It's been nearly one year since the kidnapping of 276 girls in Nigeria, and three months since the attack on a boys' school in Pakistan that ended the lives of more than 100 innocent children. As the world grapples with the constant threat of war, violence, and terrorism, its the smallest citizens who may be paying the highest price.
On Thursday's Andrea Mitchell Reports, former UK prime minister Gordon Brown, the United Nations’ Special Envoy for Global Education, discussed global efforts to establish a safe haven for schools in countries dealing with violence.
“This is the worst year that we have seen for the violation of children’s rights, the militarization of schools, children being kidnapped," Brown said, citing violence from Nigeria and South Sudan to Syria and Iraq. "We need a humanitarian fund so that education is provided to children in emergencies, we need schools to be safe enough and we need the technology to make it possible for people to be reassured that everything is done to make schools safe."
Brown added that there were millions of children not going to school due to these conflicts, which create an unsafe environment. The solution? Funding. "We need to support education in emergencies by not just making schools safe, but actually putting money in so that children can have some hope that even if they're in a conflict zone and even if they're faced by terrorist activity, they can plan for a future beyond the conflict in which they're in," Brown said.
Watch the full conversation about the global efforts to create safe spaces for schools in countries dealing with war and violence in the video player above.