On 12 September 2025, the Myanmar military carried out airstrikes on two private high schools in Thayet Thapin village, Kyauktaw Township, Arakan State, killing at least 18 students and injuring dozens more (AP News, 2025). These attacks are part of a broader pattern of targeting civilians since the 2021 coup, where schools, hospitals, and places of worship have been deliberately bombed to spread fear and dismantle community life.
Read through the lens of global commitments on women, children, and peace, established through instruments such as UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000), the tragedy exposes the acute vulnerability of children, particularly girls, in conflict zones. It underscores the breakdown of protection, prevention, participation, and recovery, revealing the junta’s systemic disregard for international norms and the urgent need for accountability and gender-responsive humanitarian action.
Breaking Global Principles
The bombing of schools in Myanmar represents a grave breach of international norms. Schools are protected civilian spaces under international humanitarian law, yet they have been deliberately targeted, denying children their fundamental right to safety and education. Women activists, teachers, and community leaders who speak out face repression, silencing their role in fostering peace and resilience.
Prevention is undermined when the state itself becomes the perpetrator of violence rather than its guarantor. At the same time, relief and recovery efforts are absent, leaving survivors without support and communities unable to rebuild. These attacks are not isolated tragedies but systematic violations that highlight the urgent need for accountability at the global level.
Education Under Siege in Myanmar
Since the 2021 coup, Myanmar’s education sector has been systematically militarised. Schools have been occupied as bases, teachers have faced arrest or harassment, and students have become victims of indiscriminate attacks (Human Rights Myanmar, 2023). Investigations by Myanmar Witness confirm that schools are increasingly caught in crossfire, shelled, or destroyed in air raids (Myanmar Witness, 2024).
The airstrike in Arakan fits this pattern. Students were attacked in their dormitories whilst sleeping, leaving no ambiguity about the targeting of civilians. The destruction of educational institutions represents more than a physical loss, it is an assault on the social fabric, extinguishing the aspirations of a generation. Girls in particular face heightened risks, as disrupted schooling often results in forced marriage, child labour, or other forms of gender-based violence.
A Gendered Lens on the Arakan School Bombings
The consequences of the Arakan airstrikes are deeply gendered:
- Interrupted education for girls exacerbates existing inequalities and entrenches cycles of poverty.
- Women teachers, many of whom are leaders in their communities, face increased risks of disappearance or death as schools become militarised spaces.
- Psychosocial trauma affects all children, but girls may face stigma or be pushed into early marriage as families cope with displacement.
- Women peace advocates are silenced, though they play crucial roles in documenting abuses and mobilising for justice.
By highlighting these dynamics, global peace and security frameworks ensure that the human costs of war are not reduced to statistics but understood in their gendered realities.
International Obligations and the Failure to Act
The bombing of schools constitutes a war crime under the Geneva Conventions, violating the principle of distinction between civilian and military targets. It also breaches the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which Myanmar has ratified, guaranteeing the right to education and protection from violence.
Yet the junta continues to operate with impunity, emboldened by arms transfers from states such as Russia and China and by diplomatic shielding in international forums. This complicity underscores the need for stronger action by the UN, ASEAN, and the wider international community.
Recommendations through a Gender-Responsive Lens
- Independent Investigation: The UN Human Rights Council should establish an inquiry into the Arakan bombings as war crimes.
- Safe Education Corridors: ASEAN must press for humanitarian corridors to guarantee the continuation of education, particularly for girls.
- Arms Embargo and Sanctions: States supplying aviation fuel and weapons to Myanmar should face sanctions and accountability mechanisms.
- Gender-Sensitive Aid: Humanitarian assistance should prioritise psychosocial recovery, safe learning spaces, and the protection of women teachers.
- Global Advocacy by Diaspora: Burmese communities abroad, especially women-led networks, should amplify the crimes to international platforms.
The Arakan school bombings reflect a systematic campaign by the Myanmar junta to weaponise fear, erase civilian life, and obstruct democratic aspirations. Through the lens of international commitments to women, children, and peace, these atrocities highlight urgent imperatives: to protect children, empower women, and demand accountability for war crimes. Schools must remain sanctuaries of learning, not sites of massacre.
The international community, ASEAN, and the UN face a moral and legal obligation to act decisively, ending arms transfers, ensuring accountability through international courts, and centering women and children in all peace and recovery initiatives. Failure to do so, not only abandons the victims of Thayet Thapin but also undermines the global commitment to justice, peace, and security.