1. Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research (HPCR) Harvard University Education and Armed Conflict:Development of New Norms? June 10, 2010

2. Welcome to the 2010 IHL Forum Live Seminar Series Produced by the Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research Welcoming over 400 registered participants from more than 70 different countries Bringing in guest speakers from around the world Purpose: To promote information exchange and discussion among humanitarian professional regarding contemporary legal and policy challenges.

6. What motives underlie attacks on education?

7. Who and what are the targets of attacks on education?

8. What level and type of (legal) protection do educational institutions enjoy compared to hospitals and religious buildings?

9. Which protection norms can best strengthen accountability, diminish impunity, and deter attacks on education? These questions will be examined by looking at the legal frameworks, policy considerations, and operational challenges facing humanitarian actors.

10. Panelists Brendan O’Malley Journalist Professor Peter Rowe Lancaster University Law School (UK) Julia Freedson Global Coalition for Protecting Education from Attack Bede Sheppard Human Rights Watch

11. Brendan O’Malley is a freelance journalist and author, who specializes in writing about education, development and conflict. He works as an independent consultant for UNESCO and Education International and wrote the two Education under Attack studies which were launched at the UN headquarters in 2007 and 2010 and helped to put this issue on the international agenda. He addressed the 18 March 2009 UN General Assembly thematic debate on Education and Emergencies on this topic and has written numerous articles and made two television documentaries on the issue. A former international editor of The Times Educational Supplement, he is a founding board member of University World News and has reported on education, development and conflict issues from many countries around the world. As an author he has been shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for political writing in the UK.

12. Attacks on education Military and political violence against students, teachers, academics, education support staff, officials, trade unionists and aid workers, and against schools, colleges, universities

13. Types of attack in 31 countries Killings, injury, abduction, illegal detention, torture, recruitment as child combatants/suicide bombers/forced labour, sexual violence, damage or destruction of facilities, military occupation of schools, use of schools for political programmes, threats of any of these Worst affected: Afghanistan, Colombia, DR Congo, Georgia, Haiti, India, Iraq, Nepal, Pakistan, Palestinian Autonomous Territories, Thailand, Somalia, Zimbabwe

14. Examples of worst affected Afghanistan: 439 teachers, employees and students killed 2006-9. Pakistan: 393 schools damaged or destroyed in NWFP in two years Iraq: 2007-9: 117 academics, teachers, students and officials killed, 90 students kidnapped Colombia: 117 teachers and students assassinated 2006-9. 312 death threats at one university; 435 death threats against education staff in 2007-09 Gaza: 300 schools and universities damaged or severely damaged in three weeks 2008/9

15. Impact on education system Reported short-term effects Injuries to students and staff, damage to buildings and facilities Exponential effect of fear causes closure of surrounding schools, and teachers and students decide to stay at home Potential long-term effects Teachers/ students drop out, de-motivated, distracted, traumatized Recruitment/enrollment drops off; repairs put off; investment shelved; aid support suspended/limited; higher education skills, knowledge lost

16. To address the motives, we must first find out what they are: Four categories of reported motive: Tactical: increase fragility to help win war Ideological: oppose the type of education Repressive: to strengthen power by force Logistical: seize resources to fuel the war

17. Improve monitoring and research Establish global monitoring system for full range of education attacks Establish common indicators/data sets Improve UN monitoring: make attacks on schools a trigger violation and support capacity of education agencies to join in the monitoring

18. Improve prevention, risk avoidance and recovery Increase troop presence in schools and camps, provide teacher escorts, secure transport Encourage community defence of schools and sense of ownership of education Negotiate curriculum or ethos compromises Negotiate respect of schools as sanctuaries Address education grievances in peace agreements Rapid repair; good psychosocial support

19. Improve deterrence in law Raise profile of education in IHL? Ban conversion of schools to military use Criminalize attacks on schools in national law Push for high-profile ICC investigations Train commanders and troops specifically in protection of education in IHL Develop international guidelines on duty to protect the right to education during war and insecurity

20. Peter Rowe (LL.B, LL.M, Ph.D, Barrister) is a Professor at Lancaster University Law School (UK). He currently teaches International Humanitarian Law, War Crimes Trials, and the Law of Evidence. Professor Rowe has also taught at the University of Liverpool and was Professor and Head of the Department of Law there from 1988-93. He has been chairman of the U.K. Group of the International Society for Military Law and the Laws of War. He was the Inaugural Sir Ninian Stephen Visiting Scholar at the Asia Pacific Centre for Military law, Faculty of Laws, University of Melbourne (June/July 2003). His main research interests lie in the fields of military law and the international laws of war and the relationship between them. His latest book is The Impact of Human Rights Law on Armed Forces (2006, Cambridge University Press). He has given papers in Australia, New Zealand, Norway, USA, Sweden, Germany, Holland, France, Poland, Ukraine, Moldova, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago and the Cayman Islands.

