Education Under Attack 2014
Posted April 15, 2016
Education Under Attack 2014 is a global study examining threats or deliberate use of force against students, teachers, academics, education trade union members, government officials, aid workers and other education staff, and against schools, universities and other education institutions, carried out for political, military, ideological, sectarian, ethnic or religious reasons in 2009-2013; and military use of education buildings and facilities.
The report focuses on targeted attacks by state military and security forces and armed non-state groups on education facilities, students or staff, not death, injury or destruction resulting from being caught in crossfire. It does not examine school attacks by lone armed individuals with none of the above-listed motives or affiliations.
This study is the most comprehensive examination of attacks on education to date. Based on extensive data gathering for the period 2009-2012 and information on key incidents in the first nine months of 2013, it finds that over the past five years, armed non-state groups, state military and security forces, and armed criminal groups have attacked thousands of schoolchildren, university students, teachers, academics and education establishments in at least 70 countries worldwide. The study reports in detail on 30 countries where there was a significant pattern of attacks in the five-year reporting period and lists 40 other countries where isolated attacks took place. It concludes that targeted attacks on education and incidents of military use of schools and universities are occurring in far more countries and far more extensively than previously documented. It is not known whether this reflects growing awareness of the problem and more and better reporting of such attacks since the earlier studies were published or an actual increase in the number of attacks.
This study is published by the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA), an inter-agency coalition formed in 2010 by organizations working in the fields of education in emergencies and conflict-affected contexts, higher education, protection, international human rights and humanitarian law who were concerned about ongoing attacks on educational institutions, their students and staff in countries affected by conflict and insecurity.