Implementing the Guidelines: A Toolkit to Guide Understanding and Implementation of the Guidelines for Protecting Schools and Universities from Military Use During Armed Conflict
The Toolkit intends to inculcate deeper respect for, and protection of, educational facilities into military training, planning and ethos. The Toolkit is divided into three broad subject areas, each of which refers to the need to ensure strategic complementarity and coordination between military and civilian actors:
- Training materials: These materials are intended to guide the Professional Military Education (PME) of military personnel,whether as part of ongoing professional development orwithin a predeployment training scheme
- Materials to guide the planning of military operations: This section of the Toolkit is intended to provide materials of primary interest to those at the operational level of armed forces or groups, concernedwith coordinating and conducting operations over an entire AO or a significant portion of an AO.
- Materials to guide the execution of military operations: These materials incorporate tables provided previously with regards to guiding the planning of military operations, as well as new information specifically related to tactical level military or police forces.
This Toolkit is primarily intended for State military, and para-military forces, deployed or preparing to deploy into areas where armed conflict has or is likely to negatively effect education in general, and schools and universities in particular. As is outlined above, it is intended for PME and pre-deployment training, and will be of benefit to the tactical and operational, as well as strategic levels. Non-State armed forces would also benefit from this Toolkit, as increasingly these forces are being scrutinized by the international community for their conduct within armed conflict.
This Toolkit is further intended to support peace operations ranging from the deployment of individual and small numbers of unarmed military observers, through individual and formed police units, to battle group and battalion sized military units. As a teaching tool, it is further expected that the tools will continue to be adapted, improved upon and added to as operational experiences progress and lessons are learned. With this in mind, users of this Toolkit are encouraged to submit feedback and recommendations for further development.