"Thank you, Ambassador Alfaro de Alba, for convening today's Arria-formula meeting, and to Greece, Austria, Japan, and Uruguay for co-hosting this important discussion. It is a privilege to join you to reflect on the essential role education plays in preventing the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict.
"Excellencies, today more than 500 million children - nearly one if five globally - live in countries where there is war or other violent conflict. Every year tens of thousands of children are killed or injured in armed conflict, and that number is increasing. In addition, many children are malnourished due to conflict, and they are unable to go to school. Children's education is increasingly under direct attack.
"Since the Security Council adopted Resolution 1612 in 2005, the United Nations has verified more than 14,000 attacks on schools, and over 3,000 instances of military use of schools, nearly two attacks a day, for two decades. The rate of these attacks is rising, with more than half having occurred in just the past ten years.
"The Gaza Strip alone has seen 97 per cent of its schools damaged or destroyed since 2023. In countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Myanmar, and Ukraine, hundreds of schools have been looted, burned, and attacked with explosive weapons such as shelling and airstrikes.
"These attacks are grave violations against children, frontal assaults on children's safety, dignity, and future.
"When schools are attacked or occupied children lose far more than learning opportunities.
"They lose protective spaces, opportunities to develop socially with their peers, and access to essential services such as school feeding, health care, and mental health support. They may also miss out on lifesaving information about the risks posed by explosive remnants of war.
"Children who are out of school face significantly heightened risks of exploitation, child labor, child marriage, trafficking, and recruitment into armed groups. Where armed actors use schools as bases or weapons storage sites, we often see the increased recruitment and use of children.
"Children out of school may be forced to serve as fighters or porters, and they are exposed to sexual exploitation and abuse. The presence of armed actors in schools also places students and educators at risk of injury and death during attacks by opposing forces.
"Protecting education means keeping schools safe and ensuring that parties to conflict refrain from using them for military purposes.
"Excellencies, we all know that education is both lifesaving and life changing. It is a powerful tool to prevent recruitment. When children can access safe, inclusive, and quality learning environments, they gain structure, nutritious meals, psychosocial support, essential services, and a sense of normalcy.
"UNICEF's experience shows that an integrated approach to education, protection, and peacebuilding is especially effective in preventing the recruitment of children. This includes safe learning spaces, accelerated learning for children who have missed school, and equipping teachers to support children at risk. It also means combining education with mental health support and community engagement, and pathways to further learning or skills.
"UNICEF promotes the protection of schools from attack and military use by advocating with parties to comply with international law … and advocating for Member States to endorse and implement the Safe Schools Declaration. We work to expand access to formal and non-formal learning for conflict-affected children. This includes children who are displaced or living as refugees.
"At the community level, UNICEF works with parents, youth networks, and local leaders to strengthen protective environments and identify children at risk. We support education-based reintegration for children formerly associated with armed groups.
"And we help strengthen education systems and teacher capacity to create safe, inclusive learning environments and refer children to appropriate services.
"Excellencies, safe education can effectively prevent child recruitment and the use of children by armed groups, but this requires collective action.
"UNICEF is urging all Member States to endorse, and to implement the Safe Schools Declaration … and to adopt policies that protect schools, students, and teachers, while ensuring accountability for grave rights violations. Education should be systematically integrated into national action plans on children and armed conflict.
"Member States should also provide sustained and flexible financing to guarantee safe, inclusive, and quality education in conflict-affected settings.
"UNICEF continues to call on parties to conflict to end attacks on education, the military use of schools, and the recruitment and use of children. Those listed in the annexes of the Secretary-General's report on children and armed conflict should promptly engage with the United Nations to develop and implement Action Plans that protect children and prevent further violations.
"Excellencies, at UNICEF, we believe that education protects children today, while helping build the foundations for peace tomorrow.
"With that in mind, I would like to close with an urgent request to this Council.
"I urge you to unequivocally denounce grave violations against children, to reaffirm that such actions are never acceptable and must never be normalized, to consistently call for accountability, and to use the influence you hold with parties to armed conflict to help protect children.
"Safe education is more than a development investment, it is a vital protection measure and a cornerstone of sustainable peace. By ensuring that children can learn in safety and dignity we can help break cycles of violence.
"Thank you."
