Timely and accurate monitoring and reporting on attacks on education is crucial for responding to attacks, for holding perpetrators accountable, and for seeking to prevent attacks from occurring in the first place.
Who We Are
Children attend school in South Kivu province, Mwenga Territory, Democratic Republic of the Congo. It has been difficult to construct schools in communities in this region due to years of war.
© SOS Education 2010
The Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA) was established in 2010 by organizations from the fields of education in emergencies and conflict-affected fragile states, higher education, protection, international human rights, and international humanitarian law who were concerned about on-going attacks on educational institutions, their students, and staff in countries affected by conflict and insecurity.
GCPEA is governed by a steering committee made up of the following international organizations: Council for Assisting Refugee Academics (CARA), Education Above All (EAA), Education International (EI), Human Rights Watch (HRW), Save the Children International (SCI), UNESCO, UNHCR, and UNICEF. The Institute of International Education (IIE) currently serves as GCPEA’s fiscal and administrative agent.
Our Vision
We seek to establish a world in which all who wish to learn, teach and research, at all levels and in all forms of education, and all those who support them, can do so in conditions of safety, security, dignity and equality, free from fear, consistent with the principles of mutual understanding, peace, tolerance and academic freedom.
Mission Statement
To catalyse enhanced prevention of attacks on education, effective response to attacks, improved knowledge and understanding, better monitoring and reporting, stronger international norms and standards, and increased accountability.
Our Goals
- To highlight the incidence and impact of attacks on education in conflict-affected and fragile situations among key actors, and cultivate public support for education in safe and secure environments
- To promote the strengthening of existing monitoring and reporting systems as well as the creation of new systems where needed
- To promote effective, coherent, timely and evidence-based programmatic measures, including prevention and response
- To encourage adherence to existing international law protecting education and the strengthening of international norms and standards as needed
- To fight impunity for attacks on education by promoting and supporting a range of accountability measures.
Initiatives
In order to protect education from attack, field based practitioners, communities and government education actors in a number of affected countries have developed a range of measures and programs to reduce or prevent attacks on teachers, students and education institutions.
The use of education institutions by militaries and armed groups during situations of conflict and insecurity can disrupt or completely deny education in both the immediate and long terms.