Scholasticide - deliberate attacks on a society's education system in armed conflict - is a war crime that must be publicly condemned and its perpetrators held to account, insists an editorial published by The BMJ today.
Dr Rana Dajani at the Hashemite University in Jordan and colleagues argue that beyond individual instances of harm to people, damage to buildings, and educational disruption, systemic degradation has direct consequences for health and healthcare.
They reference recent attacks in Palestine, Iran, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti and Ukraine.
For example, the UN reports that in the past three years, Israeli airstrikes have severely damaged or destroyed over 90% of Gazan school buildings, disrupting education for all 658,000 children, and according to the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies every university in Gaza has been destroyed, and more than 200 academics have been killed.
The authors point out that when universities and hospitals are destroyed, it can take decades after fighting ceases to restore infrastructure and staff. Interrupted education also exposes children to long term learning loss, diminishes future opportunities, and has long term impacts on economic rebuilding.
International humanitarian law strictly prohibits attacks on civilian infrastructure for essential services, such as schools and hospitals, they explain, but note that such attacks have rarely been formally investigated or sanctioned, weakening confidence in the universal rule of law.
The authors call on the international community to apply economic and trade sanctions against perpetrators of scholasticide, prosecute the sale of arms that are likely to be used for violations of international humanitarian law, and urge universities, professional bodies, and civil society worldwide to consider adopting boycott and divestment policies until compliance with international law is assured.
"Education sustains a society's knowledge production and its collective identity and memory. It is essential to health and healthcare," they write. "Scholasticide is a war crime that must end. Restoring human capital, scientific capacity, and institutional continuity are vital. And law based global order demands that perpetrators be held to account."
