental effect on children. Although there is no absolute ban in international humanitarian law on the use of school buildings as military bases or for other deployments, international humanitarian law does require parties to a conflict to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians under their control from attacks, and to remove, as feasible, all civilians and civilian objects from areas where they are deployed. Thus it is unlawful to use a school simultaneously as an armed stronghold and as an educational center. 

Moreover, in countries where government security forces use schools as military bases, there is rarely an understanding that prolonged use of school buildings can interfere with the government’s obligation under international human rights law to protect children’s access to education. The use of education institutions for military purposes may deny students’ right to education; place students and educators at unnecessary risk of attack in violation of international humanitarian law; or place students and educators at unnecessary risk of abuses of their fundamental rights to personal security by occupying forces. Military use of schools both disrupts students’ education and may itself provoke attacks from opposing forces, putting students at risk even after security forces have left the premises. The UN Security Council has urged parties to armed conflict to refrain from actions that impede children’s access to education, including the use of schools for military operations.[14] 
MRM Triggers

For a full decade, the UN Security Council has shown a strong commitment to addressing grave violations committed against children in situations of armed conflict. The Council has adopted seven resolutions (1261, 1314, 1379, 1460, 1539, 1612 and 1882) on this topic, created an unprecedented working group and initiated a Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism (MRM) on grave violations against children in armed conflict. The MRM is currently operational in 13 countries and has informal activities in several others. The SRSG-CAAC makes regular field visits to support the efforts of MRM Country Task Forces to engage with parties to conflict to stop violations against children. For the most part, these mechanisms have focused on ending the recruitment and use of children by armed forces and non-state armed groups. They have yielded notable and tangible successes, including the release of thousands of children from fighting forces, changes in recruitment policies and practices, and the commitment to concrete action plans by both governments and non-state actors. However, attention and progress on other equally grave and widespread violations against children has lagged behind.

The MRM is triggered into action when the UN Secretary-General names, in the annexes of his annual report on children and armed conflict, parties to armed conflict who commit grave violations of children’s rights. Following the listing, states in control of territories where these armed forces or groups operate are obligated to allow the UN to set up the MRM and monitor all six grave violations. Originally, the Secretary-General only listed parties that recruited or used children in his annual report. In 2009, the Security Council expanded the “trigger” of the MRM to also include killing or maiming children and rape and other grave forms of sexual violence against children. This important advancement has afforded greater attention to these two violations, reaffirming the Security Council’s continued commitment to seeking an end to all grave violations against children in armed conflict.

A practical next step for the Security Council to reaffirm its commitment to addressing all six grave violations against children is to expand the MRM trigger to include attacks on schools. 

Rationale for expanding the MRM trigger

Increase Priority Attention

To date the UN Security Council’s attention to attacks against education has been weak, despite its expression of concern about attacks or threats of attacks on several occasions. An expansion of the MRM trigger to include attacks on schools would give necessary and warranted attention to this growing problem, highlight the grave nature of this violation, and help promote better protection strategies for students and other education personnel.

End Impunity

An expansion of the trigger would significantly increase the potential of action plans to provide better protection for children in armed conflict and end impunity for perpetrators of violations against them. The UN Security Council has repeatedly called for parties to armed conflict to enter into dialogue with the UN to develop and implement time-bound action plans to end violations against children, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, killing and maiming of children and rape and other forms of grave sexual violence against children. To date the UN has signed action plans with 14 of the parties to armed conflict listed in the Secretary-General’s annexes for violations against children. Expanding the trigger would enable the UN and armed forces or groups to include measures to halt attacks on schools in future action plans and provide greater protection to schoolchildren, as well as education personnel.  Adding parties to the Secretary-General’s list of violators specifically for attacks on schools would send strong signals to perpetrators about the serious consequences of committing such violations.

Feasibility

The MRM is already in operation in the vast majority of situations where this violation occurs. Moreover, in practice, the MRM already monitors attacks on schools and in some cases also monitors other threats to children’s education. For example, the 2011 Secretary-General’s annual report on children and armed conflict reports on threats and intimidation leading to school closures in countries including Afghanistan and Iraq; military use of schools in Central African Republic, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and India; and killing of students and school personnel in Afghanistan and Thailand.  It is realistic to monitor targeted attacks on education because they are quantifiable and, similar to other violations that currently trigger the MRM, they are intentional acts committed by individual perpetrators who can be held accountable for their actions. Armed forces and groups can reasonably be expected to adopt policies against attacks on education and take measures to hold perpetrators accountable. Finally, progress in ending attacks on education can be measured, facilitating monitoring efforts and encouraging incentive for change.  

