Roundup: 4 schools or hospitals in crisis zones attacked or occupied every day: UN agency

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Thursday called for the protection of schools and hospitals in conflict regions, saying that an average of four schools or hospitals are attacked or occupied by armed forces and groups every day.

The appeal was contained in the analysis released by UNICEF ahead of the World Humanitarian Summit, scheduled to kick off on May 23 in Istanbul, Turkey.

The findings came in the wake of recent attacks on education and health facilities and workers, including the bombing of schools in Yemen, and a strike on a hospital in Syria's Aleppo on April 27 that killed at least 50 people, including one of the last paediatricians in the area.

"Children are being killed, wounded, and permanently disabled in the very places where they should be protected and feel safe," said Afshan Khan, UNICEF's director of emergency programmes, in a press release.

"Attacks against schools and hospitals during conflict are an alarming and disgraceful trend," she said.

"Intentional and direct strikes on these facilities, and on health workers and teachers, can be war crimes. Governments and other actors need to urgently protect schools and hospitals by upholding the provisions of international humanitarian law and international human rights law, and States must sign the Safe Schools Declaration."

UNICEF underscored that attacks against schools and hospitals are one of the six grave violations against children identified and addressed by the UN Security Council.

The last report of the UN special representative for children and armed conflict, Leila Zerrougui, documented more than 1,500 incidents of attacks on, or military use of, schools and hospitals in 2014.

In Afghanistan, 163 schools and 38 health facilities were attacked, while in Syria, 60 attacks on education facilities were recorded, as well as nine cases of military use of schools and 28 attacks on health facilities.

In Yemen, 92 schools were used for military purposes by armed forces and groups, and in South Sudan, there were seven incidents of attacks on schools and 60 involving military use.

A total of 543 educational facilities were damaged or destroyed in the State of Palestine and three attacks were documented on Israeli schools. According to education authorities in Northeast Nigeria, a total of 338 schools were destroyed and damaged between 2012 and 2014.

UNICEF also said that over the past year, the UN monitoring system has also documented so-called "double-tap," or even "triple-tap" -- strikes on health-care facilities in which civilians, as well as the first responders arriving on the scene, are attacked.

Beyond attacks on buildings, conflict has other far-reaching consequences on children's education and health care, UNICEF said.

"Children are being abducted from their schools in horrific circumstances in countries like Nigeria and South Sudan, while others are being raped, or recruited and used as child soldiers," said Khan.

In May 2014, the United Nations launched the Guidance Note on Attacks against Schools and Hospitals to assist the people monitoring, reporting and working to prevent attacks against schools and hospitals.

The Guidance note provides practical information for the UN and its partners on how to implement aspects of Security Council resolution 1998.

Adopted in 2011, the resolution gives the UN a mandate to identify and list the armed forces and groups who attack schools or hospitals, or protected persons in relation to schools and hospitals.

Schools and hospitals must be zones of peace, where children are granted protection even in times of conflict. Yet, there is an increasing trend of schools and hospitals being attacked with detrimental effects on children.

Apart from the direct and physical damage to schools and hospitals, conflict can result in the forced closure or the disrupted functioning of these institutions.

Children, teachers, doctors and nurses are also subject to threats by parties to conflict if suspected to support the other party to the conflict. Also of great concern is the use of schools for military purposes, as recruitment grounds and polling stations. Endit