The number of countries signed up to the international guidelines aimed at protecting schools in conflict zones, known as the Safe Schools Declaration, has reached 100.
More than half the countries in the world have endorsed the declaration, with Ukraine signing yesterday (November 20) on the 30th anniversary of the UN convention on rights of the child.
Steven Haines, Professor of Public International Law at the University of Greenwich, who drafted the guidelines, has been working with the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA) to campaign for countries to commit to safeguarding schools in war zones.
Professor Haines said: "Access to education is a fundamental human right and the fact that more than half the world's countries are now committed to protecting schools and other educational organisations during combat is excellent news. We are beginning to see evidence that these guidelines are having an impact on the ground. States and non-state actors are starting to take important measures to protect education in conflict zones. In Syria, for example, the Free Syrian Army has stated its commitment to prohibiting the militarization of schools.
"We will continue campaigning for more countries to endorse the Safe Schools Declaration and the next step will be to monitor states and compile an annual report detailing the extent to which countries are complying with the guidelines."
The impact of armed conflict on education is an urgent humanitarian challenge. A United Nations report released in June 2019, stated that attacks on schools and hospitals had a devastating impact on access to education and health for thousands of children, with a total of 1,023 verified attacks.
According to a GCPEA report published in 2018, students of all ages, teachers, academics, teachers' unions, and education institutions were the target of intentional attacks for political, military, ideological, sectarian, ethnic, or religious reasons from 2013 to 2018. The report documented different types of attacks on educational institutions including killings, disappearances, torture, imprisonment and destruction of educational buildings and materials.
A specialist in international security and humanitarian law, Professor Haines developed the guidelines after more than two years of extensive consultations with governments, militaries, UN agencies and civil society.
Professor Haines added: "My work here at the University of Greenwich is to develop guidelines to influence and improve compliance with public international law, and it is encouraging to see the impact this research is having on the lives of children and people working in education in conflict zones."
As well as developing the Safe Schools Declaration, Professor Haines also worked on the Geneva Declaration on Human Rights at Sea, which aims to ensure that the same human rights that are protected on land, are also protected at sea. This is a development initiated by the NGO Human Rights at Sea and authored by researchers from the NGO, the University of Basel, the University of Milano-Bicocca, and the University of Greenwich.
