Education Above All Foundation calls on those responsible for attacks on education to provide reparations to affected families and communities

Doha – New York, (September 8, 2021) – Education Above All (EAA), the global education foundation, today appealed for reparations and compensation for victims of attacks on education. The call was made ahead of a high-profile virtual event to mark the United Nations International Day for the Protection of Education from Attacks and comes as recently released figures show a dramatic increase in attacks on education in 2020, despite school closures linked to COVID-19. According to the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attacks (GCPEA) – of which EAA is a founding member – there were 2,400 documented attacks on education in 2020, a 33% increase since 2019 .

“Attacks on education around the world are on the rise every year, depriving millions of young people of a future. The students and staff who are killed or injured in these attacks are not collateral damage; they are victims of deliberate attacks, targeted in the very spaces where they should be able to learn and teach safely. It is time for the international community to move beyond calls for accountability and work on concrete ways to stop the attacks, ”said Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, EAA President and Defender of the Goals United Nations Sustainable Development Policy.

The EAA noted that international law already includes rules to hold perpetrators accountable and require them to pay reparations and compensation to victims. The EAA advocates for the application of these international rules in order to guarantee justice for the victims of attacks on education.

Thursday’s Protect Education for Lasting Peace virtual event provides a forum to discuss issues relating to accountability and justice for victims of violence against education. Co-organized by EAA, the Qatar Mission to the United Nations, UNICEF, UNESCO and the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, the day will bring together world leaders and United Nations, youth advocates, policy makers and academics. to discuss how to protect education and build lasting peace.

EAA’s appeal to the global community is part of its three-year program # UniteToProtect Global campaign to end attack education through collection of attack data as the basis for evidence-building, accountability, grassroots advocacy and sustainable peacebuilding.