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UNESCO recently published its second volume on violence against education, entitled Education under Attack 2010, written by Brendan O'Malley, who also authored the first study in 2007. The point of departure for these studies was some horrific attacks specifically targeted at education personnel and students with the clear objective of disrupting education. UNESCO decided that beyond public declarations of dismay, it was time to develop a systematic overview of the nature of the problem, in order to better work on improved prevention.

The first volume is dedicated to the memory of Safi a Ama Jan, a former Afghan teacher who ran an underground school for girls from her home and was assassinated by the Taliban. The second is dedicated to Dr Jacqueline ‘Jackie' Kirk who also died in an unprovoked attack on an International Rescue Committee vehicle by the Taliban, as well as to Ms Persy So, a UNICEF education officer who was killed in a suicide bombing at the Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar.

These publications are more than a necessary plea for the protection of the right to education and its participants. They also gather and present data and case information about the nature of attacks on education, their impact, measures that can be taken and have been taken, potential and actual responses of the international community, and case studies. They attempt to document, track, organize and present the range of attacks on education institutions and people involved in education, in order to present a comprehensive set of measures that exist and can be created to mitigate violence and help its victims. It is not pleasant reading but is a necessary and extremely useful publication.