Proposals for Action by the UN Security Council

Expand the MRM trigger to incorporate attacks against schools in situations of armed conflict, including patterns of attacks against students or education personnel. This proposal reiterates the recommendation made by the UN Secretary-General in his most recent report on children and armed conflict.[15] It is an urgent and logical next step needed to demonstrate the Security Council’s commitment to addressing this global problem and to provide more comprehensive protection for children. The inclusion of patterns of attacks against students or education personnel reflects the reality that attacks on schools are not limited to infrastructure. Restricting the trigger to attacks on school buildings alone may give parties to armed conflict an incentive to shift their attacks from infrastructure to students and personnel. 

Request the MRM system to monitor attacks on education on a systematic and comprehensive basis. Attacks on education in conflict include not only attacks on school buildings, but also threats or attacks on students, educators and education institutions, and the use of schools for military operations. UN country teams on the ground can and should monitor, report and respond to these broader phenomena, given their equally devastating effects for children and their communities. In practice, the MRM in some country situations already monitors this broader category, but more comprehensive and systematic monitoring of attacks on education in all relevant situations will ensure greater attention and better reporting and programmatic response. It may also create a deterrent effect for potential future perpetrators. 

Request action plans to include time-bound commitments to end attacks on schools, including patterns of attack against students or education personnel. Including measures to halt attacks on schools in action plans would presumably have a protective effect for students and education personnel; would help restore children’s access to education; and would contribute to seeking accountability for perpetrators. For example, action plans could include disciplinary measures against members of armed groups or forces who carry out threats or attacks against schoolchildren, teachers or other relevant personnel, and steps to restore children’s access to education. 

Urge parties to refrain from actions that impede access to education, including the use of schools for military purposes. In its 2010 Presidential Statement, UN Security Council called upon all parties to armed conflict to immediately cease attacks or threats of attack on schools, education facilities, teachers and students. In 2009, the Council urged parties to armed conflict to refrain from actions that impede children’s access to education, in particular the use of schools for military operations and other attacks or threats of attacks on schools that are prohibited by applicable international law.[16] Reiterating this call would help establish a new international norm against such practices and to recognize the negative impact on children when armed forces or groups use school facilities.

 

——————————————————————————–

[1] United Nations, Children and Armed Conflict Report of the Secretary-General, S/2011/250, April 2011.
[2] UNESCO, EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011: The hidden crisis: Armed conflict and education, 2011.
[3] United Nations, Children and Armed Conflict Report of the Secretary-General, S/2011/250, April 2011.
[4] United Nations, Statement by the President of the Security Council, S/PRST/2010/10, 2010.
[5] United Nations, Statement by the President of the Security Council, S/PRST/2009/9, 2009.
[6] United Nations, Children and Armed Conflict Report of the Secretary-General, S/2011/250, April 2011.
[7] UNESCO, Education Under Attack 2007, 2007.
[8] UNESCO and Oxford University Press, EFA Global Monitoring Report 2010: Reaching the Marginalized, 2010.
[9] UNESCO, EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011: The hidden crisis: Armed conflict and education, 2011.
[10] United Nations, Children and Armed Conflict Report of the Secretary-General, S/2011/250, April 2011.
[11] United Nations, Statement by the President of the Security Council, S/PRST/2009/9 and S/PRST/2010/10.
[12] These include the following prohibitions: Deliberate attacks on civilians (including students and educators); deliberate attacks on civilian objects (including education institutions not being used for military purposes); failing to take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians (such as using education institutions for military purposes while students and teachers remain present); and using students and teachers as human shields by preventing civilians from leaving from education institutions that are being controlled by a military force.
[13] Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, War Crimes, Article 8(2)(b)(ix).
[14] United Nations, Statement by the President of the Security Council, S/PRST/2009/9, 2009.
[15] United Nations, Children and Armed Conflict Report of the Secretary-General, S/2011/250, April 2011.
[16] United Nations, Statement by the President of the Security Council, S/PRST/2009/9, 2009.

June 2011