The Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack just released a  study that identifies 70 countries where attacks occurred between 2009 and 2012, including 30 where there was a pattern of deliberate attacks:

Education Under Attack 2014 is a global study that charts the scale and nature of attacks on education; highlights their impact on education – including on students, teachers and facilities; and documents the ways that governments, local communities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and UN agencies try to reduce the impact of such violence and prevent future attacks. In doing so, it provides the most extensive documentation of attacks on education to date.

Following earlier studies that UNESCO published in 2007 and 2010, it not only examines attacks on schools, as previous research has done, but also considers military use of education facilities and more closely examines attacks on higher education.

The study’s four main aims are to:

1. better inform international and national efforts to prevent schools, universities, students, teachers, academics and other education staff from being attacked;
2. encourage the investigation, prosecution and punishment of the perpetrators of attacks;
3. share knowledge about effective responses;
4. and help those who have been attacked to recover and rebuild their lives by providing recommendations for action that the international community, governments and armed non-state groups should adopt and implement.

The Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA) is a coalition of organizations that include: the Council for Assisting Refugee Academics (CARA), Human Rights Watch, the Institute of International Education/IIE’s Scholar Rescue Fund, Protect Education in Insecurity and Conflict, Save the Children, the Scholars at Risk Network, UNESCO, UNHCR and UNICEF. GCPEA is a project of the Tides Center, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization.

The Global Coalition calls for widespread adoption of the “Lucens Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use during Armed Conflict.” The Guidelines draw on international human rights and humanitarian law as well as good practice to preserve education as a safe zone in armed conflicts.

The main parts of Education under Attack 2014 are:

• a summary providing an overview of the main points and key recommendations.
• a methodology section outlining the methods used in the research and the principal challenges faced;
• a global overview providing a more detailed picture of the scale, nature, motives and impact of attacks on education and the variety of responses that are being, or could be, made;
• three thematic essays offering more depth about how schools and universities can best be protected;
• profiles of the 30 most seriously affected countries, providing an insight into the context in which attacks take place, a detailed record of reported attacks on education during 2009-2012 and an outline of attacks during the first nine months of 2013; and
• endnotes providing citations for every piece of information used in the study.

Maps:

• Attacks on Education: [Arabic] [English] [French] [Spanish]
• Military Use of Schools and Universities: [Arabic][English] [French] [Spanish]
• Attacks on Higher Education: [Arabic][English] [French] [Spanish]

Source: Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack