Global unity and action are needed to protect education from attacks amid ongoing conflicts, participants at an international event held in Qatar’s capital Doha highlighted.
The event, organized by the Doha-based Education Above All (EAA) foundation, entitled "Education in Peril: The Human Cost of War," marked on Monday the fifth observance of the Sept. 9 International Day to Protect Education from Attack (IDPEA).
"Education is the vessel that will carry children to a bright future. But attacks on education destroy the lives of teachers and students and leave nothing but emptiness, annihilating their future," said Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, the mother of Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, in her opening keynote address.
"There is no doubt that those who target education know what they are doing and do so with premeditation," she said and called for urgent global action to protect education from attack, particularly regarding the ongoing conflict in Gaza, where Israel's attacks brought education to a halt, raising fears of a lost generation.
"Gaza is being subjected to brutal bombardment – a genocide marked by massacres that are taking place every day. One of the most atrocious was the massacre of more than a hundred displaced Palestinians, killed as they took shelter in the Tab’een School in Al Daraj district," Sheikha Moza bint Nasser said.
Gaza exposed ‘imagined veil of civility’
Sheikha Moza also criticized the international community for lack of action against Israel’s attacks on Gaza. "If a similar massacre was committed by another country in Asia or Africa, the international community would have rushed, with no hesitation, to condemn and sanction it."
Israel’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip has killed more than 40,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured over 94,200 others, according to local health authorities. An ongoing blockade of the enclave has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine, leaving much of the region in ruins. Israel faces accusations of genocide for its actions in Gaza at the International Court of Justice.
"What we are witnessing in Gaza has stripped away the world’s imagined veil of civility unmasking its sheer brutality. We thought the world was civilized, but it was not so. This brutality extends beyond those who commit crimes and kill women and children. It includes all who have supported this depraved aggression with funds and weapons. It includes those who watch what is happening in Gaza; those who encourage it in private or in public; and those who choose to remain silent."
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) data shows that more than 625,000 students in Gaza now have no access to formal education. As of Aug. 27, Israeli attacks had killed 9,839 students and 411 educational staff, while 85% (477 out of 564) of school buildings had been directly hit or damaged and require reconstruction (as of July 6th).
Int’l community failed to protect education
She also highlighted that the international community has failed to protect students and education from attacks during the ongoing conflicts around the world.
"The reality is that the violence continues and the displacement of millions continues and attacks on education continue. In Sudan, Ukraine, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Colombia, innocent students pay an incalculable price for bitter division. We – the international community – have failed to protect education and we have failed to protect students," she said.
According to the 2024 report by the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, attacks on education have increased by 20% compared to previous years. In 2022 and 2023 alone, over 10,000 students and educators were killed, injured, abducted, or harmed in such attacks, with explosive weapons used in one-third of these incidents. Palestine, Sudan, Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Myanmar are among the most affected countries.
Approximate data also show that more than 72 million children worldwide are out of school due to conflict, with 53% of them being girls and 17% facing functional difficulties, while 21% have been forcibly displaced. The ongoing attacks on education disrupt learning and have severe short- and long-term consequences for individuals and societies.
During the event, a high-level panel was also held, which included Ahmad Awad bin Mubarak, Prime Minister of Yemen, the first lady of Sierra Leone Fatima Maada Bio, the first lady of Gambia Fatoumatta Bah-Barrow, spouse of Prime Minister of Malaysia Dr. Wan Azizah binti Wan Ismail, first lady of Brazil Rosângela Lula da Silva, the first lady of Bosnia-Herzegovina Mirela Bećirović, the first lady of Greek Cypriot administration Philippa Karsera-Christodoulides, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of the State of Palestine Varsen Aghabekian, Advisor to President of the Republic of Uzbekistan Saida Shavkatovna Mirziyoyeva, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Liberia Sara Beysolow Nyanti and Virginia Gamba, U.N. SRSG for Children and Armed Conflict.
The EAA is a global foundation established in 2012 by Sheikha Moza bint Nasser and describes its aim as transforming lives through education. It reaches out to children and youth in conflict areas through its Educate A Child (EAC), Al Fakhoora, Reach Out To Asia (ROTA), Protect Education in Insecurity and Conflict (PEIC), Innovation Development (ID) and Together projects. Through the initiatives of Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser and the State of Qatar, The United Nations General Assembly recognizes Sept. 9 as the U.N. International Day to Protect Education from Attack.