The Brutal Reality of School Attacks: A Call for Stronger International Accountability

There are rules for this, and world leaders must insist that those rules are followed in both letter and spirit. Following the brutal incident in Iran, there is a need for a more effective tribunal for crimes against children.

The news that 168 people, primarily schoolgirls, were killed in a bomb attack at the Shazareh Tayebeh school in Minab, Iran, has shaken the conscience of the entire world.

The attack, which occurred about two weeks ago while classes were in session, reduced the school building to rubble. Parents who sent their daughters to school learned within minutes that those classrooms had become mass graves.

The mother of a student named Jenab, who had memorized the entire Quran and was preparing to participate in a national elocution contest, said tearfully: 'My dream died with her.' 

The United Nations Human Rights Panel has already demanded that these killings be 'investigated immediately, independently, and effectively, and that those responsible for any violations be held accountable.'

There is dispute over which country is responsible for this massacre. Over the weekend, Donald Trump claimed the US had no fault in the matter. Speaking on Air Force One, he said, 'We think Iran did it, because their weapon targeting is not accurate.'

However, on Monday, a BBC investigation presented evidence that several American Tomahawk missiles were fired and crashed around the school. They believe those missiles targeted the school and an adjacent medical clinic allegedly belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The BBC found no evidence of a separate Iranian missile strike falling in that location. 

Despite this, Trump stuck to his assertion, saying, 'Many other nations have Tomahawks. They buy them from us.' But according to initial and so far unofficial reports on Wednesday, the US Central Command may have set the 'target coordinates' based on outdated information for the attack.

Regardless of where the blame ultimately falls, this school massacre is not an isolated incident. According to reports, two students were killed in a bomb attack at another school, Hedayat High School, in Tehran's Narmak district on the same day.

In any conflict, children should never be 'collateral damage'—innocent victims killed even if not targeted. Yet, we know that more than 200 children have been killed in recent crackdowns by Iranian security forces. And according to a Cambridge University study, 740,000 Palestinian students in Gaza and the West Bank are not only deprived of their right to education, but 90% of schools in Gaza are completely destroyed or damaged, and at least 18,069 students and 780 teachers have lost their lives. Furthermore, UNICEF reported that at least 83 more children have been killed in Lebanon since March 2.

Schools, like hospitals, are accepted as safe havens, but in practice, they are treated more as part of civilian infrastructure.

This school bombing has exposed how weak the protective international legal framework becomes when the rivalry between superpowers and the testing of terrorist acts are involved. Schools, which should be safe havens, are increasingly being drawn into war, where defenseless students and teachers become easy targets. 

According to the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, more than 10,000 students and teachers were killed or injured in attacks on the education sector in 2022 and 2023. The growing trend of fighting wars in populated areas means that being a child on the street or in school is now as dangerous as being a soldier on the front line.

The Geneva Conventions, international humanitarian law, and the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child explicitly prohibit attacks on children and schools. Attacks on educational buildings are a war crime listed under Article 8 of the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court (ICC). Leaders who order, authorize, or knowingly permit such attacks must face arrest and prosecution. A precedent for this can be seen in the arrest warrant issued by the ICC against Joseph Kony, leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, citing his attacks on schools in Uganda.

It is also right to expose the two 'defenses' used by countries to claim impunity: first, denying that the attack was intentional or deliberate, and second, claiming that the school they attacked was being used for military purposes.

Although schools are accepted as safe places like hospitals, in practice, they are treated more as part of civilian infrastructure. This undermines a simple principle: schools are for learning, and they must never become an arena for war or a platform for military action. No child should die for attempting to learn, and those who attack innocent students must face legal accountability just like those who commit other crimes against humanity. 

Similarly, when the military occupies classrooms, stores ammunition in gymnasiums, or fires rockets from playgrounds, they erase the distinction between 'combatants and civilians' at the heart of humanitarian law and should be prosecuted.

We cannot stand idly by while another established international law governing the conduct of war is violated with impunity. The time has come to clearly warn every combatant that schools hold the same moral status as hospitals—the recognition of a safe place and the right to equal protection under international law.

It is also right to expose the two 'defenses' used by countries to claim impunity: first, denying that the attack was intentional or deliberate, and second, claiming that the school they attacked was being used for military purposes. These very loopholes allow many perpetrators of attacks on children to still claim defenses recognized in international law. 

However, under any reasonable interpretation of humanitarian law, those who attack schools are clearly failing in their legal duty to anticipate all known risks to children and provide them with shelter and protection as innocent civilians.

The work to strengthen the protection of children begins with all countries implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1612 from 2005, which established a monitoring and reporting mechanism for children affected by armed conflict. This followed the historic work of Graça Machel, who helped identify six grave violations of child rights, including not only the forced recruitment of child soldiers and the abduction of girls but also attacks on schools.

Continuing children's education even in the darkest hours of conflict is about keeping hope alive amidst destruction.

Based on these principles, the Lucerne Guidelines and the Safe Schools Declaration warned countries that military forces must be kept away from educational facilities. But now the world will need a stronger mechanism to ensure accountability. One option to emphasize the seriousness of these crimes is the creation of a separate and dedicated international criminal court for crimes against children. Such a body would work to complement the jurisdiction of the ICC by focusing on school bombings, abductions of students, and armed groups enslaving children. 

A parallel path could run through the European Court of Human Rights and other judicial systems, which could adopt special rules (protocols) for prosecuting attacks on educational facilities. And it would now make sense to issue a special protocol integrating the various aspects of criminal and humanitarian law that protect children.

Keeping schools open and safe amidst war is not just about the hours children spend in the classroom; it is a promise of a future beyond the rubble. For children, the classroom is stability; for parents, it signals that life goes on, however fragile it may be. 

Continuing children's education even in the darkest hours of conflict is about keeping hope alive amidst destruction. And when a school manages to reopen after an attack, it becomes a direct challenge to those who seek to push war-torn communities into endless despair.

But whatever else we do, we must send a clear message: there will be no place for leaders who permit attacks on children to hide, wherever they operate or under whose orders they act.

Gordon Brown is the UN Special Envoy for Global Education. He was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2007 to 2010.