GCPEA Publication Enhancing Accountability for Attacks on Education: Guidance on Investigating and Prosecuting Education-Related Crimes

To mark the International Day of Education, GCPEA is publishing a new Guide Enhancing Accountability for Attacks on Education: Guidance on Investigating and Prosecuting Education-Related Crimes – Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack

Despite attacks on education rising globally and 121 States who have committed to investigate and prosecute education related crimes by endorsing the Safe Schools Declaration, there continues to be a widespread lack of accountability and persistent impunity for these crimes, as denounced by Security Council resolution 2601 (2021). This, not only compounds the victimization of survivors and their communities, but also weakens the rule of law and undermines the prospects of preventing and deterring future crimes.

GCPEA’s Guide makes an evidence-based case for the greater consideration of education-related crimes by domestic and international accountability mechanisms in light of their scale, gravity, and devastating impacts on the lives of children and affected communities. It offers a wide-range of recommendations for States, accountability mechanisms, UN entities and civil society organisations that can be relevant to your work and foster cross-sectoral collaboration. It also provides technical guidance on the type of evidence that may be relevant to establishing the commission of education-related crimes; as well as an overview of available legal charges under the Rome Statute for two specific crimes which have received comparatively less attention, namely attacking buildings dedicated to education as a war crime and the severe deprivation of the right to education as the crime against humanity of persecution.