Dr. Ewelina U. Ochab, Contributor

On September 9, the world observes the International Day to Protect Education from Attack, a day established by the U.N. General Assembly to raise awareness of the plight of millions of children living in countries affected by conflict. The day should be used to affirm the importance of safeguarding schools as places of protection and safety for students and educators and working to make it happen. As attacks on education continue, action is urgently needed. No child should fear for their lives at school. No child should have to choose between education and staying safe.

In the period between 2022 and 2023, the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (the Coalition), an inter-agency coalition formed in 2010 to address the problem of targeted attacks on education during armed conflict, identified around 6,000 attacks on students, educators, schools, and universities, as well as cases of parties to conflict using educational facilities for military purposes. As the Coalition analyzed, attacks on education and military use increased by nearly 20% in 2022 and 2023 compared to the two previous years. Furthermore, according to their new report, more than 10,000 students and educators were killed, injured, abducted, arrested, or otherwise harmed by attacks on education in those two years. The number of students, teachers, professors, and education staff killed or injured increased by over 10% compared to the two previous years.

The Coalition further identified that in 2022 and 2023:

• The highest numbers of attacks on education were recorded in Palestine, Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and Myanmar. In each country, hundreds of schools were threatened, looted, burned, targeted with improvised explosive devices, or hit by shelling or airstrikes.
• India, Pakistan, Palestine, and Afghanistan had high reported numbers of people harmed or killed in attacks on education – injured or killed in attacks, targeted in abductions or arrests, or harmed en route to or from school or university.
• Attacks on education increased in Ukraine, Sudan, Palestine, Syria, and Nigeria, as compared to the previous two years.

The report details how the escalation of the war in Ukraine translated into an increase in attacks on schools and universities – attacks involving artillery shelling, rockets, and airstrikes. The conflict in Sudan, which erupted in April 2023, has seen a wave of attacks on educational facilities and their military use. Attacks on education in Palestine peaked in October 2023, following the Hamas attack on Israel and the escalation of hostilities. In Syria, the Coalition recorded an increase in cases of children being recruited while on their way to school, and schools coming under increasing attacks. In Nigeria, the military use of schools rose, while abductions from schools continued.

The U.N. reported that in 2023 alone, 32,990 grave violations were verified against 22,557 children, with 5,301 being killed – the equivalent of almost 15 children killed every day. The U.N. indicated that the highest numbers of grave violations were verified in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, Somalia, Nigeria, and the Sudan. The U.N. attributed almost 50% of the violations to non-State armed groups, while “government forces were the main perpetrator of the killing and maiming of children, attacks on schools and hospitals, and the denial of humanitarian access.” The U.N. also identified a significant increase of 21% in attacks against children in armed conflicts and a 35% increase in the number of instances of killing and maiming.

The reported increase of attacks on education, despite the increased awareness of such attacks constituting violations of international humanitarian law, and many of them meeting the legal definition of international crimes, require urgent attention.

In 2024, the 5th Observance of the International Day to Protect Education from Attack is convened in Doha, Qatar, as a High-Level Panel led by Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Education Above All Foundation (EEA) and U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Advocate. The High-Level Panel on “Education in Peril: The Human Cost of War” will focus on the devastating impact of war on children and on the loss of education opportunities for entire generations who have been displaced due to prolonged and widespread conflict.

As attacks on education rage on and are on the increase, one must stress the importance of education as a catalyst to ensure social cohesion and more sustainable and peaceful societies. Attacks on education are crimes, crimes that must be addressed with all the tools in the toolkit to put an end to the culture of impunity for such attacks. Accountability is key to ensuring justice for victims/survivors and their families, but also to prevent future atrocities. Justice and accountability are key to prevention.