21. Overview of the Legal Framework Prof Peter Rowe Lancaster University Law School, England

22. The Relevant Bodies of Law International humanitarian law (law of war) International human rights law National law of the state National law of a state sending armed forces (e.g., RoE, military law) Rebels “law”

23. International Humanitarian Law Geneva Conventions 1949; Additional Protocols 1977; customary IHL Applicable only in ‘armed conflict’ Intentionally directing attacks against buildings dedicated to education/military objective Weapons particularly affecting school children Individual responsibility

24. International Human Rights Law Number of treaties, e.g., ICCPR, ICESCR, RoC, regional treaties Apply whether armed conflict or not Reporting, monitoring, enforcement

25. National Law Can be the most effective body of law to prevent or punish especially if linked to military law OR strong civilian judicial system Rebels’ “law”

26. New or Old Norms? Preventing educational buildings becoming military objectives. Difficulties. Developing awareness of effect of interruption during armed conflict of education: ‘arm or education’? Landmines/child soldiers. Special agreements in non-international armed conflict. Holding individuals accountable.

27. Julia Freedson is an independent international affairs consultant. Currently she is the Senior Strategy and Advocacy Consultant for the new Global Coalition for Protecting Education from Attack (GCPEA), which is led by an interim Steering Committee of seven major international organizations, including both UN agencies and non-governmental organizations. Ms. Freedson was the founding Director of the Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict, an international network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that documents a spectrum of violations against children in war zones across the globe and uses this information to influence the UN Security Council and other policy makers to protect children’s security and rights. Ms. Freedson has conducted research and written on the impact of armed conflict on children and adolescents in Afghanistan, Burma, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and other sites. She has advocated extensively for the protection of children and adolescents from abuses such as killing, maiming, forced displacement, child soldiering, lack of access to healthcare and education, gender-based violence and the threat of HIV/AIDS. The New York Times, National Public Radio, BBC News and dozens of other media outlets around the world have covered Watchlist’s work. Previously Ms. Freedson worked in the areas of conflict resolution, Middle Eastern affairs and minority rights for the Anti-Defamation League, the UN Mission in Kosovo and other international organizations. Ms. Freedson holds a Master’s Degree from Colombia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and an undergraduate degree in International Affairs from Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

28. Global Coalition for Protecting Education from Attack (GCPEA) A Look at Monitoring, Reporting and Advocacy

29. Introduction to GCPEA GCPEA: Protecting Education

30. Introduction to GCPEA GCPEA: Protecting Education

31. Monitoring and Reporting on Attacks GCPEA: Protecting Education

32. Monitoring and Reporting on Attacks GCPEA: Protecting Education

33. Advocacy Targets GCPEA: Protecting Education

34. Further Reading UNESCO Protecting Education from Attack: A State-of-the-Art Review Education under Attack 2010 Save the Children The Future is Now: Education for Children in Countries Affected by Armed Conflict Human Rights Watch Lessons in Terror: Attacks on Education in Afghanistan Sabotaged Schooling: Naxalite Attacks and Police Occupation of Schools in India’s Bihar and Jharkhand States CARE Knowledge on Fire: Attacks on Education in Afghanistan Risks and Measures for Successful GCPEA: Protecting Education

35. Bede Sheppard is the Asia researcher in the Children's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, where he specializes in the issues of attacks on schools, teachers, and students; the occupation of schools by security forces; and child domestic workers. During his time with Human Rights Watch, he has conducted research and advocacy on India, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, and Australia. He has previously worked for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Croatia, and as an attorney in Washington DC conducting field investigations in Indonesia and South Africa for human rights litigation.

36. Accountability for Attacks on Education Two students walk through the burned remains of their school in Ban Payo village, SaiBuri district, Pattani, Thailand, just days after it was burned down in January 2010. © 2010 Bede Sheppard / Human Rights Watch 32

38. Domestic Civilian and Military Criminal Trials PaskoLjubicic, convicted by the State Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina on April 29, 2008 for war crimes for attacks on civilian objects. Earlier, he had been indicted by the ICTY for willful damage to institutions dedicated to education. Chief Kahwa, convicted by an Ituri District Military Court on August 1, 2006 on six charges, including the war crime of intentionally directing attacks against a primary school. (However, later acquitted by higher tribunal.)

39. International Tribunals PavleStrugar, convicted at ICTY for destruction of institutions dedicated to education President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan; indicted by ICC, but no charges for attacks on schools

40. Committee on the Rights of the Child

41. United Nations Monitoring and Reporting Mechanism © 2009 Bede Sheppard / Human Rights Watch An improvised explosive device placed by Maoist insurgent guerillas blew a hole in the wall between two classrooms at Belhara High School, Jharkhand, India, on April 9, 2009. In May 2010, the Maoist conflict in India was included for the first time in the Secretary-General’s report on children and armed conflict to the Security Council.

42. Are all “attacks” covered? An armed paramilitary police force sentry guard surveys the surrounding from inside the brick fortification on the roof of Matiabandhi High School, Jharkhand, India. © 2009 KennjiKizuka / Human Rights Watch

43. Questions and comments

44. Panelists Brendan O’Malley Journalist Professor Peter Rowe Lancaster University Law School (UK) Julia Freedson Global Coalition for Protecting Education from Attack Bede Sheppard Human Rights Watch

45. HostsClaude BruderleinNaz ModirzadehProducerElizabeth HollandTechnical DirectorJames BrockmanProduction TeamChristina Blunt, Angharad Laing, Dustin Lewis, Anaïde Nahikian & Catherine Sola

46. The Live Seminars on Humanitarian Law and Policy are produced by: Program on Humanitarian Policy and Conflict Research (HPCR) Harvard University Sponsored by: For more information on the Humanitarian Law and Policy Forum, please visit: http://ihlforum.ning.com or http://twitter.com/hpcr or contact: ihlforum@hpcr.org