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.”
In an article for The Guardian, the former prime minister drew on the Tomahawk missile attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh school at the start of the conflict with Iran, in which 168 schoolchildren died, 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 drawn into war, with students and teachers being easy targets who cannot defend themselves,” said Brown, the UN special envoy for global education.
International law, including the ICC’s founding statute, has long prohibited attacks on children or schools in war. But in a world where modern warfare increasingly takes place in urbanized civilian areas, he argues, classrooms can be as dangerous as the front lines.
Brown notes that Donald Trump has denied guilt and blamed Iran for the Minab school attack, but analysis has indicated this is not true. “Whoever the culprit ultimately is,” Brown says, “the school massacre is not an isolated event.”
Perpetrators of school attacks often use two excuses: that they were unintentional or that the schools in question were being used as military bases. This has allowed them to “claim a defense that is still recognized in international law,” he says.
But, he continues, “under any plausible interpretation of humanitarian law, those who attack a school manifestly fail in their legal responsibility to prevent all known risks to children and to shelter and protect them as innocent civilians.”
To emphasize the seriousness of these crimes and their unequivocal interpretation under international law, Brown recommends the creation of an international criminal court dedicated to crimes against children.
Its jurisdiction would complement the current ICC but would have a more limited focus: the bombing of schools, the kidnapping of students and the enslavement of children by militias. This would be accompanied by special protocols to process attacks on educational facilities.
Brown also demands that UN countries implement the organization’s monitoring and reporting mechanism for children involved in armed conflict.
“Leaders who knowingly order, authorize, or allow such attacks must be arrested and prosecuted,” he writes, adding that the same judicial accountability should be applied to such leaders as other war criminals.
Brown concludes: “There will be no hiding place for those leaders who allow attacks on children.”
