Human Security Report 2012: Sexual violence, Education and War - Beyond the mainstream narrative

The Human Security Report 2012 challenges a number of widely held assumptions about the nature of sexual violence during war and the effect of conflict on education systems. Both analyses are part of the Human Security Report Project’s ongoing investigation of the human costs of war.

Turning to the impact of war on education, the Report shows that—surprisingly—education outcomes actually improve on average during wartime. It confirms that conflict-affected countries generally have substantially lower educational outcomes than nonconflict countries, but it challenges the widely held notion that this is because of war. It points out that educational outcomes were also low—or lower— during the prior periods of peace. They could not, therefore, have been caused by warfare. The Reportoffers the first explanation for the apparent paradox of education outcomes that improve in wartime.

Human Security Report Project 2012

The Human Security Report Project (HSRP) is an independent research centre affiliated with Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Vancouver, Canada. Formerly located at the University of British Columbia and known as the Human Security Centre, the HSRP joined SFU in May of 2007.