This story was originally posted by the UN News Centre. The original post can be found here.

© IRIN/Sumaira Jajja
School children attending class at Noor Model School in Shamshatoo, Pakistan.

1 April 2013 – Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today condemned the recent spate of fatal attacks on teachers in Pakistan, while voicing great concern about the growing trend of violence against educators around the world.

“Violence against teachers undermines confidence in education systems, traumatizes students, and discourages parents from sending children to school,” said a statement issued by Mr. Ban’s spokesperson.

“Attacks on women teachers are particularly heinous because they disproportionately affect the girl students for whom they serve as role models,” it added.

Mr. Ban’s condemnation comes on the heels of the killing of Shahnaz Nazli, a 41-year-old teacher murdered by unknown gunmen on a motorbike in the town of Shahkas, in the Khyber Agency of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas. According to media reports, no group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack.

Ms. Nazli’s death follows the killing of five teachers in January near the town of Swabi in the volatile Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, located in the north of the country near the Afghan border.

In his statement, Mr. Ban called for schools to be respected as “safe and secure learning spaces” and urged local and national authorities the world over “to redouble their efforts to provide security in this area” and ensure that perpetrators of violence against teachers are brought to justice.

“Millions of children inside Syria and across the region are witnessing their past and their futures disappear amidst the rubble and destruction of this prolonged conflict.”

–UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake

By Priyanka Pruthi

NEW YORK, 12 March 2013 – For the past two years, the world has seen crisis explode in the Syrian Arab Republic. Twenty-four months of chaos and conflict have cost the country thousands of lives, many of them children.

The wait for a political solution seems never-ending. It’s a wait that has torn a country apart and placed it on the verge of losing a generation to violence.

By Pi James

NEW YORK, 11 March 2013 – On the eve of International Women’s Day, a panel of five experts representing academia, government, civil society and the United Nations called for an end to violence against girls through better and earlier monitoring and interventions, improved education systems, and a coordinated multi-sectoral response.

Millions of girls are vulnerable to violence around the world, UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Geeta Rao Gupta said, opening the UNICEF-convened side event Girls Growing up Free of Violence: Promoting tolerance, equality and respect for the 57th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, in New York.

“Violence against girls is truly a cross-sectoral issue, and we are committed to working together towards a day when girls and women can live free of violence,” Ms. Rao Gupta said.

By Toby Fricker

ZA’ATARI, Jordan, 28 February – It’s back to school for thousands of Syrian children at Za’atari refugee camp in northern Jordan.

“I am more than happy to return to school and study. I love my teachers, my classes – and I really love my studies and the girls in my class,” said Arwa, a Syrian refugee child at the camp, with a joyful smile, on her return to school.

After a one-month winter break, class is in session again in Za’atari refugee camp, Jordan, bringing a sense of normality to Syrian refugee children.

NEW YORK, 5 February 2013 – Recently, a group of students from the Bronx Global Learning Institute for Girls who had learned about the tragic events in Pakistan that had left 14-year old Malala severely wounded wrote to The United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI) expressing their solidarity, outrage and passion for education. Today we’d like to introduce you to each of these girls and their thoughts on education.

NEW YORK, 5 February 2013 – Recently, a group of students from the Bronx Global Learning Institute for Girls who had learned about the tragic events in Pakistan that had left 14-year old Malala severely wounded wrote to The United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI) expressing their solidarity, outrage and passion for education. Today we’d like to introduce you to each of these girls and their thoughts on education.