A special article titled "Children are being killed, schools turn into cemeteries: even in war conditions, this cannot be ignored" by the UN Special Envoy for Global Education and former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown (2007-2010) has been published in "The Guardian".
According to Medianews.az, the article states that the bombing of schools and the killing of children is a gross violation of international law, and those who commit such crimes must be held accountable.
The author writes that on February 28, the bombing of the Shajare Tayyiba school located in the Iranian city of Minab, which killed 168 people mostly schoolgirls, shocked the world community. The attack, which happened during lesson time, destroyed the school building, and the classrooms turned into a mass grave.
Gordon Brown notes that the issue of responsibility for the incident is controversial. US President Donald Trump stated that the attack was not connected to the US and claimed it might have been carried out by Iran. However, during BBC's investigation, evidence emerged showing that US-made "Tomahawk" missiles fell near the school. The investigation found no evidence that a separate missile fired by Iran had fallen at the scene.
The article emphasizes that attacks on schools are not confined to one country or conflict. Thousands of children lose their lives, and hundreds of thousands of students are deprived of their right to education due to various armed conflicts worldwide. For example, according to research, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian students in Gaza and the West Bank along the Jordan River have been deprived of educational opportunities, with most schools in the region destroyed or damaged.
Gordon Brown writes that international humanitarian law – including the Geneva Conventions and the Convention on the Rights of the Child – strictly prohibits attacks on schools and children. According to the Rome Statute, attacks on educational institutions are war crimes, and those who order or knowingly carry out such attacks must be held accountable before international courts.
The author believes that existing mechanisms are insufficient to protect children. In his opinion, the creation of a special international tribunal for crimes against children should be discussed to handle cases such as the bombing of schools, abduction of students, and exploitation of children by armed groups.
At the end of the article, Gordon Brown stresses that schools should not become battlefields. In his view, the world community must send a clear message: regardless of where they operate or whose orders they follow, leaders who attack children will find no place to hide.