The World’s Other Malalas: Why Students, Teachers and Schools are Targeted in Today’s Wars

Around the world, in places experiencing armed conflict, schools and universities are being transformed into a part of the battlefield. Students, teachers, and schools have been deliberately targeted for attack by armed groups. Armed forces have also taken over schools and universities and used them for military purposes, such as converting them into bases and barracks. The result is that students are forced to either stay at home and interrupt their education, or study alongside armed fighters while potentially in the line of fire.

Presented by Bede Sheppard, Deputy Director, Children's Rights Division.

Bede Sheppard is the Deputy Director in the Children's Rights Division of Human Rights Watch, where he specializes in the issues of attacks on students, teachers, and schools, and the military use of schools. During his time with Human Rights Watch, he has conducted investigations and advocacy on the Democratic Republic of Congo, Japan, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, Ukraine, and Yemen. During the summer term of 2016, he was a visiting scholar at the New Zealand Centre for Human Rights Law, Policy, and Practice at the Faculty of Law at Auckland University.