On the occasion of the International Day to Protect Education from Attack, which the world marks on September 9 each year, the Justice for Yemen Pact  and the undersigned organizations express their deep concern over the continued deterioration of education in Yemen after more than eleven years of conflict. This has resulted in millions of children being deprived of their right to safe and uninterrupted education, and in the transformation of schools and educational facilities in some areas into places for military use or recruitment, in addition to the targeting of students and teachers and exposing them to risks of killing, injury, abduction, and recruitment.

The war no longer threatens education in Yemen merely through the destruction or targeting of schools; it now threatens the child himself as a student. Human rights and UN reports have documented cases of schools and educational centers being used for military activities and child recruitment. The situation has reached the point where students have been abducted from schools and some schools have been turned into recruitment centers. Children have also been subjected to indoctrination, mobilization, military training, and deployment to frontlines, including cases of children who have actively participated in combat. These practices constitute grave violations of children’s rights and a direct undermining of the right to education.

The severity of the situation is compounded by ongoing economic collapse, displacement, and poverty. UNICEF reports indicate that around 3.2 million children in Yemen were out of school at the beginning of 2026, while millions more face disruptions to their education or declining quality. The irregular payment of salaries for large numbers of teachers and the deterioration of educational infrastructure remain among the most significant factors threatening the continuity of the educational process and pushing more children toward dropping out, child labor, or exposure to exploitation and recruitment.

Depriving a child of school does not only mean losing an educational opportunity; it opens the door to other forms of exploitation, including  child labor and early marriage, recruitment and use in armed conflict. Therefore, protecting education in Yemen must go beyond safeguarding buildings to include neutralizing schools and universities, protecting students and teachers, preventing the recruitment or targeting of children within educational environments, and ensuring that education remains a safe and neutral space for children.

The Justice for Yemen Pact affirms that all parties to the conflict are obligated to respect international humanitarian law and international human rights law, refrain from using schools and educational facilities for military purposes, end all forms of child recruitment or use in hostilities, and ensure that students and teachers are not exposed to harm.

We call on all parties to the conflict and the authorities in place to neutralize education from the conflict, stop attacks on schools and their military use, prevent the recruitment and mobilization of children and their deployment to fighting, ensure the payment of teachers’ salaries, rehabilitate damaged schools, work to reintegrate out‑of‑school children, and provide a safe and inclusive educational environment.

We also call on the United Nations, the international community, and donors to increase support for education in Yemen, strengthen monitoring, documentation, and accountability mechanisms for attacks on education and child recruitment, and ensure that children affected by conflict receive education, protection, psychosocial support, and reintegration.

Schools must remain places of learning, not recruitment; students must carry books, not weapons; and teachers must be bearers of knowledge, not parties to conflict. Protecting education today is protecting an entire generation from becoming fuel for a prolonged war, and it is at the same time a fundamental investment in peace, recovery, and building Yemen’s future.

Signatory Organizations:

1. Justice for Yemen Pact
2. Yemeni Coalition for Monitoring Human Rights Violations (Rasd Coalition)