international tion, significant advances were made, such as the discovery of the existing relationship between the Safe Schools initiative and the Women, Peace and Security Agenda, the 2030 Agenda and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The need to generate synergies among these different agendas in order to make progress was also acknowledged. The Children and Conflict and Education in Emergencies Agendas have been placed at the highest level in international politics and calls are being made for them to become a priority for all States. Norway announced the creation of a Focal Point Network to strengthen and facilitate cooperation in this area. The initiative presented by Spain consists of implementing a cooperation and training programme for civilian and military personnel responsible for defence with a view to preventing attacks on schools and universities in armed conflict. It will focus on the application of Admiral Martínez Núñez, Secretary-General of Defence Policy, insisted on the need to achieve safe schools and workshops. the Guidelines for Preventing Schools and Universities from Military Use during Armed Conflict and their incorporation into regulatory and operational frameworks. Other countries also expressed their intention to design similar national plans. The programme, which will be developed in liaison with the Ministry of Defence and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), will comprise an internship in Madrid of approximately one week for civil servants from those States that have endorsed the Safe Schools Declaration and are undergoing a war or a situation of terrorist threat. When choosing candidates, States included in the framework of Spanish cooperation activities will be given priority. Under the envisaged plan, the initiative will include 15 countries and will probably be made up of two representatives from each country: one military and one civilian. The working sessions focused on three specific issues: firstly, identifying the impact on girls and boys of attacks on education and the use of educational facilities for military purposes while at the same time establishing, from a gender perspective, measures to address the specific needs of girls. Secondly, the preventive role of monitoring, reporting and establishing mechanisms to hold the perpetrators of attacks against students, teachers and schools accountable was analysed. The third panel —which involved practical exercises—, addressed measures that could enable the implementation of the Guidelines to protect education from attacks. During this final panel, the Secretary-General of the Defence Policy stated that «sometimes international peacekeepers have the well-intentioned idea that we can —by ourselves— bring peace to any part of the world, and that is a mistake. Peace is impossible if it does not come from within, if it does not achieve a solution designed by and for the local population, sustainable with local resources and acceptable to all parties». Admiral Martínez Núñez indicated that, unfortunately, in war torn countries, military presence tends to remind children of the conflict and therefore the work of the international forces should focus on «contributing toward providing a very safe MAEC environment, which entails multiple, although less visible, actions. Actions range from distance monitoring to the creation of bubbles of security, through the deployment of military forces on the periphery and police on the inside». DENOUNCE AND PROPOSE The Conference also analysed the latest report presented by the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attacks entitled Education under Attack 2018 which highlights the fact that indiscriminate and deliberate attacks on schools and universities, students and personnel (both in educational institutions and on the way to and from them) have increased considerably in the past five years. The figures are devastating: 12,700 In the past five years there have been 12,700 attacks on schools 42 Revista Española de Defensa December 2019
RED_367_ingles_1
To see the actual publication please follow the link above