This article describes how schools are used for military purposes in today's conflicts. It summarizes the latest data on the practice, before explaining how the military use of schools harms students’ and teachers’ safety and impedes students’ right to education. The article concludes by examining the diverse legal and military responses to this practice, and the foundation they lay for the 2015 Safe Schools Declaration and for further action.
Schools can, and should, be places of study and safety for children, even during war. The use of schools by armed forces, including as military bases, barracks, firing positions or munitions caches, may turn them into military objectives and thus render them lawful targets of attack during times of armed conflict...
