Gordon Brown has called for the creation of an international criminal court for crimes against children, saying “no child should ever become collateral damage in a conflict”.
Writing for the Guardian, the former prime minister drew on the tomahawk missile strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh school at the start of the Iran conflict, which killed 168 schoolgirls, to argue that “schools deserve the same moral status as hospitals – protected places – and the same protection under international law”.
“Schools, which should be safe havens, are increasingly being drawn into war, with pupils and teachers easy targets who cannot fight back,” said Brown, the UN’s special envoy for global education.
International law, including the founding statute of the ICC, has long prohibited assaults on children or schools in war. But in a world where modern warfare increasingly takes place in built-up civilian areas, he argues, classrooms can be as dangerous as the frontline.
Brown notes that Donald Trump has denied culpability and blamed Iran for the Minab school bombing but analysis has indicated that this is not true. “On whoever the blame finally lies,” Brown says, “the school massacre is no isolated event.”
Two excuses are normally used by perpetrators of attacks on schools: that they were not intentional, or that the schools in question were being used as military bases. This has allowed them to “claim a defence that is still recognised in international law”, he says.
But, he continues, “on any plausible interpretation of humanitarian law, those who attack a school are manifestly failing to act on their legal responsibility to avoid all known risks to children and to shelter and protect them as innocent civilians”.
To emphasise the seriousness of these crimes, and their unequivocal interpretation under international law, Brown recommends the creation of a dedicated international criminal court for crimes against children.
Its jurisdiction would complement the current ICC’s but have a narrower focus: the bombing of schools, abduction of pupils, and enslavement of children by militias. This would come alongside special protocols for prosecuting attacks on educational facilities.
Brown also demands that UN countries implement the organisation’s monitoring and reporting mechanism for children involved in armed conflict.
“Arrest and prosecution should face leaders who order, authorise, or knowingly permit such attacks,” he writes, adding that the same amount of judicial accountability should apply to those leaders as other war criminals.
Brown concludes: “There will be no hiding place for those leaders who permit attacks on children.”
